Creating a professional email address is crucial to presenting a professional image to your clients/customers. A branded email address can make you appear more legitimate and give you a boost with customer trust.
Surveys done by Verisign showed that 65% of customers trusted incoming branded emails over free email addresses like those using gmail or yahoo accounts. Improved company organization is also a benefit of using personalized branded email addresses.
Your Identity Online
A domain name is a unique identifier on the internet that consists of a string of characters that people can identify with. The domain name is the method by which you will be able to brand yourself and it is the simplicity with which it can be acquired today, that this step present very little barrier to entry.
The cost involved in getting a domain name is very attainable, which begs the question, why are people still using gmail?
Well, the reason is possibly just that most people are ignorant of the fact that it does make them look unprofessional.
When you’re doing any kind of marketing, whether it be online or traditional media, its a good idea to think of your marketing efforts from the perspective of the client. This way, when you think of how your communication will be received, I think most people will agree that incoming email from a gmail account, might be a little suspect sometimes.