Time to take yourself seriously… stop using free email addresses

By Erika Dickstein | April 17, 2012

Time for a minor rant. I know just how seriously you take your business. I can tell every time I speak to you. I can tell by the passion and conviction you have in your voice when you tell me about what you do and how your offering is superior to that competitor. I can tell when I listen to the convictions you have when you speak about the solutions you offer and the intellegence you bring to the conversation.  I know you take this very very seriously.  But then, it is time to send you an email and you give me your email address as you@gmail.com and I question that conviction.

I know how this first happened.  When you first got started before you were really serious, you set up a Gmail account and you simply moved on and didn’t revisit. The thing is that when you have a free email account instead of a corporate branded one, you don’t look as serious.  Fair or not, the bias is that a free email account indicates that you aren’t in this for the long haul.  Plus, it is really really easy (and FREE!) to set up business branded emails.  How?.

  1. Sign up for Google Apps.
  2. Verify domain ownership. Once you sign up for Google Apps, you will need to verify that you actually own the domain you registered.  (This prevents you from being able to send email from @whitehouse.gov…. how fun would that be?)  There are a few ways to verify your domain. I suggest adding a DNS record to your domain configuration because it is quite easy (though it looks sort of scary.)
  3. When you tell Google you want to add a DNS record, they will ask you who you have your domain registered with. With that informaiton they will give you very specific directions on how to add the DNS record and what settings to use.  Google can then check the site to make sure it is yours.
  4. The last thing you will do is update the MX record on your domain. (Again, this sounds complicated but it really isn’t.)  You are basically telling your domain registrar that you want your mail routed through Google Apps.  Again there will be directions on how to do this in Google Apps.
  5. From here, Google will make sure you have everything set up properly and soon you can enjoy your professionally branded email!

Ok </rant>

~e

 

Posted in Erika's Musings