Why you need a professional email address

Your business name is a key part of your brand identity. Your business name appears on your website, your social media profiles, your business uniform and company vehicle, if you have one. You should also set up a business email address.

Sure, you could use a free email address, such as Gmail. But, when you're running your own business, you should have your own branded email address. It should be easily recognisable by your customers, easy to remember and look professional.

What is a professional email address?

A business email address clearly identifies the email as either being sent to or from your business. Usually, a business or professional email address contains your name and the business name. For example, [email protected] . A branded, professional email address such as this is instantly recognisable, easy to remember and looks more professional than [email protected] or similar.

You can create a professional email address using an email hosting service like Google Workspace. The hosting service will allow you to create business email addresses using your chosen domain. You can create email addresses for individual team members or teams such as [email protected].

Six reasons you need a professional email address

1. Reputation: A business email address appears more trustworthy, more professional and more dependable. In short, it provides the credibility that is essential for selling your products and services to new customers.
2. Response: Recipients are far more likely to open, read and respond to an email when they recognise the sender. A business email address can help you overcome the first barrier to email marketing success by letting customers know who the mailing is from.
3. Branding: To reinforce your brand, your email address should marry with your business name, web address and social media handles.
4. Marketing: If you're planning to incorporate email marketing into your marketing strategy, a business email address allows you to build your own email marketing lists and send regular emails to your target audience.
5. Beat the spam filters: An email from a professional email address is far less likely to end up in a customer's spam folder. Your inbox is also far less likely to be clogged up with spam messages too.
6. Scale the business: As your business grows, a professional email address brings several key benefits. It allows you to create email accounts for new team members. It saves time - no more forwarding emails to others. And it's easier to delegate work. It can also make your business look bigger to outsiders.