We all remember our first email address.
It usually started with our favorite hobby or movie at that time and our favorite number, of some sort. Mine, in particular, was dancer or ballerina and a number, and for years I used it as a personal email address. Once I entered the corporate world, I soon found out that it wasn’t trendy or professional to be cupcake14 or dancer4life.
While it might be fun to be ilovepizza@yahoo.com, it would definitely raise a few red flags for your clients!
There are a number of reasons you should have company-wide email accounts, which begins with having a company website domain. Here are the top four “abilities” and why you need a corporate email account.
1. Credibility
A professional, domain-based email address gives you and your company credibility. For one, joe@promoproducts.com convinces me that you actually work in the industry, versus joe@yahoo.com, whom I may be skeptical to do business with. It also gives me the perception that you work for an established company, even if you are just a one-man show running a business out of your basement.
2. Brandability
Okay, so maybe that’s not a word, but you get the point. As discussed previously, your brand is your business, so one of your primary goals should always be to enhance your brand recognition throughout the industry. This means keeping a consistent brand image, which is much easier when everyone at your company is joe@promoproducts.com, sally@promoproducts.com, etc., than when it’s joe@yahoo.com, sally123@gmail.com, etc.
3. Memorability
You meet a lot of people in this industry and establishing meaningful business relationships is an important ingredient to your success. When someone is trying to do business with you, they may ask, “Remember that great distributor we met at SAGE Show, Joe at PromoProducts, do you remember his email address?” If your email is joe@promoproducts.com, they just answered their own question and you now have a new customer!
4. Deliverability
There’s no question that email campaigns are one of the most effective marketing strategies, offering up to a 4,300 percent return on investment. However, people now receive hundreds of emails every day and their personal spam filters are becoming more selective. If they can’t immediately identify your email, you will likely be sent directly to the trash bin. With a company email address, they will be able to identify your company, whether they know the actual person the email is from or not.
“Okay, SAGE, all of this is fine and dandy, but where do I even begin?” Great question, joe@yahoo.com! Your entire company can subscribe to SAGE email services for $195 per year! Some SAGE products even include free email accounts and you can purchase additional accounts for $120 per 10 accounts. For more information on SAGE Email Services, click here.
Editors Notes: This post was originally published in November 2014 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
