Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

“When I get an email from an AOL address, I begin worrying before I open it that the question will be completely clueless,” said a person who works as a Web master. (Comment on NYT article re AOL.)

Ouch! This is unkind and unfair…and yet…

Recently, when a colleague presented a seminar on start-ups, he spent some time on that seemingly smallest of things – the biz card.  How to design it, what to put on it, where to get it printed, etc.  As I looked around the room, I saw several would-be entrepreneurs getting a bit restless “C’mon! I want to know how to get funding! Right NOW. Geez! Who cares about the biz card?”

Then I talked to some of the entrepreneurs after…hmm….maybe they should have listened a bit closer. Several didn’t even have cards (?! What are you planning? A “leading” company or a lemonade stand? Find a 1/2 hour and run by Kinko’s, fella – before you start working rooms.)

Then there were those with email addresses such as (Okay, I’m making these up, but not by much): hotguy25@hotmail.com and BobJack258@aol.com.  I immediately think the young “hot guy” is probably still living with his Mom and decide nice gray-haired BobJack is working on playing with a hobby biz.

Was I being unfair? Maybe.  But, based on long experience, I don’t think so.

As Social Media pioneer, Roxanne Darling, noted in her post on the possibilities and perils of the social web, Is it easy to tell if you are a scammer or straight shooter:

You may not know this however Hotmail and AOL email addresses do not inspire confidence in savvy business professionals. Get an email address at your domain (the same domain that has your biographical info and references) or get a Gmail address. Because Hotmail and AOL are infiltrated by spammers and force you to wade through mountains of blinking ads to check your own email, no serious business person I know has the tolerance or time for that.

This is particularly true when you’re pitching to big companies. The gatekeeper may well take one look at your email address and that’s it. No further discussion. You’re simply too naive and small to consider. (And, no, that’s not fair, but it is reality.)

Related Post: Your Biz Card. Why Bother?