In this digital age, a business without an email address is almost as if the business does not exist. A branded email address brings more benefits to a business than a generic email address.
In this article, I’m going to give you solid reasons why you need to brand your email address, and how to go about it.
What is email branding?
Email branding involves the use of picture, colors, text and logos to build a memorable identity for a business.
Who should use a branded email?
Anyone providing professional services should brand their email address.
Companies, businesses, NGO(s), everyone. It does not matter your area of specialization, a branded email is essential.
Benefits of a branded email.
- Promotes Brand Awareness. Every time you send an email, you are promoting your business. The recipient identifies your brand and not with Gmail or HotMail.
- Creates Credibility & Trust With Your Clients. When you use an email address that you have branded, clients feel a sense of security & reassurance that your business is legit.
- Creates a Corporate Image. One negative side of using generic email addresses such as GMail, Yahoo etc is that you portray your business as fairly new and not established.
- Gives A Strong First Impression. A personalized email address tells your clients that your business is established. Whenever you use a generic email address on the other hand, it raises doubts whether your business even exists.
How to brand your email address.
Personalisation
The very first step in email branding, is personalisation. You start by acquiring a domain name and a web/email hosting account for your business.
If you need help choosing a domain name, check an article I did some times back on how to choose a good domain name.
Once you have registered your domain, you need to set up your email account in your cPanel.
Email signature
After successful creation of your email account, add a signature to the address. An email signature is a block of text appended to the end of an email message. Most people often add their name and contact information/disclaimer. Take advantage of the email signature feature to brand your email.
If it is your first time creating an email signature, I propose you check out this article. It will take you through everything you need to create with your email signature.
Social Links & Icons
As part of creating a branded email address, you can add links to your social pages. If your business has a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram pages, you should include them whenever you’re sending an email. Be creative though, add the at the end of your email message. If possible, you can use the email signature field for this.
Don’t forget your logo
Your company logo will add more weight in your efforts to brand email. Make sure that you always include your logo whenever you’re sending out an email to your customers.
With this, I believe you’re on the right path to branding your email address. Wikipedia has a detailed article on Email Marketing. If you want to learn something on email marketing, please check out the link above.