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Are You In The Big leagues Or Little League In Your Email Marketing Efforts?

I figured I'd pose my question to you this way since we're right in the middle of baseball season in this country and it looks as if the all time 'Big League' baseball home run record will be broken this summer. Major milestone.

So let's see of it's 90 feet to First Base for you or 60 feet.

Here's why I ask...

When people start setting up their Home Business and begin to market online, they usually look to cut costs wherever they can. Naturally, thats smart but it can back fire in certain cases. This leads them to seek out and use cheap or in most cases free services to help get their new enterprise up and running.

The first place I usually see aspiring Entrepreneurs turn to are free e-mail accounts from the likes of Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL and others. Sorry to be the bearer of the bad news here but...

The problem with this is you lump yourself into the same category of many spammers and other less then reputable online marketers that use these accounts like revolving doors. Not to mention, these free services are meant for personal use (Gmail is my favorite) but they are not the best idea for running your Home Business enterprise. I emphasize the word enterprise here.

Consider this:

In the online marketing world today your first contact with a prospect is most likely with your web site. Your follow up contact will come shortly thereafter with an e-mail and a series of follow up e-mails, hopefully. (That's a whole separate conversation within itself if you're running a business today without an automatic e-mail follow system or auto responder).

So here's the scenario:

Your business web site and e-mail address can look like this:

www.Example.com/jsmith (not a real web site)

johnsmith3478@yahoo.com (not a real email address)

Little League.

Or...

Your business web site and e-mail address can look like this:

www.Example.com (not a real web site)

Andrew@Example.com (not a real e-mail address)

Big Leagues.

Everything is consistent and matches.

When I'm coaching new Home Business Owners and Entrepreneurs I make the latter example a requirement for their new enterprise.

See the difference?

Your friend working for American Express or Verizon certainly wouldn't be using free e-mail accounts in his or her business. These large enterprises wouldn't hear of it and you shouldn't either.

I don't mean to offend you if you may be marketing this way but the truth of the matter is:

Perception is reality today and as cliche as it may sound: "you never get a second chance to make a first impression."

This has never been more true than it is today in the World Wide Web era where initial contacts and first impressions are less formal and often web based. Like it or hate it, e-mail is here to stay and will most likely be your very first contact and first impression when contacting a customer or prospect about your business.

Make it count.

How can you expect others to take you seriously if you're not willing to take a very simple step that costs less than $10?

The other main problem with marketing in the former example is you lose the golden opportunity to brand yourself and make yourself and your product stand out.

Many people, when evaluating the validity of an offer and a marketer start with the e-mail address. When it says Hotmail or one of the many other free services it says amateur and unprofessional.

Notice in my example above I've managed to do 2 things from a branding perspective:

1. Include my first name in the e-mail address: Andrew

2. Include my organization name: The Home Business Insider

In order to make this work properly you will need to purchase your very own domain name (www.YourOwnSite.com). You can build your own web site at this domain name or you can tell the company you are buying the domain from (I use Go Daddy) to "point" your new domain to your company web site.

The good news is you normally get a free, matching e-mail account with the new domain. This creates that consistent, professional look you must posses today.

Believe it or not, like it or not, this goes a long way toward making you look legitimate, professional, and serious about your business.

While it is true, you can spend substantially less money when structuring a Home Business today due to technology; do not cut corners on the things that are going to help you stand out from the rest of the crowd and look like a pro.

Even if you're not a pro yet, you expect to become one right? So prepare and perform as if you're already a pro.

Lose the free e-mail, be a pro and start branding yourself with a solid domain name and a matching e-mail address. Once you do, you will already be ahead of about 98% of newbie and novice marketers out there.

About the Author

Andrew J. Cass is a Home Business Development Expert and Professional Marketing Consultant. He is in the top 1% of income earners in the Home Business industry. To learn insider secrets and powerful marketing strategies from the pros to help you explode your home business empire, sign up for Andrew's FREE cutting edge Ezine at: http://www.TheHomeBusinessInsider.net

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