Everyone loves freebies, including me. It's a trait I inherited from my father, I suppose.
More accurately, my father loved 'cheap'. He generally cast a jaundiced eye at 'free', telling me "There's no such thing as a free lunch."
The Internet has delivered much to us for 'free' (ignoring, of course, the cost of a PC, software, internet connection, time, etc.), and we have come to expect so much to be 'free' online. Free software. Free news. Free anti-spyware products. Free videos. Free music. Free web hosting. Free email.
So, when is 'free' not worth the price?
In my humble opinion: when it costs you more in the long run.
BusinessWeek featured a great story yesterday on their website to illustrate the point.
The article featured tales of woe from business owners who cut costs & turned to free hosting & email solutions, including a construction company that essentially lost email service after switching to a 'free' hosting & email solution.
Free, web-based email solutions have their place. I have a Yahoo account that I use for low priority messages & services. Yet I still maintain (and pay handsomely for) a 'real' email solution and web server for critical business functions. As the BusinessWeek article so eloquently states, "like anything else, good service comes at a price."
If your business currently relies on Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or any other 'free' email service, how much is it costing you in lost business?
Further, if your customers contact you via one of these free providers instead of contacting you at "me@mycompany.com", how much are you losing in brand awareness and website traffic?
I can't even count the number of times I have checked out a company's website just because I was in contact with someone at that company. Using the ficticious 'me@mycompany.com' address as an example, I often will open a browser tab and type in http://www.mycompany.com just to learn more about them.
How much additional business have you missed because your customers don't see the brand strength that comes from having your email address tied in with your company's website address? Even if it's just one sale per day or week or month (depending on your average ticket), how much revenue might you be losing per year?
As one of the sources quoted in BusinessWeek's article said, "Everything important that happens to a company these days, happens in e-mail."
Our hosting & email customers may not be paying the lowest rates on the market, but given that their average investment for hosting and email accounts is so reasonable and yet comes with superior service ... it really IS a deal that's even better than 'free'.