We all know how important first impressions are. Today, your email address may be the first thing anyone knows about you. And what it tells them may surprise you.
Most people recognize that having a return email address of sweetcheeks75@whatever.com isn’t as professional as yourname@yourcompany.com. But there are many other ways to have an email give a less than professional impression of you.
I’m always surprised to be handed a business card from a small business owner that proudly displays the address of their website but lists a non-matching email address.
Use your website domain
If you have a website, you should by all means have an email address that references your website even if you prefer to retrieve your email through Hotmail or Gmail.
Your web host can provide an email alias that forwards your emails to your Hotmail or Gmail account. All of your customers still know you as a steve@onecoolflowershop.com without knowing that your email is really being forwarded to studmuffin86@hotmail.com. Such email aliases are usually offered as a free service by the people who host your website.
Perhaps the most egregious email address to use is an AOL email address. Fair or not, many people view AOL users as clueless novices who don’t know any better. In many cases that’s far from the truth, but you don’t want to be painted with that brush.
Want more? We go into greater detail about this here.