In the age of the Internet, the role of electronic mail addresses has grown tremendously. Aside from receiving email messages, the email address plays an integral part of your online identity. It is something that will stick with you for years. As such, you want to pick an email address that is professional, brief, unique and easy to remember.

Failure to choose a professional email address can lead to embarrassing situations and undelivered mail. Experts at Byteplant, an email validation services provider, noted that wrong or mistyped email address is the leading cause of undeliverable electronic communications, which makes it important that you pick one that is not difficult to memorize and spell out.

Instead of using a single email address, it is recommended that you create multiple accounts – at least one for personal use and the other for professional or business purposes. Sending formal business messages using a personal email account is downright unprofessional.

Usually, a professional email account is tied to the official domain name or website of the business or organization. However, there is no strict rule on the use of domain name. Some business and salespeople do prefer the convenience offered by free email hosting providers such as Google, Yahoo, and dozens more. You might encounter a CEO using an email address with @gmail.com domain, and that’s not entirely surprising.

While there are no definite rules on how to structure a professional email address, your username should be something that has a sense of credibility and professionalism. For example, usernames “hotmomma1985” and “prettyboy18” don’t sound respectable and trustworthy even with an official business domain following it. Perhaps, such fancy email account names may be used for personal purposes.

With the proliferation of spam emails, dubious email accounts and hackers, email users have become more cautious and attentive to emails that they receive. The email username is the first indicator that tells whether a message is worth reading or not.

For example, an email sent from a questionable domain or has a frivolous username will most likely be neglected or end up being automatically filtered and marked as spam. So, even if you have an excellent marketing pitch or an urgent business message, the recipient might not read it. This makes good email names vital in the world of commercial and business correspondence.

Now that we know the importance of picking the best email address, we take a look at some tips on how to craft a professional email username.

Although there’s nothing wrong using free email servers, such as @gmail.com or @outlook.com, using a unique domain appears more credible and professional. There are email-hosting providers that enable you to use your company name as a domain at a minimal cost.

As mentioned above, professional emails reflect your identity. Hence, the use of nicknames or secondary identities is not recommended. A good example would be “johndoe@samsung.com”. It’s brief, direct and professional.

The use of numbers in email usernames is common especially in free email resources where billions of accounts are currently registered and the probability of duplication is not remote. However, in the world of business, adding numerical characters makes the email account unreliable and untrustworthy.

When composing an email address, it is best to just include your name and leave any of your miscellaneous regalia or position in the company. Aside from the fact that your email recipients don’t care about your position, some might even find your email address intimidating. For example, the username “presidentjohndoe@domainname.com” sounds fanciful.

If you have an unusually long full name or one that is difficult to spell out and memorize, then you might need to think of a shorter version of it. You don’t have to insert all of your names into your email. For example, if your name is Nebuchadnezzar Sallam, you can use an abbreviated version of it such as nebsallam or n.sallam. Usual templates of professional email address include the first and the last name.

Although choosing the most appropriate email account requires creativity, it should be bounded by rules to keep your email look professional. While some may want to showcase their creativity through a unique email address, sticking with these time-tested rules can help ensure that you pick the best electronic mail username.