Picking the Right Email Address

A lot of REALTORS® carry many email addresses. Most of the time, they normally use an address that is given to them or an address that they have used from an account such as AOL.

Having the proper email address for your real estate career is vital to your branding efforts. Your email address should define your business. Surprisingly, many REALTORS® don’t manage their address properly and perhaps you should re-think what address suits your marketing efforts.

I am not a REALTOR®, but in my own business as a marketing professional to REALTORS®, I also have many addresses. Many of these addresses are not used properly in my field of business.

I have listed some of the below:

• Bennie.henderson@gmail.com
• bhenderson@njaccess.com
• bhenderson@njaccess.net
• bhenderson33@aol.com
• bhenderson@gsmicro.com
• bhenderson@readvantage.com

I have learned a lot about what email addresses work best for my branding efforts. My goal is that you can control help you learn which email address will define your business.

A while ago, I used an email address was provided by an ISP years ago bhenderson@outofbusiness.com. YEP, you got it…Out of business! So, I lost my email service and also had to rebuild my contact list through another provider.

Another pitfall was that I used an address that I obtained years ago through a company that I worked at. It looked great as I had this big company name behind my email address. But when I left my company to pursue other companies… Guess what happened? YEP… You got it; I again had to rebuild my contact list.  As a REALTOR®, you may have a RE/MAX address then decide your going to move to CENTURY 21 or better yet, you may work for a Broker that sells and changes their name.

Another problem might be when you obtain an email address from one of your vendors. For example, myname@topproducer.com.  Sounds great, correct? Because even though the name is not your company name it still makes you look like a top Real Estate Producer. The pitfall is when you decide to cancel your service and now you are back to square one.

I do have 2 great email accounts that I use and have been with me since. I created a Gmail account for all my personal emails that I share with friends and family. I really like their services as well. As for my business, I found that it was best to register my own domain name so that I have total control over my business email, rather than using another email provider. In this case, bhenderson@readvantage.com was the best solution. It also defines the business that I service. If you are a new agent or even a seasoned one, I recommend using a real estate nickname.

If you are looking to register a domain name, I have had the best success with godaddy.com. As your real estate career grows you can add email addresses to the domain name that you have registered. For example:

• sales@readvantage.com
• info@readvantage.com

If you need assistance in finding the right domain name and setting up email for your business, please call us as we can suggest what may work best for you.