I see a fair number of new business cards every month and I cannot avoid noticing random Email addresses that are immediately telling me how little care people pay to this important aspect of their marketing mix.

An Email address should always be considered by its definition: an address.  People should be able to relate to you and being able to send you relevant messages.  As a minimum it should be give hints about your name and company name.

In order to help this simple process your thinking should be equally simple.  If your name is john martin blogs and your company is called my company limited then as a minimum you should first ensure to have an adequate domain registered, ideally mycompany.com and/or mycompany.co.uk (if you are based in the UK) see my other post about domains for more information.  When you register your domain you probably will need some hosting for your website and in the same package you should be able to get also Email management for very little money, usually under £50 per year.

Once you have your hosting sorted you should ensure to register at least two Email addresses.  The first one should have of the following formats:

• john@mycompany.co.uk
• johnmblogs@mycompany.co.uk
• jmblogs@mycompany.co.uk
• johnm.blogs@mycompany.co.uk (perhaps the most used by large companies)
• johnmb@mycompany.co.uk

This is the Email that should go on your business card.  The second one could be:

• info@mycompany.co.uk
• sales@mycompany.co.uk
• office@mycompany.co.uk
• enquiries@mycompany.co.uk
• contact@mycompany.co.uk
• or similar, depending on the nature of your business

The second Email address is the one you want to advertise on your website: it gives a more professional look to your company, particularly if you are on your own.

Having a free Email  address like the ones indicated in the second paragraph just shows how little you care about your company and personal image: keep your personal free Email to exchange messages with your friend but ensure to have a professional looking Email for your business.

Have a decent Email address is a post from: Massimo Gaetani's blog

How is it possible that somebody who designing a website or a business card decides to leave out the postal address, the post code or any other detail that can be crucial to find your business?  Think about it: if you are difficult to find the odds are that a potential customer may decide to go to an easier to find competitor.

This is my check list: although not exaustive it probably helps to correct many basic mistakes:

• Have your full name, title, job title or profession on your business card;
• Have the full postal address on the business card;
• Have a “contact us” or “about us” page that has the full postal address and perhaps a Google map;
• Have a “our team” page and highlight who the top person/people behind the organisation are;
• Register your company on Google maps and then search the name of your company and the city where you are: you should really be on the first page!

Be easier to find, even for your customers is a post from: Massimo Gaetani's blog