The one thing I truly fear these days is what I don’t know. I’ve found the things you “don’t know you don’t know” are your worst enemy.
One of the worst things people don't know is the damage they can do with an unprofessional looking email address.
One of your greatest bloopers is what happens after the @. If your @ is followed by you name or your company name – well done – you are doing great!
If your @ says something like gmail , hotmail, yahoo, bigpond, optus
what you are saying to anyone who picks up your business card or tries to contact you via email is “I don’t care”.
It also says
• I’m unprofessional
• I don’t care about my business
• I have no ability to find things out
• I am fly by night and can’t be trusted
• I probably haven't been in business very long
Which means potential customers are very likely to go to someone else. If I don’t see a professional looking email address on someone’s business card – I don’t use them because I know they haven't got it together.
So how do you fix it?
These days it is really cheap and really easy!
PLUS you don’t have to get rid of your free or low cost email provider, you simply point your new spiko looking email address at your old address. No one will ever know whether you have a freebie supplier or a massive online presence because your provider is “masked”.
Even if you can’t decide on your business name. at least get www.YourName.com so your email will look like this:
yourfirstname@yourname.com
What is going to look more professional?
PartyAnimal2649@hotmail.com
or
margaret@margaretgill.com
This is an extreme example but truly I can’t believe some of the email addresses people put on their business cards.
What has been ok for you send to your friends and family in the past is no longer appropriate to send to potential clients.
PLEASE FOLKS if your email address has a number in it – get rid of it! Even from an attraction point of view you are saying you are just one of many.
In business you need to stand out from the crowd and a professional email address is one way that you can achieve that. Here's how"
Terminology you need to know.
Domain Name
A domain name looks like this www.xyz.com or could be www.xyz.com.au or .co.nz or .co.uk
Hosting Account
This is where you website lives (usually somewhere in Texas) and you don't need "hosting" for emails.
ISP - Internet Service Provider
This is the telecommunications company that provides your email and internet to your computer, via a modem plugged into your phone or USB stick. Most people use the same company to do both email and internet but not always. Some people use one company to send email and another company to receive email. I recommend you keep it as simple as possible and have one supplier. Examples of ISP's are Telstra, Telecom, Optus, Hotmail, Gmail etc
To get a professional looking email address you need to purchase a domain name.
You can purchase a dot com for around US$10 a year - .com.au are more expensive.
So long as no one else has already taken your name - US$10 is all it takes to completely change your image over night.
My new preferred supplier of IT is a company with the strange name of www.GoDaddy.com. Please ignore their strange branding and images of race car drivers in skimpy outfits because they have the most extraordinarily cheap ways to buy a Domain name. PLUS their customer service people are available 24/7 and make it SO easy for you to get things working.
Jump on now and see if YourName.com is available and if it is BUY IT! Then you can purchase an email account for a few dollars a month that will happily point to your old email address. Your ISP support people should be able to get that happening for you very quickly.
If you are a total gumby - call the support line at www.GoDaddy.com (they have a Sydney number for the Australians) and ask them to tell you what you need to do. I've done this three times already this week and have received extraordinary customer service AND everything I've asked about they got working and they have saved me nearly $1,000 per year. I'm pretty happy with them!
The benefits of getting a professional email are:
• You look incredibly professional
• You will look better than your competitors
• It is an inexpensive way to begin to build your brand
• You never have to change your email address again
• When you are ready it is easy to add a website.
• If you buy your domain now - no one else can get it
So no more excuses for dodgy looking email addresses!
Lets make 2010 the year we get professional which will lead to more clients and a happier you.
