There are hundreds of free email services available to anyone with internet access but there comes a time when your email address might be setting your business back. Here are five good reasons to get your own email domain.

1. It reflects how you manage your business

You get one chance to make a first impression. When your first contact with new or potential customers is via email, [email protected] will represent your business better than [email protected]. Having your email linked to your own domain brings professionalism into how you conduct business.

If you are starting an ecommerce business or email marketing, this is non-negotiable as your customers will receive confirmations and emails from [email protected].

2. It builds trust

Various pieces of research have found that a professional email address helps to build consumer trust. Having both an email and website linked together shows you are serious about your business and it helps to earn trust from prospective customers or collaborators. Not only does a professional email build trust, it can also serve as a marketing tool to drive more traffic to your website. When you have a professional email address directly associated with your domain name, customers can use your professional email address to find your website i.e. [email protected]=hotrodmotors.com.

3. It helps to protect critical business data

Many public email services are susceptible to hacking, leaving your business information vulnerable to hackers. Depending on the nature of your business, privacy may be an issue when you use free email services. In Australia, anyone storing financial or federal data is required to host the data within the country. If you’re sending emails through free email addresses, you may be in breach of that law. The same applies for all kinds of contracts, especially with any kind of legal or government work. Having your own hosted domain ensures you can choose where your email data is stored and avoid any compliance issues before they arise.

4. It keeps you out of spam filters

If you use email marketing to drive sales, this may be the only incentive you need to switch from free email providers. Several free email services are targeted by spammers and malware. This means that the emails you send from a free email address may get marked as spam. Unless your customers are checking their spam folders, it’s unlikely that they will receive your emails. Setting up your own email domain, especially through an established host, can reduce the risk of  important business emails or newsletters getting bounced or sent straight to the trash bin – and when email is a primary method of keeping in touch with your customers or expanding your database, this is absolutely critical.

5. Backup

If a remote hosted service goes down, gets hacked or simply closes its doors, you may risk losing whatever email and attachments you have stored with them. This can sometimes occur without warning, leaving you little opportunity to secure your data, and if you’re not taking regular backups you risk losing a lot.

With your own email, you’ll either host the data in-house or through a company you have a service level agreement with. Both should include backups and contingency strategies. This ensures that no matter what happens, your data will be secure, accessible, and business continuity is maintained.

Setting up a professional email address is easy and affordable.