Here, picture this scenario.
If you received an email from girlsjustwannahavefun12345@gmail.com requesting for your media kit, would you entertain it? Or would you immediately click on the Delete button? What if the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun* company was actually a legitimate website that sells pretty party dresses and accessories but for some reason doesn’t have a proper email address and used a free web-based one like Gmail instead?
Me, I would have deleted that email right away. I wouldn’t have known of said brand’s dresses because just looking at that email address alone would sound the warning bells in my head. The dresses could have been cute. It could be selling accessories I’d really like to buy. It could be stocking pretty cool stuff that I’d love to share with my readers.
I wouldn’t have known because 1) with an email address like that, it would probably have ended up in my spam box or 2) I would have dismissed it altogether. As a brand, you would have lost credibility and potential ways to work with the blogger. You would have lost a sale right there and then. You would also have lost the potential to hook up with advertisers because really, trying to sell your brand with girlsjustwannahavefun12345@gmail.com really isn’t going to cut it.
I can’t even stress the importance of having a professional email address if you’re a brand. It baffles me when companies use free web-based email addresses like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail. It doesn’t matter if you’re a tiny brand; if you have something to sell, you have to step up and at the very least get a professional email address. It doesn’t cost much a year (some cost as little as $4 a month). Why would you hurt your brand by not using a professional email address instead?
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For example, if you’re a blogger and you were to receive an email from a brand/PR that comes from a Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail/Bigpond email address, would you still bother with the email? Or would you just delete it because you’re not sure if the brand/PR is legit? I know I have deleted a lot of emails that come from PRs with personal email addresses. Unless I have worked with the brand/PR before, I prefer to work with someone who at least has an email address from a domain I can check out. Many a time I’ve received requests from “brands” for copies of my media kit that come from Gmail addresses. Copies of my media kit are given out at my discretion and really, goodness knows who these people are and what they want to do with my personal information and web stats. I could just be paranoid, of course, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
The same goes for bloggers. If you’d like to take your blog to the next level, then I highly recommend getting proper email address too. When I say the next level, I mean working with brands and advertisers. You might even think of doing this whole blogging thing full-time. It definitely doesn’t hurt to have a professional email address compared to a Hotmail one. Especially if your Hotmail address is sexymonkey1988@hotmail.com. π
I think a certain level of professionalism shows when you use an email address that is related to your blog’s domain. I didn’t switch to my blog email address immediately after purchased the domain. In fact, I only did it a year after I purchased self-web-hosting services for the blog. There are still a number of PRs who still email my Gmail address and even though I updated them with my new blog email address, emails still went to my Gmail. At some point, I just went, oh well, no biggie. We’ve been working together for years now; I hope you still know who I am. π But for other brands/PRs, I always use my tine@beautyholicsanonymous.com email address.
If you already have a domain for your blog (e.g. www.beautyblog.com instead of beautyblog.blogspot.com), then you can decide on whether you want to set up a domain email for yourself or not. If you didn’t purchase the email address option with your domain name, you can set it up on Google Apps (Google charges you a fee). If your blog is self-hosted, then chances are you already have the email address feature ready to be set up!
You don’t have to be tied to email clients like Outlook or Thunderbird. You can setup mail settings on your phone or tablet for when you’re on the go. Gone are the days that you can only do this with Blackberry phones. If you use Google Apps for your email, you can setup your blog’s email address to work on Gmail! If you’re not keen on using Google Apps but already have the email address set up, you can link that email address to your existing personal Gmail account too (via POP3/IMAP). You can access your emails on the cloud too. The possibilities are (almost) endless.
So brands, if you don’t have a professional email address, sort this out RIGHT NOW. Usage of free and personal email addresses can hurt your business. It’s not that sort of money you should be saving on. If you’re a blogger, you might want to consider getting one for yourself too. My observation is that people tend to take me a lot more seriously when my business card doesn’t have a Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail address on it. π
What about you? Do you have a professional email address? Do you think it’s necessary for bloggers to have one? What are your thoughts about brands who use free web-based email addresses to conduct their business and communications?
*Fictional. I think.
Great advice Tine!
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Thanks Phoebe π
I’ve always used a formal address eversince I started my business and then blogging gig. While I do think it’s important to have a professional email address when it comes to brands and businesses, I often wonder about bloggers. The thing is, most PRs and brands don’t really care if your address is a gmail one or hotmail. I know of big ones (as in bloggers) that still use hotmail or gmail and get FAB gigs and collaborations. So really it’s hard to gauge. But if a brand/PR was contacting me, yeah, I would be a bit suss if they don’t have an email that comes from the company they claim to be from. Great post.
Yeah I know what you mean. A lot of higher-tier bloggers I know still use Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo email addresses and it’s true, the brands don’t care. I guess it just looks a lot nicer and more professional to have a formal email address on your name card rather than Gmail π
I don’t like it when brands don’t use formal email addresses. Even in cases of emergency, I think there should be a note in the signature saying that their email system is down, hence they’re resorting to the free web-based one temporarily.
Excellent tip, not only for bloggers but for anyone doing business. That said, I should practice what I preach in real life hahahaha! π I host my email with Google Apps but back when I did, it was free. I just found out there are charges now – bummer but I seem to have gotten home free. I originally used the in built host email system like you just showed, but I later learnt that inordinate spam can affect bandwidth and the stability of the server. That was the reason I switched away. If you take a peep in the spam bin, its scary how much is accumulated in there. My newest hosting accounts do not support email. This is to cut the spam factor π
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I know what you mean. Goodness me, the amount of spam I get is crazy. Mozilla Thunderbird doesn’t filter out the junk so I have to do them manually. Ugh.
I would agree on this. Like what you said, it doesn’t matter whether you are a tiny brand or not, others that don’t know you would want to check on your credibility and legitimacy. Great post, Tine! π
Thanks Nani! I don’t like it when brands don’t use a formal email address. Big or small, it doesn’t cost much to have a proper one.
As a matter of fact, I believe I got a spam mail from the ‘girlswannahavefun’ before…deleted it before it could sing. π
I do blog, just for fun so don’t see the need to get own domain. Yet. Still a newbie and I do get doubts about posting stuff online.
HAHAHAHA I love how you said delete it before it could sing π Oooh you blog? Share the link! π
Blog still new, had some negative stuff (life’s been a lil rough) but deleted and started afresh! You can find me at http://www.pantryoflife.wordpress.com π Blogging tips much appreciated π
Oooh thanks! π
Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary for bloggers to have professional emails. However, I don’t think it’s a good idea to name your email something like hotgirl25@gmail.com either. Not just for bloggers but really for everyone. I think once I pass the high school age, I updated my personal email address to just “myname”@gmail.com. This to me is acceptable. However, having weird email names is just weird no matter what business or professions you are in. At my old job, I was in charge of hiring a new position once, and I had to screen resumes. No matter how good the resume looks, having the email address of sexygirl123@gmail.com is not going to cut it. It makes the person looks childish and unprofessionally.
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Haha I know, right? Like you said, by the time you leave high school, the email address should be updated to your name. If you’re blogging and are using Gmail/Hotmail/whatever, then use the blog name as the address, like most people do.
OMG I was the same as you! I once had to screen resumes to hire someone to work for me and I too disregarded the weird email addresses. Sorry, if you’re going to use that in your resume to find work, I’m going to assume you’re not professional enough for the job with an email address like sexygirl123@gmail.com π
I currently have a gmail account and I have been thinking of switching for a while, but I keep putting it off. I just hate switching email addresses but I guess it’s something I’ll have to do soon. It really makes you look more professional. Thanks for the remainder.
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Me too. It was a pain having to switch email addresses to a proper one and I had to keep reminding people of that email address. Sigh.
I have a domain-based email for both my business and my hobby-blog. You’re right. It just looks more professional. My boss at my day job is finally starting to get the light about this — he’s had his MSN address for years, but now with a new website hosting company he must switch; I bet it will mean new business as people will take his website and email addy more seriously.
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Most definitely. I think for a business, no matter how big or small, a professional email address is a must. Not only will people take him more seriously, it just shows you mean business. I’ve seen businesses that have a proper website but not even a proper email address. E.g. a friend of mine owns quite a large business in Victoria. Has a very professional-looking website. But when I went to the Contact Me page, he had a @live.com email address (ie Hotmail). Boy, did it turn me off.
I have a professional nikki@askmewhats.com email but I don’t know why I tend to still use my other email which do sound a bit of a ‘semi” pro! lol…I guess I am just used to looking at 1 email for both personal and blogs…I guess I should really look into this (but toooo lazy) as I have a separate work email which I stare at the whole day! π
Hehehe I know what you mean. With my friends, I still use my Gmail address (e.g. when I email you). It’s just easier π
Ooh, this is definitely some food for thought. I have a gmail, and want to self host but its just not in the cards right now. I’m also scared, like you said, people will still email my current address instead of the new one.
Ok, ok, I need to have a serious think about it. π
I know what you mean. I think of it like me having a lot of issues with Gmail, hence needing to use another email address. It’s a hassle at first, but soon after, all the emails will start coming in to the new address.
What I like to do is merge both email addresses to one account. I’m currently using a separate mail client (Mozilla Thunderbird), but before I did that, I added a POP/IMAP account of the formal email address to my old Gmail one. This way, I didn’t have to check my emails on two separate platforms and when I do reply emails, I reply with my new formal email address (when people reply back, they’ll send it to the new address). The transition from the Gmail to the formal address went very smoothly π
Thats a really great idea. Truth be told I have so many email addresses it’s getting a little ridiculous. This can be my motivation to trim it down and get a little professional π
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This was one of the first things I did. Admittedly it’s not that impressive of an address, since I’m still piggy-backing the site to another domain, but it’s better than nothing.
And, right after that, I read your post on email signatures. I think that’s given me some credibility. π
I have a suggestion for Bloggie Wednesdays. did a quick search and I don’t think you’ve covered this. I wonder if you’d be willing to cover some PR etiquette and the like for Twitter? It’s one kind of social media I don’t understand. People talk about ‘retweeting companies’ or companies ‘retweeting’ them. Do they just mean they tweet the companies with their reviews and hope the companies retweet them? Bah, maybe I need to learn more about twitter before trying to apply it to my blogging.
Thanks~
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Thanks for your suggestion Bethany. It’s a great topic to talk about π I’ll write that down in my BW notebook. In a nutshell, all these RT-ing back-and-forth is for one purpose – exposure to gain more traffic. Companies usually have a lot more followers than bloggers so if the brand RTs a tweet, chances are people will check out the link, read the blog, perhaps like what they see and then choose to stay on. It’s a way of reaching out to other people who don’t know about your blog.
On the other hand, it’s could also be a method of letting the brand know you mentioned them in your blog post. It’s a nice gesture on your part, the brand appreciates it and in turn, RTs the link you posted. Sometimes it could also be a way to let the brand know what you thought of the product, especially if it’s negative. I was sent a blush to try out, I reviewed it, thought there could be improvements made on the blush and I wrote about it on the blog post. When I tweeted about my latest blog post, I tagged the company at the end of the link. They saw the link, read it and got back to me saying that my feedback has been noted and that improvements would be made if possible.
It’s not a must to add the brand Twitter link (@somethingsomething) to your tweet. Most of the time, I forget anyway. π
Thanks a lot, Tine. That cleared up quite a few questions for me. ^^
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Great post! I think Brands or companies definitely should have a formal (domain) email because I like to check out their site and sometimes if an email is vague, I like to check if the company is legit.
Bloggers…I don’t think it matters so much. I have my own domain, but haven’t set up a domain email. I don’t know if I will. Sure it makes it easier for PRs to address emails to you by name, but really if they read your blog before emailing you they SHOULD already know your name! I just use cottoncandydiva@live.com, ‘live’ doesn’t sound as bad as Gmail or hotmail
Haha that’s true. A @live.com domain doesn’t sound as bad as Gmail or Hotmail. Brands, no. It irks me that they have a proper website but can’t even spring for formal email addresses. It really isn’t that expensive!
I now have a professional email for my blog as it helps me keep all my PR/Brand stuff separate to my personal life.
When I get emails from gmail accounts asking for stats, or if I want to work with them I delete it too because I don’t know who I’m talking to!
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That’s a good idea; I do that too. Keep personal and blog stuff separate. I also delete the emails coming from gmail accounts claiming to be brands, asking for stats. Who knows who they are and if they’re dodgy!