Inside: Do you use an AOL, Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo email address for your pharmacy? Discover why you need a better business email address for your pharmacy.
What would you think if a physician emailed you from a Hotmail email account?
Most people would think it wasn’t a legitimate account. Or that it was untrustworthy.
You’d definitely hit delete.
So, what do patients, the healthcare providers you work with, and potential business partners think when they see emails from your pharmacy’s Gmail account?
If you use a free email account, like AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo, you may not realize what a disservice you’re doing to your business.
Using a custom business email address with your pharmacy’s web address (also known as your domain name) will show that your pharmacy is a serious and legitimate business.
RELATED: Here Are the Best Pharmacy Names to Name (or Rename) Your Business
What Is a Branded Business Email Address?
A branded business email address includes your business name and your website’s domain name (i.e. @examplepharmacy.com). Instead of a free email provider’s address (@aol.com, @gmail.com, @hotmail.com or @yahoo.com).
7 Reasons a Free Email Account is Hurting Your Pharmacy Business
So, you use an email address like yourpharmacyname@aol.com?
After you read these seven reasons, you’ll want to change that email address faster than you can delete an email.
1. You look untrustworthy
Don’t make people question your pharmacy’s legitimacy because of your email address.
With the explosion of illegitimate online pharmacies in the market today, you don’t want anyone wondering if your business is the real deal.
A professional email address will improve your pharmacy’s image.
2. Your emails are going to spam
Spammers use email addresses from free email accounts to send spam. Until they get blacklisted. Then they move on to creating another free email address.
Because of this, some businesses block emails from free email accounts, like Yahoo and Gmail.
Using an email account with a domain name means your emails are less likely to get sent to spam folders. And more likely to get read.
3. You’re devaluing your brand
When you use an email address not related to your pharmacy, it hurts your pharmacy’s brand.
Every time you communicate with patients, peers, physicians or business partners with pharmacistjoe@gmail.com, you miss an opportunity to put your pharmacy’s name in front of new eyes.
4. You can’t use the email name you want
If you use a free email account, you probably figured out that the email address you wanted was already taken.
Maybe you had to add numbers, dashes or symbols to your email name to get the one you wanted. Now your email address looks too casual and potentially spammy (i.e. examplepharmacy07!@gmail.com.)
If you use the domain name of your website for your email addresses, you won’t have to worry about getting the email name you want. Because you’ll already have it.
5. You’re mixing work and personal email
If you use the same email address to send sports articles to friends as you do to send your pharmacy team important announcements, you probably have a hard time staying organized.
Why make it more difficult for yourself?
With separate email accounts for business and personal tasks, you’ll keep all of your correspondence, documents and to-dos separate and easy-to-find.
That way all your pharmacy business emails stay in one place. And that email forward of cute dogs your aunt sent you will be waiting when you log in to your personal account.
6. You look small-time
If you don’t have an email address with a domain name, your business looks inconsequential.
Like you don’t have enough capital—or care enough—to make your business look professional.
Will potential business partners want to do business with (or give the best deal to) a pharmacy that looks like a start-up?
Use an email address with your domain name to show off the professional, established business you have.
7. You’re not positioned to grow
As your pharmacy business grows, you’ll need multiple email address for different functions.
You may not see it now, but someday your business may need email addresses like these:
- hr@examplepharmacy.com
- billing@examplepharmacy.com
- support@examplepharmacy.com.
Using a free email account won’t prepare your business for its future email needs.
What Makes an Email Address Look Professional?
So, you know your pharmacy needs a legitimate business email address.
But what exactly makes an email address look professional?
A few simple strategies will dramatically improve the authority of your pharmacy’s email addresses.
Use the domain name of your website
Ideally, use an email address with the domain name of your website.
If your website is examplepharmacy.com, then you’d want an email address like john@examplepharmacy.com.
Don’t share email addresses
Many independent community pharmacies share their pharmacy email address among employees.
For example, both the owner and the pharmacists correspond with vendors, partners and physicians using the same email address.
This creates serious confusion for the recipient. Not to mention it makes it difficult to organize emails and keep track of correspondence if multiple people use the same account.
Solve this problem by assigning every employee in your pharmacy their own business email address using your domain name.
Businesses typically handle employee email addresses by using people’s first and last names. Typical variations include:
- john.smith@examplepharmacy.com
- jsmith@examplepharmacy.com
- johnsmith@examplepharmacy.com
Create a general contact email address
Don’t forget to create a contact email address to use on your website for general inquiries.
Examples of general contact emails:
- info@examplepharmacy.com
- contact@examplepharmacy.com
- hello@examplepharmacy.com
Use standard email conventions
Steer clear of dashes, underscores, numbers or symbols in your email addresses. Keep your business email addresses simple and clear.
How Do I Get a Business Email Address for My Pharmacy?
Most website and domain providers include branded email addresses with their services.
If you used a website development platform like wix.com, squarespace.com or wordpress.com to create your pharmacy’s website, these sites include features or support to help you create business email addresses.
And if you hired a marketing agency or a digital services company, like Digital Pharmacist, to build your website, they can also help you set up business email addresses.
Other options to get a business email address include:
- Google Apps for Work (The Gmail experience but for businesses. Includes custom branded email addresses.)
- Office 365 Business Essentials (Business email from your domain name that you can access using Microsoft Outlook.)
An Independently Owned Organization Serving Independent Pharmacies
PBA Health is dedicated to helping independent pharmacies reach their full potential on the buy side of their business. The company is a member-owned organization that serves independent pharmacies with group purchasing services, expert contract negotiations, proprietary purchasing tools, distribution services, and more.
An HDA member, PBA Health operates its own NABP-accredited (formerly VAWD) warehouse with more than 6,000 SKUs, including brands, generics, narcotics CII-CV, cold-storage products, and over-the-counter (OTC) products.
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