How email branding can turn the IT manager into a marketing hero

There’s a simple move an IT manager can make that will have a momentous impact on the business’s marketing efforts.

First impressions are critical, especially when it comes to email, and studies have shown how much more receptive people are to branded messages from business emails rather than those from free email accounts. Branded emails are a more effective business marketing tool, and a proper business email signature drives home that all-important feeling of professionalism. An IT manager can become the caped crusader of the marketing department with these small tweaks.

Here are five key reasons to brand your business's email:

1. Make the best first impression

The very first email interaction a customer has with your business or brand should establish you as a legitimate business and not a small or part-time operation that might be a waste of their time and money. So when customers receive your business’s professionally branded emails, you will build brand reputation and leave a lasting impression.

2. Put your business in a good light

Even if your company has just started out and is quite small, you don’t want customers to get that impression from the emails you send out. When you brand your email, you create the impression that your business can offer the products and service that customers like and expect from an established organisation. Having email addresses for different segments such as billing, info and support will give your customers confidence in your legitimacy and help the marketing team to boost the professional image of your company.

3. Promote your brand

Every time someone receives an email from your business, it’s an opportunity for brand promotion. This is a very cost-effective marketing method. When people read emails from your business, its name should appear not only in the body of the email but also in its address. This will help prompt readers to check out your website after you have shown you have the right level of professionalism. Email addresses not only appear in the inboxes of those you and your team members email, but in email directories, online comments and business cards that are handed out at networking functions. Every time your company’s email address appears anywhere, you have helped to increase its brand exposure.

4. Keep it classy

If you want your business to be taken seriously, branding your email is a sure way of making this happen. For example, customers might feel they are entitled to haggle over the price of your offering and try to get your business to throw in a few extras if they think you are just starting out. If you want your email to strike the right note with customers, then you have to project an image that has the right amount of sophistication. Free email accounts don’t achieve this.

5. Avoid being marked as spam

Businesses are more likely to have their emails marked as spam if they use a free provider. Emails from free providers are more often blocked or flagged than branded emails, which means they are more likely to be read by their intended audience and separated from bulk spam email.

Email branding is really about building credibility and branding. Essentially, it’s the impression your business is portraying to the outside world. An IT manager has a role to play in motivating and implementing branded email. In doing so, they ensure that the business stands out from the others.