Are you a Bob or a Robert? A Dick or Richard?

Beth. Bill. Bob. Dick. Drew. Gene. Jerry. Lainie. Liz. Ted. Tori.

Marketing is about clear communication.  Good marketing makes it easy for your clients and prospects to find and reach you.  And sometimes email can interfere, particularly for people with nicknames that differ significantly from the formal name, like Ted and Edward.

If a firm has a convention of FirstInitialLastName@FirmName.com (e.g. RFishman@FIRMNAME.com), what do you do with your friend Bob?  Does the firm’s email system consider him a Bob or a Robert?  A”B” or an “R?”

Is Tori (born “Victoria”) a “T” or a “V?”

And why should it be the client’s job to figure it out?

If we’re trying to facilitate communication with clients, why not just have both work?  Pick one as the primary email address, but set up the alternate to work as well, to simply bounce the secondary one to the main one.  It should take your IT department two minutes to do that.

But it seems that few firms bother.  It’s not intentional, just neglectful.

Bill’s should do the same thing, validating both BSmith@firmname.com and WSmith@firmname.com.  Why the hell do so many people who prefer to be called “Bill,” use the formal “William” as their email address?

I’d recommend that people named Bob should do the same with both the Bob and Robert variations of their email address.

And Gene and Eugene, and Beth and Elizabeth….  It shouldn’t be the client’s problem to find out which one you use, especially since it’s so easy to use both.

And while we’re on the subject, don’t make me figure out if you’re Kathy with a “C” or “K.”

Or a Jerry with a “J” or “G.”

Go nuts.  Use both.

It’s free.