I'm surprised, if not bothered, by the number of insurance agents who don't use a business domain for their e-mail address. Instead, they use their personal or home e-mail account (e.g., AOL, Earthlink, Compuserve, etc.) or even a free e-mail account (e.g., Hotmail, Yahoo, Excite, and others). I've even seen business names linked with a free account. Let's be honest, something like smith-jones-insurance@hotmail.com just doesn't appear professional and inspire confidence.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with these various e-mail options — they do have their place. Rather, I believe that using them for business and professional purposes — instead of using a legitimate business domain — comes across as, well, less businesslike and professional.
When using the Internet, like other methods of marketing and communications, perception is important, which is why a professional looking address matters. While you cannot guarantee customer perception, you can influence it in your favor. With that in mind, why not shed the personal and free e-mail address and use a more professional looking one such as, bob@smith-jones-insurance.com, for example?
Even if you're not ready to have your own Web site, you can register a domain name and get hosting and e-mail fairly inexpensively. And, you might want to plan for the day when you will want to have a Web site by reserving your domain name now! Millions of names are already taken, so you'll want to reserve a name that is easy for your customers to remember and type.
Here, then, are some options for registering a domain name and establishing a professional and businesslike e-mail address.
Go Daddy
Go Daddy, a popular domain registration service, allows you to register a domain name for only $8.95 per year for a .com address. You can simply "park" the domain name temporarily on their server at no charge.
Better yet, you can also sign up for hosting at $5.95 per month. You'll get 10 MB of disk space (more than ample for a simple brochure site) and one free e-mail account. You can set up e-mail forwarding to your personal e-mail address at no charge. If you aren't ready to create Web site, you can simply put up a single page with your contact information, including an e-mail link. You might even want to add a slogan, your agency logo, or perhaps a photo (see sample). That way, you'll have a nominal Web presence that could direct people to your e-mail address.
Add a Go Daddy Web/email account to your Web site hosting package for only $19.95 per year. Your Web/email account includes one mailbox and 3MB of storage space. If you want multiple mailboxes you may choose one of the following Go Daddy offers:
The advantage of a Webmail account is that it allows you to check your mail via your browser from any computer, as opposed to an e-mail account that you have to check through an e-mail program such as Outlook.
So, for only $80.35 for a year you could have an e-mail address that contains your business name, including domain name registration and hosting. If you can't afford that small amount on top of what you're already paying to your ISP, you shouldn't be in business. You'd spend about the same amount for a box of business cards. And why do you use business cards instead of little scraps of paper? Because they're more businesslike, professional, and credible.
Other possibilities
Register.com
Registration costs $35 per year. A 5-page Web site costs $4.95/month or $49/year.
An e-mail account is $29.99/year. Total for one year: $113.99
Hostway
Hostway is advertising $6.95 per year for domain registration. Their lowest
price for hosting is $8.95/month (with a set-up fee of $39.95) providing 5
MB disk space and 1 e-mail account. Total for one year: $154.30.
Vox
Domains
Domain registration is $8.75 per year. You can get an e-mail account for as
little as $9.95/year. Their lowest-priced hosting account is $5.95/month,
including 1 free email account. Total cost for one year: $81.35.
Bottom Line
Put simply, it doesn't cost much to make sure that your e-mail correspondence comes from a professional-sounding address.
By the way, a search on Google for "domain name" generates about 3,000,000 hits, so there are lots of possibilities available for domain registration, hosting, and e-mail accounts. Research carefully and, if their offers are not clear, call the vendor before you sign up.
© Copyright 2003 by Sound Internet Strategy. All rights reserved
When using the Internet, like other methods of marketing and communications, perception is important, which is why a professional looking address matters.