Brand Marketing with Each Message Sent
Email is a ubiquitous commodity at this point and every one seemingly has access to an email account they check on a regular basis.
There are a host of free email services available online, the most obvious ones being @hotmail.com and @gmail.com. These services are offered at no charge, provide significant amounts of storage, and easy anywhere access. Their value, however, for a business or website is problematic.
Impersonal Domains
The use of a @hotmail.com or @gmail.com or any other free service is the impersonal nature of the name. These names were chosen for their logical simplicity, not to help promote a business or to impart a concept or feeling.
In order to make a strong impression with your email address you need an email address that is both unique and memorable.
Domain Based Email
Your domain is YOUR online brand. It provides a gateway to the products or services you are selling or advertising and creates an instant method by which you can communicate with your customers / visitors.
Every email you send becomes a small commercial for your business, much like your business card. It provides each user with the ability and opportunity to take the portion after @ to potentially visit your website. When your website appears it validates and authenticates you as a person and as a professional for these new clients / customers.
Professional versus Personal
Free email services such as Hotmail or Gmail are intended for personal usage, not professional. Having an email address with your own web address at the end provides a number of important benefits to your communications including:
- establishing / reinforcing your personal online identity
- establishes your credibility
- allowing you to circumvent potential spam filtering software that often blocks free email sites
Utilizing Domain Based Email
Nearly all web hosts provide POP3 email access and even their own stripped-down webmail access to their users.
An additional option to using POP3 email access you can also configure your email using IMAP or Exchange Server (the various types of email protocols and their uses will be discussed in a future article).
Using POP3 or IMAP access will allow you to configure mobile devices and email clients to receive email on-the-go and gives you access to a wider range of options and abilities for your email handling than any web-based email service (including Hotmail and Gmail).
