Great First Impression with Email

You only get one opportunity to make a good first impression, so here's some web design advice for your website about making a great first impression with email. Consider the downside of a website design with links using free email accounts like Hotmail, AOL, or Gmail for online business correspondence before deciding to make free email service your first choice.

While using a free service may be convenient for those users who want transportability to read or write email from a variety of desktop or mobile devices, the first impression you create may be less than ideal. This is especially true if you actually use that free service email link on your website instead of one to match your domain.

The free email services are fine for personal accounts for family or friends. When a person selects an email link on your commercial website to make an inquiry, the reply should be from an email address that matches your www domain. Besides having a web design that creates a sense of trust, that matching email shows sophistication, too.

If all things are equal comparing your web design to your competition, the professional touch of an email address to match your domain could make the difference when that visitor decides who to contact.

Besides first impression, why is direct email that matches your domain so important? It is more secure than free email services. As a case in point, a web design client chose to use one of the free services in all their business correspondence. After years without incident they replied to an urgent email to re-register their email address or risk losing all previous email and address book with their list of contacts.

The email message was a phishing scam, yet in a panic the client immediately followed the link and entered their sensitive security details for that free email account. As a result their entire client base was spammed by the scam artist with a personal plea to send emergency funds as if "the real owner" was emailing them from a foreign country where they just lost their wallet, cash, and credit cards.

What this client suspected about being scammed, as he was going through the steps of entering details that became more and more personal, turned out to be horribly true. A few clients confirmed his suspicion when they forwarded the spam emails begging for a temporary $1000 loan "until I get back to the states next week".

Thankfully no one fell for the scam, yet needless to say the loss in reputation and credibility was significant. Think again before you decide on a free email account in your web design. The solution is inexpensive and easier than most people realize. Here's an explanation.

Email service that matches your website domain is often free with the domain or your purchase of hosting. For bigger companies who need many more email addresses you may have to pay for the additional accounts. Either way, use your service provider's help files to learn how to setup a direct email user name and password that allows you to write and reply to email.

The same user name and password for each account is transportable to your home or mobile devices, so ask your provider if you need help with getting it working in a variety of locations. My advice is write down the password and memorize the user name if you travel frequently and need remote access to your email from a hotel, library, internet cafe, or customer's place of business.

You may need more than one set of instructions depending on the email client used at work, home, or in your mobile devices. Any inconvenience climbing the learning curve to get up to speed is time well spent to help maintain your reputation while you make a great first impression with email.

Jim Degerstrom, owner of Custom CMS Design LLC, offers custom cms web design services and proven search engine optimization advice with custom cms web designs that allow website owners to add, edit, or delete content in plain text without technical skills.