What Law School Did Not Teach You: How to Ditch that Unprofessional Email Address By Peggy Gruenke | @PeggyGruenke | Pgruenke@legalbizsuccess.com
Peggy is owner of LegalBizSuccess, a company whose mission is to help solo/small firm lawyers build better businesses. www.legalbizsuccess.com
Lawyers, you really do need a professional email address and it’s not @gmail.com or @yahoo.com. You are in a profession where appearance matters. Advertising your email address on business cards, websites and LinkedIn profiles with @gmail.com and a website listed as www.attorneylaw.com is lackadaisical and sends a message that you do not know how to get your emails configured to use the firm’s domain name. First impressions matter and if I was looking at that business card, I would already have a bad impression.
The other case is you have a business card with no website and a @gmail.com email address which as a consumer, would really stop me in my tracks. No website and a @gmail.com account and I am suppose to trust you with my legal matters?
So how do you ditch that unprofessional @gmail or @yahoo email address? There are two ways to accomplish this:
1. Either you do not already have a domain and probably no website, or 2. You have a domain name but are still using @gmail.com
This article will walk you through #1 scenario, with #2 follow in our next issue. The term domain refers to the section of your email address that is between the @ and the .com (or .org, .net.) For example, in peggy@peggylawfirm.com, “peggylawfirm” is the domain and the below steps will show you how I set this up using the tools in Google. You can also use GoDaddy or other services, but Google is so simple it’s hard to pass up. This took me all of about 15 minutes to do.
The first thing you have to do is actually get a domain name.
1. Get a domain name from Google Apps for business: cost ≈$10/mn Go to the website www.google.com/a or the below website shown.
You will now start your journey to creating a firm domain name and email address.
The next screen is where you indicate whether you have an existing domain (our article in the next issue) or if you want to create/buy a domain. That’s the option you want to take. So enter the domain name you want to use and Google will see if it is available. You will notice that you can change the extension from .com to .org or .net which also changes the price.
Proceed by creating a password and writing this down. You have a few more steps to go, so I would not trust your memory. If you forget this, it makes this process much longer.
Google will ask you for information about you and your business. This is a good thing in today’s world of online searches and marketing.
The screen to the left is what will appear. You will enter your current email address, whether it is @gmail.com, @yahoo.com or @aol.com. I used my Gmail address. I should disclose I am not a law firm and “Peggy Law Firm” is for illustration only. You need a phone number because Google
sometimes sends text messages as a way to verify accounts. It also prevents you from getting locked out of your account (and I speak from experience.)
After the account is setup, you need to now pay for it. This is a yearly amount. You can set to auto renew, set the domain as unlisted and verify you read the terms of service.
After entering payment information, you will see that your domain is being setup. Take note, it will take about 10 minutes for the domain to get verified. You cannot setup or access your new email until this has been completed. So sit tight or take a coffee break. Until verified, you will not be able to use Gmail or other Google Apps services like calendar or Google Drive.
Also note, you get a 30 day free trial for Google Apps, which is for our purposes, Gmail and calendars. You can set up your billing or wait until later. Google will not forget that you did not pay.
If you select the box labeled “Users,” you can select “Google Apps” and activate services. If your account has not been verified yet, the Calendar, Contacts, Drive and Gmail boxes will not be enabled for activation. Once verified, you can check these boxes.
Activate Services:
Below is a default view of your new email service through Google. From here, you can set up signatures, change views, setup folders (Google calls these labels.) The Gear button on the right-hand side contains the view and settings function.
Once activated, retrieve that password and sign into your new firm branded email account. I would send a test email to your new email address just to verify you are in business!
This account you just setup is the Admin account for your Google service. You can easily add additional users and email addresses at an extra cost of $5/each. This is handy if you want to use an
info@peggylawfirm.com email address on your soon-to-be new website.
If you are joining us in San Antonio for the National Solo Small Firm Conference, stop by our “Green Room” for more hands on training and tips.
