Imagine you are out getting bids for a big project and you want to find someone with experience. You have two people vying for your business: Jim & Bob. They both handed you a business card when you spoke with them, and each business card had an email address on it where you could contact them. Jim's email is jim@acmeconsulting.com. Bob's email is cooltiger14445@aol.com. Which one demonstrates to you that this person is credible and professional? Which email suggests the owner is part of a reputable business?


Although you might not think about it immediately, little elements like this play into your perception of a person or company. And whether or not we care to admit it, these perceptions are often what ultimately influence a purchasing decision. Even if you are one of the few people who do not use email as part of your daily business operations, chances are you have a client who does ... or who will at least expect you to.

A domain name, as it relates to email, is the section of your address after the "@" symbol. Free email addresses will usually have some other business name there (like yahoo.com or hotmail.com). You can also purchase your own, like AcmeConsulting.com, to reflect your business.

So, why would you avoid using your own domain name? Here are the top 5 reasons we get when presenting the idea to clients.

1. Domain names are very expensive
Business owners are usually shocked to find out that a single domain name is only about $10-$15 per year. Registering a new dot com is cheap and pretty painless. Although there are some additional expenses involved with running your own email (Or letting a local IT service provider handle it for you), the marketing value alone is almost always worth the small investment.


2. Domain names require a server
Another common objection we see is a business not wanting to invest in running their own mail server. When you sign up with Yahoo or another provider, you use their servers to send and receive mail, which are paid for through advertising. When you setup your own domain, you do have the option of running your own mail server, but it's certainly not the only option. There are plenty of hosted services out there that we have utilized in the past to provide enterprise-class features to our smaller clients without the cost of an in-house server.


3. Custom email addresses take a long time to setup
This goes on a case-by-case basis, but generally speaking if your business isn't large enough to have already moved to a domain, then it will not take long for us to migrate you. There are always exceptions, but it's not uncommon to have a small 2-5 user environment up and running with a new mail system and no downtime over the course of a single afternoon.


4. Domain names are only for large corporations
Yes, they are more common in large corporations, but we've setup custom domain names and email for dozens of businesses with less than 5 users, and sometimes just one user on a shoestring budget. A professional email address is truly within the reach of any business.


5. I don't use email anyway
I truly understand the anti-email sentiment. It's impersonal, indirect, and often delayed if you are communicating with someone who doesn't use it often. Regardless of your personal feelings on communicating across cyberspace, the fact remains that your potential clients will likely expect you to have it, and you may even win a few more by having your business name in the address.


Still confused about domain names or how to get your business off the old Yahoo/MSN/AOL address and into an enterprise-class collaboration & messaging system? Stay tuned to this blog and we'll cover those topics and more, or just give our office a call!