On many occasions when you are at a networking event or at a small community meet up you tend to exchange business/visiting cards with people you meet. At times you might have come across someone who had a free email ID of Gmail or Yahoo on their card. Doesn’t that look unprofessional and make you think twice about doing business with them? Well, that could be the same feeling you give when you do not use your business email address with clients or vendors.
Email holds lot of importance is business and is used for different purposes. From internal communication to email marketing it had a wide application for businesses. More than 70% of businesses make use of email campaigns on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis. If you use a free email for sending product information or monthly newsletters then it would reflect badly on your brand and would give a very bad impression.
Here are some pointers that would help you better understand the importance of using private email for business
Professionalism
For the sake of communication you can use any email service but with a service you are giving an unprofessional impression about your business. You might be getting mails from lot of people, now imagine how would you feel if you got an important email from a big vendor from their personal email? How would you feel about it? Would it not look cheap?
This would apply to your business as well if you use free emails for business communication and dealing with suppliers or customers.
Security
Emails are not useful for communicating with prospects and clients but also with your own employees and team members. We usually send legal documents and financial information in emails and if you use a free email then you are at risk. There is no guarantee for free emails and if your email gets hacked then you cannot do anything about it.
Additionally, if you rely on free emails for internal communication and if someone leaves your company then they also take the business data with them as it is on their personal email. However, if you use business emails then this can be avoided and all their emails would be stored on your server which you have complete control off. So your data stays with you only and all the business information is kept secure.
Trust
If you are using a free email account for your business communication then it becomes difficult for clients and prospective customers to trust you. Anyone can easily get a free email in minutes and there is no guarantee that your business is legit and you provide good quality products and services.
On the contrary, if you have a business email which is of your own domain name then the customers can directly relate to your business and also instill trust in your business.
Forward old emails
If you are worried about losing out on clients and people who still contact you on your old email address then you can stop worrying. All you have to do is forward those emails to your new email account. You can setup the email forwarding function which would forward all the emails sent to your old email account directly to your new email id.
Email holds lot of importance in modern day communication and is used extensively for marketing and business communications. Having a domain email address for your business is a necessity and you must get one if you are serious about your business.
Seems like all your problems are sorted now? So go ahead and get a personal business email id which makes your business seem legible and trustworthy.
