420 Design Blog
Business Email
30 Oct 2006 | Angie H
Earlier this year a client of ours got fed up with his Internet Service Provider, Comcast. The reason? Comcast put a block on his family's account due to a high number of outgoing emails being generated for his wife's work without notifying them. According to him, it could have been as many as 20 emails each day. Mind you, they were bulk emails to as many as 65 recipients. Do a little basic multiplication and that's technically 1,300 emails per day. Quite a bit, actually. But that's not the issue here. Our client's solution was to switch providers altogether, which also meant a change in email address. That affected not only his wife's email, but his email too, which he used regularly for business.
Now, let me make one thing clear - I don't blame our client for switching at all. In that situation, not being told what's going on, I would have reacted similarly. And he's certainly not the first to have issues with an ISP, and certainly not the first to drop Comcast like a bad habit. But from a business perspective, he and his wife shouldn't have been using a Comcast account for his business or her work in the first place.
If you own a business called Joe's Plumbing, have a website with the URL, joesplumbing.com and use joe52_plumbing@comcast.net, something is amiss.
You see, most web hosts provide email accounts as part of their packages (very, very few don't). Some give you a few, some give you unlimited. It depends on the host. By not using it, and instead using an email provided by an ISP, one starts to look, to a certain degree, unprofessional.
Okay, so you won't necessarily lose a ton of business due to this, right? Well, hold on a sec. What happens when you move or switch ISPs like in the case of our client? Someone you met a few weeks or months ago who was interested in your business may have written your email address down so he could send you something. This person may have finally remembered or found the time to write you and guess what happens? The email bounces back to him? Or, from his perspective, it seems the message was sent, but you never reply since the email is floating about in cyberspace, and he eventually dismisses you as a serious business person. A lost opportunity.
"What about sending out a mass email notice that your email address is changing?" I hear you ask. Sure, that's always a good thing to do, but it only works for those who are actually already in your address book or email list. And with an email like joe52_plumbing@comcast.net, it'll be hard for someone to figure out what your new email address may be, or even where to begin looking. Of course, with good SEO, anyone could do a quick Google search for Joe's Plumbing and that could solve the problem. But that assumes that someone would want to take those few moments to actually do that. Remember, business people are busy just like you.
Far-fetched scenario you say? I don't think so, but it could be. But consider how much time it will cost to get everything running smoothly again. (And if time is money...)
If you website lists your ISP-provided email address as a contact email, you, an employee or your web designer will have to change it - time and money wasted, even if a small amount. If you have ads - print ads especially - that list your ISP-provided email address, you lose potential business since those print ads aren't exactly changeable the way your site it. More money lost there.
So sure, there are ways to deal with this sort of thing. But why deal with it in the first place? If you've got a business, make sure you have a business email that you can rely on and reflects the professional you are. At least if you change web hosts, you still have the same URL and can keep the same email address(es).
Business, Email Design + Marketing