People often ask, “How do I create a professional Email address?” Well, I believe you should first ask yourself what do mean by the term ‘professional’. Do you want a personal address that looks professional or professional email for business purposes?

Regardless of how you plan to use it, it is absolutely necessary that you create it the right way, and not make those mistakes which will become a source of embarrassment for you at some point later in your life.

Gone are those days when having a professional email address was a mark of a well-established, authoritative business. As domains have become amazingly cheap, it no longer serves the purpose as it used to.

But that’s not to say that you can go well without a professional email address. In fact, as people have become increasingly wary of online scams, it has become more imperative than ever.

A study conducted by GoDaddy said 75% of customers agree that a professional email address is a key to building trust with a small business.

It is actually the least you can do to prevent your email from being ignored or labeled as spam.

Now that you are aware of the importance of having a professional email address, let’s look at 8 tips that will greatly help you in crafting it.

1. Choose your own domain

An email with Gmail, Outlook, or any other suffix, is a mark of a freelancer or non-professional. It, at best, makes the impression that you are lazy and that you don’t know much about what you do. At worst, it can leave the impression of an untrustworthy business or scam. 

Also, with email providers like Gmail or Yahoo, you won’t be able to find a clean username for your email because it is highly likely somebody else has already taken that name. For example, If you name is Steve Harmison, you will have to settle for something like [email protected], which is not very elegant or memorable.

With your own domain, you will be able to create whatever address you want. For example, if your name is John and you are an online marketer at apexconsulting.com, you can create an email address like [email protected].

It will not only be easier for your clients to remember, but it will also help you in building a reputation in your industry.

With Gmail for business, you can create a business account which will include all the standard Google features like Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Google+, etc. at a cheap price.

Further Reading: How to Set Up an Email Account that Uses Your Domain Name

2. Decide Whether to include your name or not.

If you don’t intend to use your email for professional or business purposes, it doesn’t matter if you include your username in it or not.

Some people think that using your real name in the email that is created solely for personal use is not a good idea. They believe it may tie your personal stuff with your professional life, such as your online posts or opinions, leading to a horrible situation.

If you think along these lines too, there are several online tools that you can use to come up with great creative email address ideas.

However, if you have already used your email on your website it is unlikely that using it again will pose any kind of security risk. You can safely include your real name in your email address in that case.

3. Use a standard email template

Here are the few professional email address formats (with examples) that a lot of people use all over the world.

i-   (FirstName)@yoursite.ccom (like [email protected])
ii-  (FullName)@yoursite.com (like [email protected])
ii-  (FirstName)(LastInitital)@yoursite.com (like [email protected])
iv- (FirstInitial)(LastName)@yoursite.com (like [email protected])

It is also common among online shopping and e-commerce sites to use emails like [email protected] or [email protected]. It not only creates a professional feel but is also a good way to organize customer emails into different directories.

You can still create a professional email address without using any of the standard email formats, but make sure it looks professional.

4. Make it easy to remember

It goes without saying that most people have a hard time remembering or recalling complicated emails. So it is vital that you choose a name that will be easy for your family, co-workers, and clients to remember.

A clean, professional email address is not only less likely to be tossed in the spam box, but it will also help people remember your name, making it easier for them to contact you whenever they want.

5. Avoid Nicknames & Numbers

Your first priority should be to get your own domain and make a professional email address on that. But if some weird reason you don’t want to have a custom domain, the least you can do to not come off as a rookie is to avoid the usage of numbers or nicknames in your email address.

It looks ugly and ill-disciplined, to say the least.

For example, if your name is Tylor Moore and you work as ABC Company, it is always better to choose something like “TaylorMooreABC” as your username than a random name like “TylorM569”, which people will forget in less than three days.

6. Avoid Usage of creative suffixes or prefixes

A professional email address should not contain words like ‘smart’, ’cool’,’ intelligent’, etc. While they look fun whilst we are young and there is no harm in keeping them for personal use, it goes without saying that you should never send your portfolio to your potential client using that email address.

It sends a very strong signal that you are an armchair, and not a professional.

7. Use .com Top-Level Domain (TLD)

If you are wondering what top-level domain is, don’t panic. It’s the part of an email that comes at the end, such as “.com”, “.net”, “.biz”. Every TLD has a specific name and purpose, like “.com” is the shorter version of commercial and “.org” is usually taken by organizations. 

While you can create a professional email address with just about any extension, it is recommended that you choose “.com” extension so that your emails end up in recipient’s inbox, and not get filtered by systems. You should avoid extensions like “.biz” or “.info” because they are usually considered spammy and untrustworthy.

You can also consider registering the same domain on every extension and redirecting them to your primary domain. It will also prevent other people from using your brand name.

See this if you want to learn more about what top-level domain (TLD)

8. Do not Include Your Surname

In some countries like India, People often change their surnames after they get married. So, in that case, it is better to not include your surname in your business email format.

You can, however, include your surname in your address without any problems if you don’t intend to change it in future.

To Sum Up

If you are serious about your business, work, or whatever you do, get yourself a professional email address. It has become more of an expectation nowadays, and you simply can not ignore it — not even if your business is offline.

That’s all!

I hope this post helped you learn how to create a professional address that stands out. Let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this article or have any further suggestions.

Read More: 9 Best Ways to Earn Money Online From Home

The post The Ultimate Guide on How to Create a Professional Email Address appeared first on Proficient Blogging.