You’ve got Mail!
I hope everyone finds themselves comfortable today. This piece is going to be a quasi rant about an issue that many don’t think about until it’s in their faces. It’s, many times, a subliminal issue that goes unnoticed, but bothers people in the backs of their mind. We make quiet judgments about businesses based on this. It’s really two topics in one, but both piss me off and can be covered here. You probably guessed the topic by the title, but the issue is email and the stupid things business owners do with it.
Contact Forms. Contact forms suck. First, a lot of people (myself included) don’t like filling out all that extra information. We don’t need an entire form to send a simple email. While the benefit is that customers stay on your webpage longer, the use of anything more than “name” and “email address” is invasive. Do you need their telephone number? What if they don’t want calls? I personal make it a point to simply move on to a business’ competitor if there is no method of direct email contact and the more personal the better. I’d rather not deal with the Internet era’s version of an over zealous secretary deciding the importance of your email. Now with this, I’m only referring to small businesses, organizations with fewer than ten people in them. Larger businesses may require that, but there should still be a place for people to get in touch with a business directly via email.
Company URL. You have a website, a beautiful, beautiful website. You paid someone to design it, you pay them to host it, and you own the name of the website. Now why the hell are you using a Gmail email address? Are you that ashamed of your company? On every website I’ve made for myself there is always a Michael@ then the URL for my site. It’s not hard to set this up.
Michael@FullTiltBusiness.com is my main email address for this site and there are various other email addresses, depending on what you need help with or what you are emailing about. It’s a simple process, even if you are not all that tech savvy. You paid a website designer to build your site. Anyone that builds a website can also set up an email address for your site. It cheapens you and your product if you don’t have one. As a side note, if you are working for a company that needs you to have your own email address and they are even willing to put it on a business card for you with your personal address, leave! Yes! I have, unfortunately, seen that happen. They will cover the cost of $20 for 1,000 business cards, but they want you to supply them with an email address. Any employee that needs email to do their job and works for a company that doesn’t supply the email address for you will likely not be around too much longer. To read that deeper, it means they have a website, but no comprehension of how to use technology. The company may have a good product or service, but they lack the fundamental ability to change with the tides of business. Employers should read that last statement and heed it as a warning. Prove to your employees and customers that you will be around longer. I truly understand setting up a Gmail account. I have several. Even Full Tilt Business has one set up and linked to Twitter because I hadn’t sat up the email accounts yet when I decided on my social networking names. It happens. For your public appearance, set up a real email address for everyone. They are also really handy for company memos. You can ensure everyone received the important things you feel you need sent out from your desk and with that, can ensure that they have seen the memos since employers can view the employee’s mail in this type of a system. It is a business asset, not a private asset of the employee.
It’s not a big deal to use email and not look like a cheep dumb ass at the same time. Make it look like you’re trying to grow your business and care about customer contacts. Remember, if a potential customer hasn’t come to you yet, they don’t really care if they go to you or the next guy. Make shit easy and convenient for them.
For more pieces like this, please go to website for Michael Beebe, Spark Plug Strategies, or Full Tilt Business.
Picture a young Michael Beebe, fresh out of La Porte High School in ’93, diving headfirst into the world of hospitality with a busboy gig at the old La Porte Holiday Inn. That hustle led him to an Associate of Science from Purdue-North Central in ’95 and a Bachelor’s in Hospitality Management from Purdue-Calumet in ’97 (those schools are now merged into Purdue-Northwest, by the way). Michael’s early career was a whirlwind—running a 140-room hotel in Indianapolis, where he learned the ins and outs of the industry but realized it wasn’t his true calling. What did spark his passion? Teaching. He found himself thriving in front of students at Ivy Tech Community College and Lake Michigan College, sharing the art and science of hospitality management. Oh, and he also moonlighted at WIMS radio in Michigan City, juggling both on-air and behind-the-scenes roles with his signature high energy.
Politics? That’s been Michael’s sidekick since he was 18, registering to vote with a fire in his belly to make a difference. He threw his hat in the ring for La Porte County Council in 2010, where he got a crash course in the power of social media marketing. Undeterred by not winning, he campaigned for Indiana’s General Assembly in 2012 and took another shot at the County Council in 2014 and 2016. Though he hasn’t clinched a seat yet, Michael’s relentless drive to serve shines through. Lately, he’s been pouring that energy into helping other candidates who champion personal liberty, amplifying their voices with his knack for strategy.
Here’s a twist: Michael once co-owned a tattoo shop, despite having no ink himself. As the business manager and marketing guru, he leaned hard into low-cost, social media-driven campaigns to put the shop on the map. That experience fueled his love for digital marketing, and now he spends his free time crafting websites and boosting businesses online—a true labor of love.
These days, Michael’s living the dream as an independent contracted transporter, crisscrossing the country while getting paid to soak up new places and cultures. When he’s not exploring, he’s parked somewhere scenic, laptop open, building his digital consulting company, Spark Plug Strategies, or penning his thoughts. He even wrote a few books.
Based in La Porte County, Indiana, Michael’s embraced a “decentralized laptop lifestyle,” blending work, travel, and passion projects into a life that’s as dynamic as he is.