Small Biz Professionalism: Email on Your Domain

Have you ever been handed a business card from someone where you could tell that they spent a good amount of time and money creating a sharp card - the logo looks fantastic and it ties to the product or service the company offers and they have a great URL or web site address --- only to look down at the contact information and have this be what you see:

YourGreatBusinessName@gmail.com
YourGreatBusinessName@aol.com
YourGreatBusinessName@msn.com
YourGreatBusinessName@SomeOtherISP.com

When this happens, I always get nervous.  I wonder:

• how long the person has been in business?
• do they actually own the business or are they are just a rep?
• what other parts of their business are they not paying attention to?
• can I really expect a quality solution or product?

It is EASY to have your business email use your business web domain!  Below are some quick steps (using Gmail) that will have you be able to set it up:

1. Create a forwarding address on your domain such that 'yourname@yourgreatbusiness.com' is forwarded to your Gmail account. - this can either be done by you if you manage your domain with the registrar, or if you have a webmaster, you can ask them to do it.  That handles the emails that are sent to you.
2. In your Gmail, go to your Mail Settings and select Accounts
3. Select the button 'Send Mail from another address' and add the email address you had created in step 1. 
4. Check your gmail account for a new message to confirm you can receive messages with this address in your Gmail.
5. Select the setting below that to always 'reply from the same address the message was sent to'
6. Go back to the General Setttings Tab and create your business signature - so that you always have your contact data including your name, company name, phone, email and links to your website and any social media platform you use.

It is that easy!  I've never been a big fan of ISP email addresses, so I don't have the details on how to do this on all the other email platforms - some may support it and some may not - but Gmail is free - so you can do this today using these simple steps. 

Stay tuned for more blog posts in the Small Biz Professionalism series!  

Mary Camacho is the author of The Internet Plan. Buy the book here!

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