7 Reasons Every Entrepreneur Needs a Branded Email Address

What is a branded email address?

A branded email address is one that has your business name or website in it. An example of a branded email address is johnsmith@smithandsons.com for the company Smith and Sons.

An email address like this conveys a message of trust to someone who visits your website, and helps you build brand recognition. Often, people will take the web address from the back end of your email address and paste it into their browser to learn more about your company.

Why your business needs a branded email address

There are many benefits of using a branded email address. Here are seven reasons your business needs one:

1. You gain instant credibility with customers.

When you come across a business using a free email account, what are your immediate thoughts? For most, the perception is that such a business might not be authentic or reliable. Questions might arise about the security of the business if they’re not ready to invest in a small monthly fee for a professional email account. 

In today’s business landscape, credibility is key. If customers question your company’s reliability, they are less likely to purchase your goods or services. It also may impact the view of your business when communicating with media outlets or other companies. Having a professional email that includes your domain name helps establish your business as trustworthy and secure. 

2. You save time by managing your website and email address in one place.

Running a business means time is always of the essence. Chances are, you deal with multiple logins daily to keep your business running. Consider integrating your email with the purchase of your company’s web address – it can provide a time-saving strategy. With this strategy, you can manage your email on the same platform you use to manage your website. 

3. Your brand gets a chance to shine.

When your emails appear professional, it gives an elevated image to your business. The reality is, using a free email account might reduce your brand’s perceived value. It can make it difficult to send personalized emails consistent with your brand from a free email address. 

Having an identifiable brand in your emails makes you stand out. It indicates you take your business image seriously and consider how it appears to others. The more your customers recognize your emails, the more they’ll be acquainted with your business. This recognition can help build trust in your brand, potentially leading to increased spending on your products over time. 

4. Your emails are less likely to go into the spam folder.

Visualize this scenario: You’ve identified a potential customer you’d love to do business with. You’ve been trying to get in touch with them using your free email account but are faced with silence on the other side. After your fifth attempt you begin to wonder – are your emails reaching them? Turns out, your emails were caught in their spam filters and never made it to their inbox. The bad news is, while you were figuring out the issue, your potential customer has already moved on to your competitor.  

Another tip to avoid your emails from being marked as spam is curating a stellar welcome email. First impressions count, even in the virtual world. With a compelling welcome email, you can ensure that your future communications are eagerly anticipated, and not relegated to the spam folder. 

5. Your staff members become brand ambassadors.

Do you plan on hiring people? Do you currently have employees in different departments? If so, free email accounts won’t cut it, as they are usually limited to one user per email account. When your business has a branded email address, you can create and manage unlimited email accounts with ease.

This means you can create an email account using each employee’s name or their role in the company. Extra perks include auto-responders, mail forwarding, email aliases and mailing lists. With your own domain, you can unlock all of the opportunities email marketing has to offer your business, as you’ll be able to customize a brand-friendly sender address. [Follow our step-by-step guide to email marketing.]

6. You can enjoy tech support when you need it.

Another advantage of having your own email address is that you won’t have to worry about tech support. Your web hosting company will provide phone, chat and email support if you have any issues. You can rest easy because your data is backed up on the web hosting provider’s secured servers. In addition, the company likely has a community forum, video tutorials and articles to help you troubleshoot any problems, and you also enjoy a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

7. Your business name may not be available if you use a free email account.

Email became very popular in the 90’s. Because of this, there are already billions of email addresses in use. As a result, finding a free email account with your business name available might be nearly impossible.  

This leaves you with the option to use extra numbers and characters in your email address, alongside your business name. But this might not look professional and could fail to truly represent your brand. However, if you go for your own domain and email address, you have the chance to use the name you prefer. 

How to get a branded email address

Follow these steps to get a branded email address:

1. Get a web hosting account.

As a small business owner, setting up your business website is crucial. First, purchase a domain name – this is your website’s address on the internet. Next, decide on a web hosting service. There are many available, like Bluehost, WordPress or InMotion Hosting, so pick one that suits your business needs best. These services offer different plans, so take your time to consider all your choices. 

• Use “.com.”
• Keep the name short and easy to remember.
• Avoid hyphens and numbers.
• Use keywords or your location in the name to make it stand out.

Web hosting services allow you to make your email addresses through their system, and each one has different steps involved in creating an email address. Some hosting plans even come with free email addresses.

2. Select a naming convention.

As your business grows, you’ll want to provide your employees with business email addresses to promote a sense of cohesion and to keep their work emails separate from their personal ones. Once you’ve learned how to create email addresses with your web hosting service, it’s important to decide on a naming convention for your employees’ email addresses.

Some examples of naming conventions are firstname@yourbusiness.com, firstname.lastname@yourbusiness.com, firstinitiallastname@yourbusiness.com and  lastname.firstname@yourbusiness.com. Once you determine the naming convention for your email addresses, it will be easier for clients and customers to contact you and your employees.

3. Choose and set up your email client.

Though you can create a branded email address through your web hosting account, the functionality behind the email address comes through an email client. Some famous examples are Outlook, Mac Mail, Thunderbird and Gmail, all of which allow you to write, receive and organize emails.

Amelia Willson contributed to the writing and reporting in this article.