Should you put your email address on your website?
/Some companies make it easy for clients and prospects to get in touch and some don’t. All over the marketing world, you hear advice about the ‘know, like and trust’ factor—that prospects turn into clients the more they believe they know, like and trust the business.
So why are we making it hard for clients and prospects to reach us? Let’s make it easy instead. That means, YES, you should put email addresses on your website.
The benefits of being easy to reach for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs
You can’t turn prospects into clients if they lose patience trying to figure out how to reach you. If a prospect is visiting your site, that’s a good sign. So make it easy to take the next step and email or call you. There’s really only one benefit here: the possibility that your visitor considers doing business with you. But it’s a big benefit unless you’re already so wildly successful that you don’t need more clients.
I never imagined this secrecy was common until I started looking around. A surprising number of freelancer and solopreneur sites and small agencies don’t put their email addresses and phone number on their business sites. It seems like a giant marketing gaffe to me. Even Bob Bly, “America’s top copywriter” (and my copywriting hero), with 40+ years of direct marketing success doesn’t rest on his laurels by making you guess at his phone number and email address.
The benefits of being easy to reach for marketing directors
There are people out there—copywriters, graphic designers, journalists—who take an interest in your work and want to make it easier for you to get your job done when your team’s cup runneth over. You’re too busy to go out looking so let them come to you. They will, unless it’s impossible to reach you. And the next time you need to outsource a couple of marketing jobs, you’ll have options because you made it easy for like-minded folks to reach you.
Don’t just use a contact form
Your business contact form is there for your convenience: less spam-bots, less giving out your details to the whole internet, totally automated. But what about putting your prospects, future collaborators and clients first? A lot of people hate contact forms and will click away for other options when confronted with one. Some people want to email you and some people—gasp!—even want to pick up the telephone.
So let them.
You love that form though? Okay, you can keep it but only if you add other options for getting in touch. Ruby Receptionists has an excellent and client-friendly contact page.
Which email addresses should you include on your website?
If you’re a one-person entity, use your own business email (like yourfirstname@yourbusiness.com). If your shop is bigger than a breadbox, use a hello@yourbusiness.com and include email addresses for some staff to make your email architecture obvious (i.e., firstnamelastinitial@yourbusiness.com).
Sure, you and your team will get some unwanted messages but you’ll also get messages that start mutually-beneficial business relationships. If your keyboard is equipped with a delete button, you’ll be fine.
Dear reader, what’s your experience?
What happened when you made it easier to be found? Drop me a line at andrea@redsailwriters.com and share your thoughts.
I'm Andrea Bassett, an executive ghostwriter and content marketing writer in Toronto and I’ve spent the last decade serving executives.
I write thought leadership content marketing for executives and/or their content marketing teams. My specializations are corporate wellness, benefits, employee assistance programs, leadership & coaching, encryption & cybersecurity and strength training for seniors.
To talk about a content marketing project, call me at 647-502-3187 or send a note to andrea@redsailwriters.com.
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