Consumers today are swamped with emails. Inboxes are flooded with personal notes, work emails, order confirmations, offers, event notices and, of course, lots of spam. With so much volume and so little time, people have become extremely discerning about which emails they look at and which they quickly delete. With this in mind it is essential to make the first finest impression with your potential customers. Having a business email address is a prerequisite to rising above the noise and allowing your brand to stand out in a sea of competition.

Sure, there are any number of free email alternatives available, but with a business email the success you’ll see in escaping SPAM filters and rising to the top of people’s inboxes, you’ll begin to see ROI on your modest investment from day one. Here is why.

Are you a professional?
Consumers are careful of scammers, especially given how regularly we catch a post about some "business owner" that defrauded individuals out of their hard-earned money. As a local business owner, it is your duty to confirm you are a trustworthy professional, instead of a fly-by-night business that will certainly go away as rapidly as it showed up. A business email address is one tool that can accomplish this level of trust. Companies showing uniformity between their service name, their domain, as well as their call details portray that they wish to be easily discovered and well as spoken to. This makes them significantly more trustworthy than any kind of competitor who is not consistent between their channels of communication.

Bonus Branding
A professional email address using your domain name makes it easy for customers to look up your company and your website for more information. This, in turn, creates a clear path for leads to confirm that you are a legitimate and established business. Remember that wherever your branded email circulates, you are reinforcing your brand name, building awareness and trust. Any email you send, or whenever you leave your contact information with somebody, you're also simultaneously providing a simple web link to your website.

Do you want to miss opportunities?
Linking the name of your product or service to your professional e-mail address adds a layer of legitimacy for prospective clients. If you choose to stick with a free email, you’ll save a few bucks in the short term, but will be at significantly increased risk to lose opportunities and be marked as spam. Yes, precisely because anyone can sign up for a free email address quickly and easily, they are frequently used by spammers.

Starting a business has any number of significant challenges. Avoid looking unprofessional and create a memorable impression using email addresses owned by your business and take full control of your communications and branding.