Your business email address might seem like a fairly utilitarian thing, but it’s actually an important element of your branding and marketing.
After all, email is probably your best way to communicate directly and personally with your customers, and (according to a Litmus-Fluent survey) the first thing that 42% of them will look at when deciding whether to open an email is not the subject line but the sender. You need to make sure that your choice of “from” address doesn’t discourage them from making that all-important mouseclick.
So, what are the things you should consider when creating your business email address and “from” name?
Avoid free email accounts
Free email hosting services like Gmail and Outlook are great for personal accounts, but when it comes to your business, they’re a big no-no – not just because it doesn’t look professional, but also because customers are unlikely to trust it.
Anyone can create a free Gmail account in seconds, and therefore that email could be coming from anybody. In fact, one of the top telltale signs of a scam or phishing email is that it comes from a public domain.
Email hosting for your business domain name is inexpensive and adds immediate legitimacy to any emails you send. When you register your domain with Moreweb, it comes with a professional email address token included.
Keep it short and simple
You want your customers to be able to contact you easily, so provide them with an email address that is simple for them to remember, type, or read out loud. If you’re a sole trader or dealing with your clients one-to-one, then something like yourname@domainname is straightforward to recall.
Avoid diacritics or accents that would require your customers to locate and use specialist keys on their phone or computer keyboard, even if they are part of your name.
Match the “from” name to the purpose of the communication
If you send a mixture of transactional and marketing emails, personalising your email’s “from” name can help your customer know what to expect when they open it. For example, you might use hello@domainname for marketing, accounts@domainname for invoices, and @support@domainname if you’re helping them with an enquiry.
Avoid using no-reply addresses
A lot of businesses use no-reply@domainname for marketing emails and transactional emails like receipts. However, this might harm your open rates or campaign performance. For a start, it sends your customer the message, “We don’t want to hear from you.” It comes across as unfriendly and unapproachable.
Secondly, no-reply addresses run the risk of getting caught up in spam filters and never making it to the intended recipient. Thirdly, many email providers don’t allow users to add no-reply addresses to their address book, thus preventing them from “whitelisting” your mail as being from a preferred sender.
As you can see, there’s more to the humble email business address than meets the eye. By keeping yours professional, simple, targeted and friendly, your email communication will reach more of the right people.
