Whilst websites are increasingly popular, on occasion where we receive a business card or brochure, the organisation advertising is using an email address supplied by their internet service provider or a free email address provider, such as Gmail or Outlook.com. Not only do these not look unprofessional, they can also present a number of risks to your business. We provide five reasons for using commercial email hosting in your organisation.
Makes your organisation appear credible
Which looks better: [email protected] or [email protected]? Email being identified as from @yourbusinessname.com.au are likely to be more effective than that of @outlook.com. If you choose to use [email protected] or [email protected], you risk the client not thinking you are an official business and a hobby, or even worse, a scam. Many organisations may choose to use free email accounts whilst they are away on holidays, however it is better to use webmail or remote access to check and respond to emails.
Your email address will be seen as legitimate by filters
Similar to creditability, email addresses that are coming from a domain name are likely more to be legitimate than to one coming from a free email address. Often email spam filters can prevent or delay messages coming from internet service providers if they think they are spam. These messages can often be delivered at all, as they are not reliable services.
There is a larger number of features are available
Commercial email hosting provides a larger number of features than free email providers, such as IMAP to access your email from multiple locations, set out-of-office replies or use other features that are included in commercial email systems. Free email may not support all of these. Depending on the features you are after, you may find that they are not available unless you upgrade to them.
You can keep your email address forever
If you choose to set up an email address at your internet service provider (ISP), such as [email protected] it is very difficult to change your email address if you rely on the use of their domain name. There have been times when even ISP change ownership, resulting in customers having to change their email address to the new ISP’s name. Even if you change your ISP, you can keep your email addresses intact.
It may cost you more in the long term
Whilst you are paying for email addresses, you are getting a stable and reliable email platform. Whether you are using Gmail, Outlook.com or another free email provider, they may not be free forever. Sometimes such providers they go out of business, other times they start charging you for the service, or put limits on how much email you send and receive. Other risks include potential hacking or theft of free email accounts, and there have been notable cases of free email accounts being vulnerable to hackers often well before they are reported.
If you are looking for email hosting, it doesn’t cost much for peace of mind. For instance, the initial registration of a .com.au domain name is $40 for two years, you can attach to a website hosting plan if you are looking to develop a website, or purchase an individual email hosting plan for emails. An alternative is a cloud-based solution such as Microsoft Office 365.
CyberGuru offers plans for both domain names, website hosting and email hosting platforms. If you’d like to know more, please visit our Domain names page or contact us for further information.