WHY PROFESSIONAL EMAIL IS INTEGRAL TO INSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY?

An average email user today will tell you they prefer a Gmail to a Yahoo mail, and the reason is not far fetched. 80% of Entrepreneurs prefer Gmail to Yahoo mail. Signing up for a Gmail Account gives you access to a wide variety of Google products and services that can be of help, regardless of the kind of business you do. But as an institution or a company, have you considered the implication of not having a professional email address? Do you know there are implications for letting your staff use their personal email for official communications? A personal Gmail or Yahoomail address is different from a professional email address.

Every business that takes branding or its professional identity serious ensures that official email service forms an integral part of their institution or organization’s identity. Whether it’s an academic institution or corporate organization or SMEs, the importance of maintaining a professional and branded email system cannot be overemphasized. Many organisations, and a few institutions today, seem to overlook this important aspect of their digital identity, falling back to personal email accounts for professional correspondence. This oversight can lead to security risks, missed opportunities and reduce the credibility of such organizations and institutions. This ‘looong’ blog post therefore seeks to explore some of the benefits of professional email services and how they contribute to the identity and functionality of an organization, whether its educational or business.

WHAT IS A PROFESSIONAL EMAIL?

According to Zoho Mail, “A Professional email address is the email address you use primarily for your work related communication.” Ther email address usually include the name of the company or institution you work for. So for example, instead of using a free service like Gmail or Yahoo (e.g., amaka.okon@gmail.com), an organization or institution might issue their employees or students with an email address that ends with the institution’s domain name, for instance amaka.okon@adun.edu.ng, in some other cases we see something like library@adun.edu.ng (that’s if it is intended to serve a department like a Library or Registry, etc).

So, why is this worth learning about? Ideally, professional email (custom domain), which in this article can be used to represent institutional/organizational/official or business email helps to give an impression of trustworthiness in your communications. It plays a major role on how your institution is perceived. No doubt, Gmail and Yahoo provide free services, but they don’t give the impression of professionalism especially in the academic system. I could use my personal Gmail address for my personal communication with family and friends, but when  communicating on behalf of my institution or organization with a Vendor, or a Researcher in a collaborative project, or an editor of a journal, it raises some questions about reliability and security. While an Institution cannot have administrative control over personal emails of employees or students, professional email services come with these features, hence they are recommended and used widely for institutional/organizational communications.

WHY SHOULD ORGANISATIONS/INSTITUTIONS CARE ABOUT PROFESSIONAL EMAIL?

In an ideal situation, your institution or organisation’s email would be the first point of contact with stakeholders and all those you wish to have any transaction or collaboration with. It could be a Prof. emailing his project student, or a researcher submitting an article to an international journal, or perhaps applying for a grant. Truth is, you don’t want to give a wrong first impression that you are not a legitimate member of staff or student of that institution, especially when dealing with external bodies. This is why institutions and organizations need to ensure they not only provide professional email for their communities, but also ensure the system is sustainable. Here are some specific reasons why you should care about Professional Email as an Entrepreneur, Academic or Administrator:

1. For Security: Many organisations today face the risk of email security. With increase in phishing attacks and data breaches, using secured platforms like Google Workspace or Zoho for example, can help institutions safeguard communication and protect emails with encryption and other safeguarding features that can prevent unauthorized access.
2. For Branding and Email Customization: Email service providers usually allow subscribers to customize their email signatures, programme auto-responders and a variety of other custom features which can help in enforcing an organisation’s brand identity.
3. Professionalism and Trust: Think about this for a moment. If you receive an email from renoomoraka@yahoo.com, and another email from reno.omoraka@hisinstitutionname.com, don’t you think they both will convey different impression about professionalism? Receiving an email with your institution’s domain name gives people no reason to doubt, the recipient immediately builds trust.
4. Collaboration and Efficiency: Many of these professional/Institutional email service providers offer a suite of productivity tools that help institutions or business streamline their communication and collaboration. Some of those features, depending on the platform (e.g. Google, Zoho, etc) features calendars, task management tools, Virtual meetings, project management tools, file sharing features, etc. All these features are needed especially in an academic setting where faculty, students, and staff must collaborate on various projects, from research to curriculum development. Gone are the days where students will have to print volumes of their project works repeatedly for correction, when all that can be achieved via email or a collaborative platform like Google.

E.g. Google Workspace Plans

flexible pooled storage per user that is shared across the organization.

1. Administrative Control: With a company email address, you have control over the accounts. If an employee leaves, you can ensure business continuity by redirecting their emails or reassigning the email address.

The following are other benefits of a Professional Email Service as recommended by Zoho, (an Indian multinational technology company that makes computer software and web-based business tools, popularly known for their mail service, as well as Office Suite):

• Branding
• Builds trust
• Authenticity
• Reliability
• Ease of recalling
• Better deliverability and reputation

I hope you’re not getting bored reading this already?

Having looked at the benefits, it’s also important to understand what’s at stake when institutions neglect to adopt a professional email system.

WHAT IS AN INSTITUTION/ORGANISATION RISKING WITHOUT OFFICIAL EMAIL SERVICE?

The risks of not using a professional email service will not be over-emphasized in this article. So, let’s just explore these three:

1. Risk of being Vulnerable to Security: In most sectors in the economy today, Email remains the main medium for communication, and this makes it a main target for cyber attacks. Who knows, could this be why some institutions in Nigeria prefer the use of memo, notices board and wasting a lot of print resources rather than leveraging digital? That’s a story for another day. The point, however, personal email accounts as earlier explained are more exposed to threats than professional email systems. Let’s describe what this means: The email of a prominent member of an institution for example has a high chance of data breach and hacking if that Staff operates a private email on behalf of the institution. This is not to say that having a Professional Email Service in an organization shields you permanetly from cyber threats. A statistics report by Fortra shows that one of the most potentially damaging hacks, Business Email Compromise (BEC) continues to cause billions of damage every year.  See Report below:

1. Risk of inefficiency in Communication: Institutions today, who allow their staff to engage in official communication, research and transactions without a centralized email service risk losing out on important details. Think about the email threads that will get lost if a staff stops working for you or important emails that a staff may receive and not pay attention to. A centralized email system allows the organization to have an efficient storage for communication.
2. Risk of losing Credibility: Without a professional email system, an institution could be compromising their reputation. Emails from free platforms, like Gmail or Yahoo, can give the impression that the organization is unprofessional or not serious. In the academic setting for example, this is not even negotiated, many institutions will not accept your application for grant, for support or publication without your communication coming with an official identity.

Click to Learn more about “why employees should never use personal email accounts when conducting business.”

MAXIMIZING THE VALUE OF YOUR INSTITUTIONAL EMAIL: BEST PRACTICES

For users (employees, academicians, students, etc) to fully capitalize on the advantages of a professional email system, institutions and organizations should adhere to the following best practices:

1. Develop clear email policies that should outline the expectation of professional communication by your users. For instance, using ‘Institutional Emails only for work-related communications and for professional relationships.’ 
2. Enjoy your investment! Maximize the full potential of your email service provider. Many institutions only use the email service, and abandon other integrated productivity and project management tools like we mentioned above earlier. Most times, your payment covers for all these, but you don’t maximize them. For instance subscribing to Google workspace plans allows you to use google meet and record your meetings.
3. The CISA recommends that we use strong passwords to keep threat actors from stealing our information. Regularly updating your passwords, enabling two-step verification and educating staff and students on email security are also important steps in maintaining a secure email system.

CONCLUSION

This is not an article intended to market any Email Service Provider, but one that hopes to enlighten business owners, administrators, academics, key stakeholders of organizations and institutions that a Professional Email is not just a means of communication, but that it forms an integral part of an institution or organizations identity.

Bear in mind the cost implication for adopting a professional email system is not ‘small money’. You may wish to consult ICT experts to recommend the best service if you’re considering setting up one for your establishment. That singular move can boost your organisation’s credibility, ensure security, and promotes efficiency. Institutions that prioritize an efficient email system are positioning themselves for success.

If your organization or institution has assigned you an official/institutional email, please share with us your experience using it in the comments.