When starting a business from the ground up, there are hundreds of different aspects that need to be considered. One of those is how you will be communicating with your targeted audience.
Who offers the best email address: AOL, Gmail, GMX or Yahoo?
With such a variety of different channels available to a brand’s marketing team, one thing remains at the top of the “must-have” list: an email address.
Businesses have quite the task when it comes time to choose the best email address for their brand, but how important is it, really?
What is considered a good email address?
GoDaddy surveyed 1,000 US small business e-commerce customers about the different aspects that foster trust between them and a brand, and they found that, out of the consumers they polled, 23% are concerned about sharing their personal information with any brand that has a generic email account.
However, when it comes down to “generic” email accounts, some are more trusted than others. In fact, there are a number of free email providers that are often used by businesses.
Source: Campaign Monitor
Who provides the best email addresses for professionals?
If your brand isn’t quite ready for a domain-specific email address that matches the brand’s website, there are several free email address providers that marketing teams can choose from.
There are over a billion people using Gmail for both personal and business use. Google is known worldwide and has many advanced features, including their Undo Send feature, but it also has powerful spam and security tools to keep your brand’s account safe.
Source: Google
Yahoo was one of the original big names in email, dating back to 1994. However, it was acquired by Verizon in 2016. The email client averages around 227.8 million monthly users. Those who choose to use Yahoo as their email client enjoy unlimited email storage, a built-in web search tool, and advanced spam filters and SSL encryption.
Much like Yahoo, AOL is another one of the original internet names dating back to the 1980s. Key features that AOL Mail users enjoy include virus protection and advanced spam filters. They can also personalize their email address with the MyAddress feature. The number of monthly average users comes in just under 175 million.
While GMX may seem rather unknown to many, it is quickly gaining steam. With an average of around 19 million users, this email client provides a few different options for users; however, for this article, we are only focusing on their free service.
This email client is most known for its popular mobile interface and it’s GMX Organizer, which allows users to manage their appointments. It also supports both email aliases and email filtering.
Does having a professional email address really matter?
75% of those surveyed by GoDaddy believe that having a business email account that matches the brand’s website is key to building trust.
While some brands go with a Gmail or Yahoo account for their email needs, that doesn’t mean they don’t have a professional address.
If your email address doesn’t have a domain specific name, then there is a formula to help brands create a professional-looking email address that their clients can trust. So what does that formula look like?
First Name.Last Name = [email protected]
There are numerous variations that can be used when implementing this formula, including:
- First Name.Last Initial
- First Initial + Last Name
- Name+Profession
- Name+City
Things to avoid include anything that seems “cute” or tacky, such as Joe.Smith.KnowsItAll or Joe.Smith.MarketingMan.
What now?
After you’ve chosen your preferred email address, it’s time to start working on your email marketing strategy.
Check out our ultimate guide to developing an email marketing plan that works, and hit the ground running.