The Learning Center

If there’s one thing on a business card that drives me absolutely nuts it’s the names Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, and Comcast. I see it over and over again when people hand me their business card. One of those four will be the email that I see for the person handing me the card and I cringe every time I see it. It’s unprofessional and it can speak volumes about the person I am dealing with especially if I do not know them. And what bugs me even more is the fact that they don’t even realize the mistake they are making.

Creating a company email is not that hard. If you have a website for your company you can have a company email. I think part of the problem is that people just do not realize the message they are sending. Emails that say Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, Comcast, or any other such free email system can send the wrong message. They can say things such as “I’m new to the business,” “I’m not serious about what I do,” and ”I may not be around tomorrow.” These are obviously messages you don’t want to be sending to potential customers. But if you’re using a free email system you are sending them. Which means you need a company email. Amazingly enough probably one in four business cards that I receive lists an email that uses a free email system instead of a company email.

We’ve had a number of clients come to us that want to take their marketing to the next level. And many of them have for years used such free email systems for their company emails. Small business owners are especially guilty of using free email systems. So one of the first things we always deal with is fixing the company email. We do at times get some resistance but really what are the arguments to keeping a free email address when you can have a company one?

These are some of the arguments we hear:

1. I’ve had my email for years, I can’t get rid of it now -Being attached to your email is not an excuse for creating a proper company email. You can still use your original email as a personal email address.

2. All of my customers have this email – A new email will not cause you to lose all of your old customers. You can take your original email and forward it to the new one. As you respond with a new email address your contacts will start to save it within their contact lists.

3. I’ll lose all of my old contact data – No you won’t, most contact lists can be imported into just about any email system.

4. I’ve got my old email address on all of my printed items – Call your printer, replacing print is cheaper than ruining a first impression.

There really isn’t a decent excuse for not having a company email. In my opinion everyone within your company regardless of position should have a company email. It’s not an expensive thing to do. In fact through Gmail you can actually set up a company account and manage up to 10 email addresses within that account for free. The only thing you need to do is confirm that the company domain name is yours. So ask yourself this question, if you still have a Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, or Comcast email, why don’t you have a company email?

If you don’t have a company email and would like to create one but need help call our office at 615-890-3600 or email us. All of our consultations are free and we will gladly help you fix your email.