Mickey Mouse Email

We have recently come across two local (and not inconsiderable) businesses, who have their own .co.uk domain names but are using email addresses @gmail or @hotmail

We find this incredible

In our humble opinion, nothing screams “startup” company more than a business using a ‘MyCompanyName@gmail.com‘. Even louder of a scream is ‘MyCompanyName@hotmail.com‘.

Using the email address of your website is one more way of getting people to your website, may not be major but it counts, Google and Bing are more likely to find your domain name around and help your site climb the “ranked first on Google” (there’s no such thing , but anyway), and people who see your email address might just pop along and take a look, more traffic, more brownie points.

Why should I use a domain email address instead of Gmail / Hotmail?

Customers expect your business to have a domain name and a website. An email address like jsmith@yourcompany.com tells people you’re serious about your business. 

Free email services, such as Gmail and Hotmail, are great for personal use, but when you use a free email account for business purposes, people will start to doubt your professionalism and credibility. 

For example, say you are in the process of planning a business trip and you received an email from a travel agent asking if they could help you book your hotel, conferences and maybe a couple day excursions. You look at their email address and it’s a Gmail address. For many people, that may be the first clue that something is wrong and they would start to question the trustworthiness of the travel agency.

“Why doesn’t this travel agency have its own domain email address? Does it have a website? Is this business legitimate or did I just get spammed?” These are some of the questions that you might start to have.

Would you take someone with a Hotmail.com email address seriously? We mean no disrespect here, but there are prejudices about the domain that your email address uses. 

• One benefit to using Gmail as your email source is that it’s free. (They do have a paid Google Apps for Business). Gmail is also very common. You probably use it for your personal email, so it was only natural to setup your business email that way. Use the same interface, same apps. Similar arguments for Hotmail, albeit less “free” than Gmail
  
• Perhaps, you don’t like change? Another benefit is that it’s recognizable, people know Gmail and use it themselves. Also, they give you a ton of free storage space (up to 15GB for free plans) and can work with various other applications like Drive for storage sharing, Calendar, Contacts etc.

So why would you use a domain based email? we believe the biggest reason is your professionalism. It doesn’t matter how small or large your business is, you want to maintain professionalism at every level, including your communication with, customers, potential customers and partners you may work with.

You know what’s great about domain based email? Most of the time, it’s also free. You just have to know what you’re doing, or ask us to help you out. All domains hosted by us get free unlimited email accounts, and we can arrange email accounts even if we don’t host your website!.

What if your hosting company doesn’t offer a free option? Well, you could just pony up the small fee, which is sometimes about £2/month. That’s not a ton in the grand scheme of things, or as above come and talk to us

What else can I do with a domain email address that I can’t with Gmail?

When you own your domain name, you can set up email aliases (or email forwarders). 

For example, say you have created the domain email address jsmith@yourcompany.com. With your Cbits.net hosting service, you can also create email aliases such as info@yourcompany.com and sales@yourcompany.com, and have all emails sent to the aliases forwarded to your main domain email address. This way, you are creating the illusion of an organized, professional company. 

And because you own your domain name, you are no longer tied to an email service provider or an ISP. If you use a Gmail address for your business, you are tied to Gmail. What if you want to  change email service providers and what if you want to use services, such as encryption, that Gmail does not offer? You’re stuck. 

By using your own domain name, you have the flexibility and option to use any email hosting provider you like. For example, you can transfer your domain email hosting from GoDaddy to Cbits.net anytime you want.

So please, stop our pain, stop using Mickey Mouse mail, and start using cbits.net hosting and mail services – we even offer web enabled mail like Gmail and Hotmail see cbitsmail.co.uk