The most important thing that your startup can do is to build a professional online presence.
It’s the foundation for how your customers view your business. Get this wrong and the next thing they do is to click away, never to return.
Professional online presence = more sales.
By the way…
Professional online presence isn’t just a professional website. It’s having the domain, email, brand colours and credibility signals that help to show visitors that the business is a real deal.
And good news for startups, these elements are relatively cheap and easy to set up.
In this post, we will cover:
- Why Professional Email Matters More Than You Think
- The Essential Building Blocks of Online Credibility
- How to Set Up a Professional Digital Foundation
- Common Mistakes That Kill Startup Credibility
Why Professional Email Matters More Than You Think
Want to look unprofessional in 2 seconds flat?
Send business emails from gmail.com, hotmail.com, yahoo.com or any free email address. Instantly lose credibility and look like a hobby project instead of a serious business.
Email hosting services provide the infrastructure to send and receive emails on a domain.
Professional email hosting is the secret weapon that shows the world that a startup is not a one-man-show hobby project but a serious and established business.
In fact, research from FitSmallBusiness states that “for Business Communications, email is professionals’ most preferred channel. Email is used by 62.86% of professionals as the preferred communication tool versus any other tool.”
That’s an overwhelmingly large number.
By getting the best email hosting and pointing it to a domain, a startup can have their own custom email address that will match their website domain. “hello@yourstartup.com” is so much more professional than “yourstartup@gmail.com.”
Email hosting provides the superior security, storage and features to make email a better experience specifically for business use. For startups, professional email is one of the most underrated investments that is rarely given a second thought but really should be.
Professional email is a growth hack in disguise.
The Essential Building Blocks of Online Credibility
Professional online presence is a combination of several essential elements. Individually, they each help to build credibility, but together, they form the total package that shows the world that the business is professional and ready to take on customers.
Domain Name
A domain name is the address of your business online. It needs to be relevant, easy to remember and professional looking.
Surveys have shown that 77% of consumers view domain names as important when assessing a brand’s credibility online. That means the single URL for the business can make or break a first impression.
Keep it short, keep it relevant and above all secure the domain as early as possible before someone else does.
Professional Website
A website is the digital storefront. More often than not it is the first real interaction a potential customer will have with a brand.
Studies have shown that website design matters a lot more than you would think. 75% of consumers make a judgement of a business’s credibility based on how professional the website looks.
It doesn’t mean that startups have to shell out thousands of dollars on a designer and then a developer. It means that a website needs to be clean, fast and function properly and above all else, look professional on all devices.
Brand Consistency
Every single aspect of the brand needs to be consistent. The logo, the colour scheme, fonts, tone of voice, everything.
Inconsistencies between different platforms will only confuse potential customers. It makes the business look fragmented and unprofessional.
Pick a brand identity and stick with it in every digital place.
How to Set Up a Professional Digital Foundation
The good news is that setting up a professional online presence does not have to be complicated. In fact, there is a simple process that can be done by anyone in a few hours, regardless of technical skill.
Step 1: Secure the Domain
Register a domain name that matches (or is close to) the business name. If the ideal .com domain isn’t available try .co or country specific options (.my, .sg, etc.).
Step 2: Set Up Professional Email
Point the email hosting to the new domain. This creates the professional custom email addresses on the new domain.
Most email hosting providers will offer simple wizards and tools to walk a founder through setting this up. Even technically unskilled founders should be able to have this up and running in less than an hour.
Step 3: Build a Simple Website
Publish a basic website with the following key information:
- Who the business is
- How to contact them
- What the business does
- Why customers should care
Don’t over-complicate it, a simple website that loads fast and looks professional on any device trumps a fancy over-designed one any day.
Step 4: Establish Social Profiles
Register business profiles on all relevant social media platforms. Even if the business has no intention of constantly updating those profiles, having them reserved, claimed and branded properly helps to add credibility.
Use the same profile photo, cover photo and bio across all social channels.
Common Mistakes That Kill Startup Credibility
Over the years, I’ve seen the same mistakes happen time and time again to startups. Avoiding these simple but credibility killing mistakes will give any startup an advantage over their competition.
Using Free Email for Business
This deserves another mention. Free email addresses are probably the biggest credibility killers in the world of business. It’s like having 99% signal in your mobile signal bar but nobody can connect to your phone number. Customers have doubts and questions as to whether the business is even real.
The investment for professional email hosting is so low in comparison to the credibility gains that it’s hard to justify not doing it.
Neglecting Mobile Users
Mobile makes up more than 50% of all web traffic. Show up poorly on mobile and watch potential customers disappear.
Before going live, always test the website on mobile devices. Modern website builders provide mobile-responsive templates as standard.
Inconsistent Branding
Change the logo depending on which platform it’s on. Change the brand colours. Pick different fonts on different devices. Mix up the brand voice in marketing materials.
Result? A confused potential customer that questions if they’re even looking at the same business.
Stick to the brand guidelines.
Ignoring Basic Security
SSL certificates are a must have. Websites without HTTPS (SSL) get flagged by browsers as “not secure.” That label in the browser by itself drives away customers faster than almost anything else.
Major hosting providers bundle free SSL certificates with hosting, so it is 100% free to get.
Slow Website Speed
Nobody waits for slow websites. If it takes more than a few seconds for a website to show up on screen, it will lose visitors.
Optimise images, get decent hosting and clean up the website code.
Bringing It All Together
The last thing that a startup should be is difficult to do. Building a professional online presence is no exception. It is quite simple, it’s just about getting the right fundamentals in place right from the start.
Here are the key points once more:
- Professional domain name
- Reliable email hosting with custom domain addresses
- Clean and mobile-friendly website
- Consistent branding everywhere
- Basic security in place
Each of the elements is interconnected and they help to reinforce each other.
Taken together, they form an online presence that tells potential customers that this startup means business and can be trusted.
The time and investment required to do all of this is so small in comparison to the credibility a startup can gain. A few hours to get everything set up and the ongoing monthly cost are so low and yet can transform how customers view the business.
Start with step 1. Domain and email. Start with that and build the rest of the business from there.
Watch as potential customers respond differently when everything looks professional.
That is the foundation of every successful startup.
