“Hey sucker!
I’m a super important investment guy and your long lost relative just died, so I want to give you ALL THE MONEY!!! A gazillion rand! All you have to do is fall for this OBVIOUS SCAM and send me a large sum of money for documents and stuff.”
Sound familiar? C’mon, we’ve all had a Nigerian prince or a mysterious estate lawyer in our inbox, at some point. Nobody is reeeeally dumb enough to fall for that shit. And if they are, then losing all your money and starving to death on the cold streets is sort of just like natural selection, right?
I digress… The point I want to make is that these oh-so-obviously-scammy emails come from addresses like “scamattorneys@gmail.com” or “thistotallyisntascam@gmail.com”. That “@gmail.com” is usually the first dead giveaway that something about this stinks.
So, my dear, sweet, online rookie… WHYYYYYYY are you trying to operate a professional business from a Gmail account!?!
Don’t get me wrong, I too have a Gmail account that I use for useless crap emails, but I would never EVER dream of mailing a client from it. It detracts so much from the professional image of your business. Yes, you may just be starting out, but you don’t want to shout it from the interweb rooftops that you’re a rookie to all of this. Your clients are looking for “experts”, not free-email-using plebbs.
Just in case you are still happy with your gmail debauchery, I’m going to give you a scary example of why people don’t trust gmail addresses…
It’s a cold, windy night and an organ farmer, named Raoul, sits on his computer, scouring Facebook for his next unsuspecting victim. He finds an organ waiting list group and zeros in on Fred, a middle aged man from Boksberg, waiting for a heart transplant.
Raoul uses the modern advances of technology to find a legit Facebook page for a well-known heart surgeon, Dr Stephen Brown. Dr Brown has a great website and strong following already, so when Fred gets a mail from DrStephenBrown@gmail.com to tell him he needs to come in immediately to (X) location because they have a heart for him, he jumps at the opportunity. He arrives in the parking lot, Raoul and his posse jump him, and now Fred needs a new heart AND a new kidney.
Anybody can create a gmail address!
Let’s take a step back and look at it from a professional standpoint:
If you ware redecorating your home and asked for quotations to be sent to you, straight off the bat, which would look more professional to you:
a) homedecorsouthafrica@gmail.com
OR
b) storm@homedecor.co.za
It would be “b”, right?
Having a personalized email not only adds an element of professionalism, but it allows for the opportunity to grow client relationships.
And you know what?
Setting up a personalized mail is actually SOOOO easy!
Most hosting services offer a FREE mail setup function, in the control panel or customer portal of your account. So, if you have a website, there is no reason you should still be using a gmail address.
Simply click the “mail” option on your dashboard or CPanel and follow the prompts.
If you are not familiar with navigating around your hosting service, simply drop me an inbox and let me know who you are hosted with. I will send you step-by-step instructions FREE OF CHARGE.
Then, when you have your brand spanking new personalized email address, you can sign up for my Wednesday love letters, here:
