Start with a Permanent E-Mail Address

Personal Branding (especially for independant contractors)

Permanent E-Mail Address - Owning your Internet Brand.

Marketing Step One...Own your own domain and use it for your website address and your email address.

Here are a few thoughts on the use of a permanent e-mail address for REALTORS or any business:

1. Your e-mail address is an asset of your business and you invest in the e-mail address you use every time you give out a business card, piece of marketing material, or run an ad with it included in the ad.

You are continually teaching the world that to communicate with you by e-mail, send e-mail to that e-mail address.

If you ever changed e-mail addresses, for any reason, you would probably not receive e-mail sent to the "old" e-mail address.

What about a past client who sends e-mail to you at the "old" e-mail address? If you do not receive the e-mail, you can't respond. What is the cost of potentiallost business just for changing your email address?

2. Anytime you use an e-mail address with a domain you do not own, you are investing in someone else's asset, you are a "renter" and not an "owner"...would you rather rent or own? If you use a gMail e-mail address, who owns your e-mail address? Google.

If you use a brokerage e-mail address, who owns your e-mail address? Not you. The "owner" can raise the rent at their option. Maybe you think that they would never do that, but it is in their power to do so and not yours, whether you think so or not.

3. Who do you want to brand...you or gMail, or Yahoo or your broker (or any other domain you do not own)? If you leave your current brokerage, will your broker forward any leads that come in to your old brokerage email to your new brokerage?

4. Dot Com (.com) is the "800 number" of Top Level Domains. Would you rather have an "888" toll free number or an "800" toll free number? Dot REALTOR and Dot Real Estate are alternatives that may be used more broadly in the future.

5. If you use an e-mail address with someone else's domain, you cannot use the unlimited e-mail address feature which allows for lead sourcing and spam control.

6. It makes good business sense for all businesses to own their own domain and to use it not only for their web site address, but for their e-mail address as well.

I hope this is helpful. One of my technology companies sold domains and email for 20 years. I also use email forwarding and something called unlimited email addresses.