Although it may not be a necessity, a business email that includes your domain name (eg. [email protected]) may help to make your email address appear more professional and credible. This can be particularly important when you’re dealing with suppliers, customers and other entities for the first time and want to show that you are affiliated with your business. Non-branded email addresses, such as generic Gmail email addresses, are easier to set up but typically show no relationship to your business.

In some circumstances, having a business email may also help to reduce the chances that your email will land in the recipient’s spam folder.

Ready to set up your own business email address? Follow the steps below to create a branded email address for your small business.

Before you can get started setting up your small business email account, you’ll first need to ensure that you have a domain name secured. If you’ve already set up a website for your business, you’ll likely have this sorted. If not, you’ll need to purchase a domain name from a domain registrar. Without a domain name, you won’t be able to customise the second half of the email address to include your business name.

Choose an email service

Next up, you’ll need to select an email hosting service. Email hosting services operate email servers and can be useful for managing and maintaining business emails. Several companies offer email hosting, including Google (Gmail), Microsoft (Outlook) and more. Take some time to weigh up the pros and cons of each, including attachment size limits and the maximum number of accounts you’ll be able to make, and find the best fit for your business.

After you’ve chosen an email hosting service, the sign-up process should be relatively easy. Make your way through each step, entering the required information about your business as you go.

Once everything is set up and your business email address has been created, you’ll be able to log into your account and start customising your email signature, inbox layout and other settings. You might choose to make folders within your inbox to make organising your emails simpler, create labels to help you keep track of certain topics or simply stick with the basic settings if they work for you.

With your master account in action, you’ll be able to start creating email addresses for your employees. The method used to create email addresses will vary depending on your email hosting service of choice, but it shouldn’t be an overly complicated process.

Before you start creating email addresses for everyone who is employed by your small business, take the time to plan out the structure that you’ll be using. You might choose to have each person’s full name followed by your domain name (eg. [email protected]), use initials only or perhaps create email addresses for a particular business role (eg. [email protected]). Having a consistent structure will not only help to keep all the addresses you create uniform in appearance, but can also make it easier for people outside the business to guess what an employee’s email address is if they need to get in touch.

The final step of setting up new email addresses for your business is updating your website, social media accounts, business cards and marketing materials to include your new contact details. If no one knows what your business’ new email addresses are, you can’t expect emails from customers, clients and other people you deal with to start landing in your inbox.

Look to add any relevant customer-facing email addresses to the ‘Contact Us’ page of your website and any social media accounts you may run for your small business, including your Facebook Business Page. If you’re wanting email to be one of the main forms of contact that your customers will use, be sure to also add your new email addresses to your business cards and any marketing materials you may create, such as flyers, catalogues and print advertisements.

Searching for great tips and tricks to help you establish and grow your business? Stop by our small business blog to discover more great resources.