As many SMB owners work to grow their company and keep costs low, some will resort to keeping their “free” email accounts. These are often done through Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail, or Yahoo, among many others. Why pay for a service when you can get it for free and setup new accounts in a matter of minutes, right? Because that free service comes at a price.
According to ExactTarget, 77% of consumers prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications through email. That means that over three out of four people prefer to receive sales and consumer information via email. For business owners, that means you need to demonstrate professionalism to your customers and commitment to your company. Ask yourself if you would be more likely to open a sales email from suesbakery123@yahoo.com or sue@suesbakery.com ?
Which one has more credibility and demonstrates an owner that has more investment in their company? In addition to lower credibility, free email also comes with its own headaches:
- Limited or lack of customer support
- Limited or no access to a company calendar
- Mailbox and attachment size limitations
- Increased SPAM
- Vulnerable security
- Restricted archiving space
- Possibility of data loss
What about customer service or technical assistance? Have you ever tried calling Google to let them know a large attachment didn’t come through due to a size restriction? Good luck finding a customer service phone number. Believe me, I tried. You also have security to worry about. A customer may not feel comfortable emailing Sue’s Yahoo account any personal information to place an order. Additionally, many of us store quite a bit of client information in email archives. If your free email account gets hacked, you have put your customers’ information at risk and have potentially lost much of your information.
Corporate email accounts and domains are easy to setup, even for a small business of one person. It allows you the ability to appear larger than you are while demonstrating your company’s professionalism and credibility. You will also see an increase in efficiency which always helps with your bottom line. Sure, free emails are easy but what do they really cost you?
Mythos Technology is an IT consulting and management firm that provides Managed IT Services including Hosted Exchange. For more information, please visit www.mythostech.com or call (951) 813-2672.