Most of the emails you receive from professionals are from business email addresses, regardless of what industry they work in, from doctors to dog trainers to CEOs.
A business email address can separate hobbyists from serious professionals, at least in the eyes of the recipient. For new business owners or those who have been slow to establish an online profile, email is also an important part of getting a business off the ground.
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Crafting a business email is easy and will ensure you maintain your professionalism wherever you go.
What is a business email?
A business email address is an email address that is marked as coming from a company and communicates which company it is from. Usually like [email protected]. In practice, this usually means that the email address has been set up with a company’s domain name.
If you are unfamiliar with the term, the domain name is the URL where the company website is located. So if your company’s website is www.companyname.com, a business email address would look something like this: [email protected]. Setting up a business email address is a step that occurs after registering your business domain name. But once you have a domain name for your business, setting up your email is the next step.
How to create a business email in 4 easy steps
Luckily you create a business email is a simple part of making your new business website a success. Follow these steps to get it done.
Step 1: Register your domain.
Your domain name is the URL that users type into a browser to access your website. For example, a company called The Puppy Obedience School might register the domain name welpeobedienceschool.com. Registering your domain name ensures you own the domain you want your website under and provides you with the domain that will become the final part of your business email address.
Finding the right domain can be a challenge as so many of the options for .com are already taken. Brainstorm the best words and phrases that represent your business and use a domain search tool to see what’s available. Once you find one you like, you can register it there in the same place you did your search.
If you can’t get your business name as a .com, consider whether a .net or .biz domain extension might work just as well for you.
Step 2: Sign up for web hosting.
To access the tools needed to create an email address for your domain, you will need a web hosting. Along with being able to set up a business email address, web hosting is a necessary element in getting your website online.
When considering your options for a hosting plan, pay attention to the Number of email addresses included. Some web hosting plans, like HostGator’s, allow you to create an unlimited number of free email addresses.
Others charge more for creating email addresses or only include a small number in the hosting package and charge additional fees. You can save money by choosing a plan that pre-provisions as many email addresses as you need.
Step 3: Follow your hosting provider’s instructions to create your business email address.
However, the details of this next step will be slightly different depending on the case , who you choose to host with. Then follow the same general process.
To set up your business email address with HostGator:
- Sign up with cPanel on. Locate the Email section and click Email Accounts.
- In the form that appears, enter the desired name for your business email address in the email field.
- Select the desired domain for the last part of the E -Mail address from the drop-down menu in the Domain field.
- Choose a secure password for your email account. HostGator’s password generator can help you if you’re having a hard time finding a strong enough password, and you can use the strength bar that appears below the form to gauge how strong each password you try is.
- Click Create Account.
It’s that simple!
HostGator Product Manager Sean Dundon walks you through the process in this video:
Step 4: Choose your email client.
Well, Now that your business email is created, it’s time to decide where and how to access it.
Your web hosting account probably has a basic webmail option that allows you to check your inbox and send emails directly from cPanel. This is usually free with a web hosting plan. However, most people will prefer to forward emails to a third-party email client.
Some popular options for email clients are G Suite, Office 365, and others.
Gmail/G Suite
While using Gmail for your business E -Mail requires a small monthly fee, a G Suite subscription offers much more than just access to Gmail.Your organization also benefits from collaborative Google apps like Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, and Google Hangouts. All of this can be useful for organizing your business and controlling who in your organization has access to what information.
For HostGator customers, once you have set up an account in Gmail, here are the details on how to forward your emails to your Gmail account.
Office 365
Like G Suite, Office 365 combines an intuitive email interface (Outlook) with a range of other useful business features, such as B. Cloud-based access to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. HostGator customers can now upgrade their plan to include access to Office 365 features. For details on available plans and how to set them up, go here.
Mac Mail
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For Apple users, Mac Mail is the built-in email client on your computer. HostGator customers can set up forwarding to their Mac Mail account following these instructions. And anyone who wants to access email from an iPhone can follow it.
7 best practices when creating your email address
Setting up a business email address is a big step in confirming the legitimacy of your company and the people you with whom you communicate, to lend professionalism. But a few extra steps will help your business email go even further.
1. Use an intuitive naming convention.
If you’re running a one-person business, this step is pretty easy: you just need to figure out what your own business email address will be.
If you have employees, or expect to hire as your business grows, take a few minutes now to figure out what business email should look like for your company. Having a consistent format for your emails as you grow will make life easier for both prospective collaborators and anyone who wants to contact them.
Some common naming conventions that You should consider are:
Choosing one now helps you stay consistent as your business grows.
2. Keep business email addresses reasonably short.
People will have an easier time contacting you and your employees if they can remember the email address to use. A long, complex email address will make that difficult. If you chose an intuitive naming convention, this part should be easy.
3. Avoid using numbers.
You chose your naming convention and all was going well until you hired your second John Smith. It happens. Some names are common.
You may be tempted to add numbers, such as e.g. [email protected]. That’s not ideal if you can help him. Appending numbers to the end of an email address can appear less trustworthy to recipients than an email address that looks clean and straightforward.
Instead, it may make more sense to make a rare exception to Follow your naming convention and go B. with something like [email protected] or put a middle initial in there like [email protected].
4. Use your judgment on nicknames.
If you hire a Robert Jones, who will be called Bob Jones in almost every walk of life — with the exception of official documents like his driver’s license — people will find it more intuitive if his email address matches his Nickname than matches his real name. But when a nickname doesn’t function as the name an employee uses on a day-to-day basis, using it in their email address is likely to create confusion and can convey a lack of professionalism.
Most of the time it’s better to use a person’s actual name than a nickname, but use good judgment in any case.
5. Set up email addresses for general departments or functions.
This is useful on several levels. Your customers or prospects will find it easier to get in touch with you. Instead of having to dig up someone’s name, many people can guess that an email at [email protected] is going to the sales team and [email protected] is going to a customer service rep’s inbox. This makes it easier to find the right email when they need it.
And for the business, you can set it up so that specific email addresses go to all relevant contacts. This makes it easier for someone to see and react faster. If all your sales reps get the emails going to [email protected], one of them can identify and claim each one as quickly as possible, giving interested prospects quick feedback.
6. Add your name and picture.
You can further personalize what you see in people’s inboxes by adding your name and picture to your work email account. The details of this depend on the email client you have chosen.
In Gmail, you can update your photo by clicking the G Suite icon in the top-right corner of your inbox, then clicking Change at the bottom of the resulting circle.
Or you can change both your picture and your name by clicking the Google Account button right next to the circle, selecting Personal Information and entering the information.
In Outlook/Office 365, you can change your name and profile picture by clicking on the picture in the upper-right corner of the screen, Edit profile, and then selecting Change picture and Edit name to provide the new information.
7. Set up an email signature.
The final step in creating a professional business email is setting up your email signature. A good email signature includes a polite unsubscribe (e.g. Greetings, Thank you, Best regards), your name, a link to your website and the best contact information to reach you.
Setting up an email signature ensures that this information appears at the bottom of every email you send, making it easy for customers and business contacts to find if they need it.
Again, the specific details depend on the email mail client you are using, but the process is similar. In Mac Mail there is a Signatures item in the main menu under Preferences. In Gmail, under Settings, there is a Signatures section. And in Outlook/Office 365, you can select “Signature” in the “Message” menu.
7 reasons why you should have a business email address
You probably already have an email address. You may be wondering why you can’t use your old address for all your business correspondence. Is it really that important that you create a professional email?
It really is, for a few important reasons:
1. A business email shows professionalism.
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If you send emails about your business from [email protected], your recipients honestly won’t take you seriously (even if they also love Lord of the Rings) .
By having a professional email, sourced from your business domain, you are immediately communicating to the people you interact with that your emails are legitimate and should be taken seriously. Once you’re done creating a professional email, you can use it to set up your social media, hosting plan, and any other accounts you need to run your business.
And you can use your still keep personal email account as something separate. Your work-life balance will likely be better if emails sent from your mom or your best friend appear in a different place than those from clients and co-workers.
2. It becomes an extension of your marketing and branding.
If you have an official business email, every email you send will remind you of your business branding and website – your domain is right in the ” field From” included.
And it’s not just for you.
Every person you hire and give them a business email address is also spreading the word about your business and website with every email they send. It’s a good way to make your business memorable and make your website much easier for people to find.
3. People are more likely to open emails from sources they know.
69% of people say that where an email comes from plays a big role in whether they decide to send it to open or not.
If someone expects to hear from a company called Acme and receives an email from [email protected], they can’t immediately connect the two. And with the amount of spam cluttering the typical inbox, a person who doesn’t recognize the source of an email is all the more likely to end up in the trash.
If you use a business email address, even if a customer doesn’t know you personally, they can still tell that your email is from a brand they know. This email from [email protected] will look more legitimate and worthy of your time. Any trust or awareness they have for the company will extend to an email sharing its branding.
4. It makes it easier for potential customers to find you.
Most people expect to be able to reach someone from a company using an email address like [email protected] or to contact the right department by contacting customerservice@. companyname.com.
When your business email address is intuitive, you make it easier for people to get in touch with questions or concerns.
5. It makes your website easier to find.
When your email address uses the same domain as your website, anyone who receives an email from your company has a quick and easy way to find out what your site is actual. If you want to learn more, you know where to go.
6. It makes your business connections clear.
When everyone who works for the company sends email from the same domain name, it is obvious that you are all associated with the same brand. Customers and leads know that anyone with an email address ending in @yourcompany.com is a legitimate representative of your brand and can be trusted.
7.Customers know when email is coming from you or from spammers.
Email spam is an unfortunate part of life. Having a business email from your own domain is an important way to differentiate your emails from those of spammers.
Spammers often send phishing emails that appear to be from a legitimate company. As long as your recipients know what your actual business domain is, they can easily spot fraudulent emails and recognize your genuine emails when they get through.
Business Email FAQ
These steps are the main things you need to know when learning how to create a business email, but you might have a few additional questions.
1. Can I create a free business email address without a domain?
If you want to save on buying a domain name and web hosting (both of which are required to set up a business website), you can’t create a business one Email with your branding in the second part (e.g. [email protected]).
You can create an email address that includes your company name in the first part, e.g. [email protected]. Some companies choose this option, but it doesn’t look as professional as a business email address with your unique domain name.
And if you launch a website later, you’ll likely be starting over with a new branded email address at that point, which can be confusing for customers.
2. What business email addresses should I create?
If you run a one-person business, you can probably get by with an email address that includes your name in your domain.
If you have multiple employees and departments, you should create a unique email address for each employee who works for you, as well as department-level email addresses, e.g. B. [email protected] and customerservice@yourbrand. com going to all relevant contacts in these departments.
3. How do I set up email forwarding?
Email forwarding is useful in a few different scenarios:
- If you are sending your email to an E third-party mail client as described in the section above (step 4).
- If you are setting up a new email address and all emails going to your old address are sent to forward your new inbox.
- If you want all emails from a specific web form or department-level email addresses to be sent to the inboxes of all relevant contacts.
- When someone in your company leaves the company and you want all of their emails to go to someone else in the company.
Setting up email forwarding is generally pretty easy. You can do this either in your cPanel or in your email client (see instructions for Outlook and Gmail here).
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