“Admit it. You stereotype people by their email addresses. See a 69 at the end and you’re guaranteed to roll your eyes. (Well, unless you’re 14.) Purposely misspelled words are perceived as juvenile. A series of numbers or an homage to a favorite band can be either hard to remember or something the email user will never live down.” Hunch.com
Hunch.com recently did a survey on email addresses and based on their group of respondents here is a fraction of the results:
- AOL users are most likely to be overweight women ages 35-64 that have a high school diploma and are optimistic extroverts who prefer sweet snacks and like working on a team. – Gmail users are most likely to be thin young men ages 18-34 career-focused and plugged in. – Hotmail users are most likely to be young women of average build ages 18-34 (and younger) single, and childless. – Yahoo! users are most likely to be overweight women ages 18-49 optimistic or pessimistic, depending on the situation. Read the complete guide by Hunch.com
How can you avoid these email stereotypes?
A Do’s and Do Not’s Guide: How to choose an email address.
Don’t choose an email name that ends in yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Comcast etc.
Do choose one that represents your business. Example name@yourbusiness.com
- Tip: Use Yahoo! Mail Plus – Take control of your inbox
and get a custom domain name.
Don’t use the same email address for business and personal correspondence.
Do have more than one email addresses, for business and personal, consider having additional email address for disposable information, like for the many times you are asked to provide an email address, for online purchases, coupons, etc. This way your high priority emails are not buried under low priority stuff.
Don’t choose spammy type email addresses. Example sassysally@ or lonelygirl@, keep these options for completely personal uses, not for business related correspondence.
Do choose a simplified email address, one that won't be prone to typos. Email addresses that are too long, complicated or use multiple symbols like easter-egg_hunt@xyz.com
Do use a program like Microsoft Outlook 2010