How many times have you had dealings with small businesses, a tradesperson or a medium-sized company with a few employees only to be given an email address which ends in something like “@yahoo.com or @gmail.com or even the dreaded @hotmail.com’? Does it give you the impression of a, professional, large or trustworthy company or does it scream ‘small hobby business’? – We certainly think the latter.
Having an internet provider’s domain name in your email such as ‘@bigpond.com’ is even worse because it means your tied to your internet provider. So even if they provide you with rubbish service it’s hard to make the switch because you’re attached to them with your email addresses. It is certainly a bad look for a business to not have it’s own domain name and using a personal account for business purposes is prone to all kinds of dangers that could be detrimental to your business. The age-old view of ‘not mixing business with pleasure’ fits well in this situation.
Not only does a domain name provide the foundation for your future home page, but it can also be used to redirect or point to your Facebook account or other social media sites and, just as importantly it can easily be used for branded emails. Even for a small startup a domain name can be one of the first purchases you can make that can instantly give you gravitas and imply professionalism. It can convey a sense that you’re serious about your business and what you can offer the world. It gives you and your potential customers confidence that you know what your doing (even if you don’t have it all planned out yet!). The best part is that it doesn’t cost a small fortune to purchase your domain name and it takes relatively little ‘technical knowledge’.
Of course at Zynke we can help you through this often (and needlessly) daunting task as we offer a range of solutions that will work for your situation. Even if you’re not ready for a fully integrated website you can at least begin to build the foundations to a strong online presence by securing your own unique domain name and using it for your email or putting together a small ‘landing page’ or re-directing your clients to your social media offerings.
Next time you see someone giving out their gmail, bigpond or hotmail address for their business account remember to point them in our direction for a quick introduction on the benefits of having their own domain name!
