Your email domain sends a message about you and your business. We cringe every time we see a business card, a website or any form of communication with a branded website domain and an email address from Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc. or your ISP. If you have one of those email addresses, it can raise a lot of questions, such as:

• Is this a real, full-time business or your hobby?
• Are you up to date on everything involved in the business?
• Are you unwilling or unable to spend money to keep everything up to date?
• What else are you unwilling or unable to do?

It might also say that you march to the beat of your own drum – and that could be good or bad, depending on your business and your customer base.

But for most people, it just says “small” and keeps your presence small. It’s also a waste of the domain name you’ve purchased.

We always advise business owners we meet to use an email address under their domain name, and we’d bet there isn’t a marketer who doesn’t follow suit. A domain email address reinforces your business name and contributes to a stronger brand.

A blog post by GoDaddy addresses the image advantages of having a domain or branded email address. The ones that jump out to us right away are:

• Brand your business
• Look professional
• Tie your email signature to your website

If your company employs or is allied with other people, the domain name ties them all to your business, giving you a larger presence. You can increase that presence and better handle email by having mailboxes such as info, sales or service at your domain. And of course, once you own your domain name, you can move it to any host. The domain name stays for as long you own it.

If Internet access to your email is critical for times when you can’t get to Microsoft Outlook or any other email client, your web hosting company should be able to help you set up that access. You’ll follow the same security procedures as you would with any other account.

If you insist on using Gmail, Google does have a way to set up a custom business address tied to a domain, and that’s certainly a step in the right direction. And it will be good as long as you and everyone else continue to use Gmail.

We’re not going to get into the technicalities of setting up domains and managing email clients. Our purpose is to get businesses to make better use of their good names by tying their email to the domain names they’ve worked so hard to brand. Let the world know you’ve got it all together.