Email as a brand extension

I think in the world business, especially artist based businesses where your name is your brand, it extends to the little touches that people and your clients receive. In this electronic world, websites and email are typically the first impression someone will have on you and your business. Your website should be the first thing in line, but that's another subject. My point in this post is creating an email address with your domain streamlines your brand. It makes you look all that more professional to have an email address that is at your domain.com. Creating an email with yourname@yourdomain.com(ie: nick@nickonken dot com) makes even more of a personal touch, which I think is important in this business. I don't know about you, but I always feel a little less connected when someone emails me back from an email address other than their name. I do have an info@nickonken dot com email address on my website, but my email responses always come from my nick@nickonken dot com address.

That said, I just stumbled upon Google Apps, which lets you host your domain email through gmail. It's awesome. The interface is just like gmail and you have all the perks that gmail does. It's only $50 per year. I was with Lanlogic.net using their exchange server and paying $20-30/month plus another $10/month on my mobile carrier side to use the enterprise server. The emails did get pushed through(to my Blackberry and iPhone) in the exact moment they arrived, but in the end, to me it wasn't worth it to keep it paying so much more. With gmail notifier, the emails come through typically instantly to 30 seconds. You can also sync all your contacts programs like spanning sync. Not to mention you get 25gb of storage for your emails. It also works great with all your mail apps. This is way better than setting up forwards and reply-to addresses if you're using another email account.

I've never used the extent of gmail before, but I'm finding out how awesome even the web interface is. Here's a little screen clip of what the interface looks like. It also allows you to have your own logo integrated.

Check it out here: Google Mail Apps for Business

Here's a little screen clip of the web interface.

Comments

[Shy]

Nickety Nick! :) So I am currently using Google Apps, but how in the world do I integrate my logo?

[washington dc photographer]

I switched my mail over to Google Apps a couple of years ago and never looked back. Amazing reliability, easy iphone integration and a rapidly-evolving web app that just seems to get better and better.

[Nate Kinnison]

Nick, I couldn't agree more about email being the brand extension. I noticed a change in client response when I switched to nate@natekinnison.com from yahoo when I first started my business.

Google apps has been a integral part of my business and I recommend it to everyone. The calendar also syncs to mobile devices and is a beast of a calendar. With google docs, email and the calendar all wrapped up in google apps, it's an amazing program. Glad to see you found it

Great content on the blog! Keep it up