The following post is the latest installment by Janine Popick for the Inc. com Girl Power: Female CEOs blog.
Yep, I did the unthinkable. I put my e-mail address on my company's website. Most people say I'm crazy, I know it. But I thought it was important. At first I thought I would get a flood of e-mails from vendors, customers, random people, but frankly, the e-mails that I get are pretty relevant and nine times out of 10 it's a customer commenting on something or asking a legitimate question. So why did I put my own e-mail address on the site?
- It's transparent. I'm not "one of those" who hide behind his or her people or company. I try to answer all e-mails as quickly as possible so that people know we're a real company, not just a robotic e-mail marketing website.
- It has helped build business. I've had people e-mail me with partnership ideas as well as prospects reaching out to ask me questions.
- It has helped get new employees. Someone that our HR department might not have thought would work well with current positions might be good for a future one.
- It has helped with potential financing. I've had numerous people requesting meetings to help with financing the company.
I do put a slightly different e-mail address as a link on the website, so that I can see where people are seeing it and e-mailing me from. If you're skittish about including a link because of spiders or spam, you can use an image that links to your e-mail. Either way, it's something you can do to put a personal "face" - and an e-mail address - behind your business.
Posted by Janine Popick.
Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse.
