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If you're using AOL, HotMail, GMail, Yahoo, MSN,
etc. for your professional email address then
you're:
Let's
say that your company has
assigned you joe@ourcompany.com,
and you have that forwarded
to your GMail account of
joe@gmail.com............
Loss of Corporate Web Site
Address
Many people use the email
address of a contact as a
guide to their web site
address. If you're sending
as joe@gmail.com,
potential customers and
clients can't tell the
address of your web site.
Loss of Corporate Identity
When you receive an email
that was addressed to joe@ourcompany.com
and it's forwarded to your
GMail account, then the
reply will come from your
GMail account. You have
lost the marketing of your
company name.
Security Risk is Increased
If you're using an on-line
mail service then your email
is sitting out on the
Internet. That's like
having your paper mail
sitting in the mail box,
rather than bringing it into
the house!
Higher Risk of Email Not
Reaching Recipient
There's a higher chance
that your email won't get
through. Many companies
block AOL, Gmail, Hotmail,
etc., due to spam issues.
Causing Corporate Domain To
Be Blocked
The free and semi-free
email address companies
control who gets through to
them, and they block by
DOMAIN NAME. Let's say
that you get lots of mail
forwarded from joe@ourcompany.com
to joe@gmail.com.
GMail can't tell if an email
coming in is forwarded or
not. So, if they detect
that joe@ourcompany.com
is sending lots of emails to
their system, they'll block
it....and they'll block ALL
email from @ourcompany.com.
Not only will Joe's email
stop coming in to Gmail, but
ALL email from @ourcompany.com
won't get through.
Remember AOL's big
advertising campaign about
their great spam blocker?
Have you noticed that the
campaign has been quietly
retired? That's because
the forwards were being
picked up as spam. If
joe@aol.com received a
hundred emails a day from
joe@ourcompany.com, AOL
would block the domain
across their entire system.
Not only would Joe no longer
get his forwards, but nobody
with AOL account could get
mail from anyone at @ourcompany.com.
Being Judged as Suspicious
Some free accounts are
recognized world-wide, but
many aren't. If you send
from joe@msn.com most
people recognize it as a
free Microsoft account.
However, the same is not
true of AOL, which is a
mostly American company. An
international customer might
not know that sending to
joe@ourcompany.com and
receiving from joe@aol.com
isn't suspicious.
Can't Use Customized Email
Stationery
If you're using an on-line
service rather than Outlook,
Outlook Express, Vista
Windows Mail, Thunderbird,
etc., then you can't use
customized company email
stationery. Email
stationery is PROVEN to
increase returns as folks
can click on links in your
stationery while viewing
topical info, your logo,
etc.
Non-Professional Appearance
Free email addresses such
as HotMail, Yahoo, etc., are
too "cute" to be used in
business. Would you rather
receive a formal quote from
joe@fortune500.com or
from joe@yahoo.com?
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