When you have a professional-looking business email address, it will instil confidence in your customers. Here we show you how to create a business email address that conveys a suitably professional image.
Benefits of a professional email address
A professional email address conveys to contacts and potential customers that you are a bona fide operation.
Many email providers let you create a business email address that utilises your company name. An address using the formula your.name@yourwebsitename.co.uk is more likely to instil trust than addresses ending in Gmail, btinternet.com and so forth.
Staying alert in a world where online scams are common is important. But as small businesses make up 99% of the overall business population in the UK, you probably don’t have a big communications department representing you. In this context, having a professional business email address reassures people that you are ‘safe’ and promotes your name and values.
Using your own name
For the best email address, domain ownership is advisable. It is simple, links you to the business name and gives the customer confidence in your organisation. If you decide to keep a personal email address using a provider such as Yahoo or Gmail, keep it sensible and professional. It should be your.name@, rather than your.name86@.
Domains
Domains make for easier signposting and navigation and give you a memorable name for your company’s space online while concealing the technical details behind your website address. For example, your domain name might be yourwebsitename.co.uk.
Going with your own domain
It’s best to ensure that your email address matches your company name. Should you have a website, you may well have bought the domain, panthercars.com. You now need a professional email address to complement it, so you should create something along the lines of yourname@yourwebsitename.co.uk or enquiries@yourwebsitename.co.uk.
Don’t forget, you’ll receive 1 free email address for your business with every domain name that’s registered with names.co.uk!
If your name is taken
In many cases, the domain name you really want may have been taken. This happens frequently with common names, such as Mark Smith. In some cases, there may be meaningful alternatives. You could combine your name and a functional description, for example, marksmithprojects.com. So your professional email address would read: mark@marksmithprojects.com, which is above the line from a professionalism perspective. Be flexible and try a few things out. You don’t need to use your exact business name if you don’t want to – it’s more about making sense for the recipient in a memorable way.
Professional email address examples
Try out a few combinations, imagining you are on the receiving end. For example:
you@yourwebsitename.co.uk
enquiries@yourwebsitename.co.uk
your.name@yourwebsitename.co.uk
The above examples show how you can keep things to the point and result in a professional-sounding email address.
With a little creativity, you can maintain professionalism even in the context of a competitive business name.
To find out more, and get started with your business email address, compare email plans here
