How to Choose a Professional Email for Your Business

We bet that you’ve been asked for your email address countless times. But have you ever felt awkward for having to give out that once oh-so-awesome-and-cool alexrulez357@yahoo.com one? (that’s OK, I’m not here to judge – we ALL went through that email phase). 

The only purpose of sending an email is for someone to actually read it and, usually, the first thing people look at before deciding whether to open an email or not, is your sender name.

Since it’s all about trust in the professional sphere, having an email address that contains puns, slang, and funky names could do more damage than good. Instead, you’ll need a reliable and trustworthy professional email address that is still personal enough. This is how you get one!

The Case for Having a Custom Email Address

Whether you are in the process of branching out as a one-man show, or you’ve been in the business for some time, you probably have your company name all figured out. Next step? Setting up your website and a professional email address. The best option here is to keep your branding consistent and connected to the same domain name.

Let’s take as an example Laurence from Learn to Code With Me. After putting a lot of effort into creating a memorable and catchy brand name, the next logical step for her was to keep her branding consistent. 

You might be wondering what branding has to do with emails. Well, just imagine that she had two emails sitting in your inbox. While both of them have the same subject line – Level up your digital skills – one is from laurencestar768@gmail.com and the other from, let’s say,  laurence@learntocodewith.me. Which one are you more likely to open?

Not only that the latter one looks more professional, but you also mentally connect it to her website – www.learntocodewith.me, which you are already familiar with. Registering a professional, one-of-a-kind email address which will be the same as your company’s name is a way to go if you want to come off as professional. Such an email seems more trustworthy and shows that you have a real business, increasing the chances of people actually opening your email, instead of marking it as spam.

Which brings us straight to our second point!

A custom email address carries more branding opportunities as it gives you more freedom to choose what you want! Not only that you can choose the part of your email address after the @ sign, but also what comes before. No more need to add random words and numbers because all other short email addresses are taken.

With a customer email address, you get something that is unique, clear, and straightforward. This enables customers to not only memorize it easily but also associate it with your business or professional identity, which is the cornerstone of building brand awareness and recognition. 

If you are a freelancer and want to start building a recognisable personal brand, using a free Yahoo or Google account is a big “no-no”. Instead, a personal website or online portfolio on a personal domain, connected to a personal email address, is the way to go. And since you want to make it personal, I just have to recommend you to use .ME!

Finally, in order for the address to serve you for years (decades, hopefully), it’s crucial to avoid being dependent on your internet service provider. The reason is simple – should you decide to cancel your subscription at any point in the future, you can say goodbye to your email address, together with all your marketing efforts. 

Woah, this gave me chills just writing about it!      

Be Creative But Still Strategic

What we mean by this is that you should avoid going overboard with the creativity – fabandfunky@learntocodewith.me might sound like a cool idea at first, but think about your long-term business plans. Should you plan to grow your business (and we bet you do!), it’s wise to opt for a more standardized approach.

Let’s have a look at some of the options: 

First name + domain (laurence@learntocodewith.me)

This is probably the most typical, and definitely the most popular business email format. It seems that our Laurence thinks so too. 🙂 It’s short, straightforward, personal, and easy to memorize. 

In case you run a company, this approach protects your employees’ privacy. The only potential downside is if you happen to have two employees who share the same first name – then you’ll need to break the format.

First name + last name initial + domain (laurenceb@learntocodewith.me)

Using a combination of the first name and the last name initial can eliminate the aforementioned issue. It also allows your employees to maintain their privacy since it doesn’t reveal their full surname.  

First name initial + last name + domain (lbradford@learntocodewith.me)

As the second most popular business email format, it leaves little to no chance of having to deal with duplicate usernames. What’s more, people have a tendency to memorize last names better than first names, which is probably the reason behind its popularity. Although this option doesn’t reveal your employee’s full name, their identity is still revealed to a certain extent. 

Full name + domain (laurencebradford@learntocodewith.me)

This option is ideal for all of you who want to turn your personal name into a brand. Usually used by artists, professionals, and executives, this format enables you to get your name (and your brand) out there.  

A generic name for general and special purposes 

Generic email addresses are essential for better organization as they automatically forward specific requests to the people responsible for handling them. For example:

• contact@return.me can be an email set up for your customer service team,
• press@return.me is typically used for all public relations and media requests, while 
• sales@return.me can be used by your sales team. 

Of Course, It Should Be All About You!

Which is why these email naming rules may not apply. Perhaps you want to make your business funkier, including your email address. If that is the case, go for it, but make sure that it fits the brand you want to build.

Having a professional email address will speak volumes both about you and your business – it’ll leave the impression that your company is legitimate, and that you are a skilled and established businessman.

As a powerful marketing tool, it is used to help you build your company’s brand name, increase brand recognition and awareness, as well as land new leads and gain your customers’ trust. As with all big business decisions, it is worth to think it through.

I hope we helped there a bit!