Business Email: Dress for the Job You Want

Here's a small (albeit shallow) experiment. If you were interviewing for a job at your business and a candidate arrived in a singlet, shorts and sandals, what would your immediate reaction be?

You might wonder whether they were serious about the job. You might also worry about how they could affect your company's reputation.

Your email address can have the same effect. People are less likely to do business with someone who uses businessname@hotmail.com than with someone who uses yourname@businessname.com.au.

Even if you're the most qualified person in your field, a free personal address can suggest to potential customers that your business lacks quality or maturity, or might not be around next week. It's unfair and judgemental, but it's how people behave.

The good news is that a business email address is relatively simple and inexpensive to set up, and it makes a better first impression on new customers.

Want to skip the hassle and have your business email set up for you? Give us a call or contact us.

Buy a domain name

The first step is getting a domain name.

Without getting into the technical details, a domain name is a unique name registered to you or your business. It helps people on the internet find things that belong to you, like your email address, website and apps. An example of an Australian domain name is ours: customcodeit.com.au

The .com.au part is the domain extension, sometimes called the top-level domain (TLD). There are many to choose from, but stick to ones that suit your business and location.

The .com.au and .au extensions require an Australian presence, usually shown with an Australian Business Number (ABN), which makes them a great choice for businesses operating in Australia.

Some other good extensions are:

• .com: a good all-round choice, but harder to get your name on because it was one of the first extensions
• .shop: good if you run a global online store
• .app: nice if you run an app or online platform

Where to buy

There are hundreds of places to buy a domain name, and some are better than others for features, price and ease of use. Two good ones:

• VentraIP: Australian owned and operated, with good support
• Hover: a sound option with support for many extensions

Do your research and find a registrar that meets your needs.

Choose an email provider

You're spoilt for choice, but be wary of smaller providers offering cheaper services, because the experience can lack functionality and simplicity. Your best bets are:

• Google Workspace: more or less the de facto choice for business email. It includes Google's productivity apps and cloud storage, and it's a great place to start if you want simplicity and room to grow.
• Microsoft 365 Business: another solid option. It can be more complex for a novice to configure correctly, and it might be overkill for an individual or a small team.
• Proton Mail: a privacy-focused option for people who don't like the idea of big corporations having access to all their data. It's full-featured and user-friendly.

Once you've chosen a provider, you'll receive instructions on how to configure your domain so you can start receiving email.

Moving over from your old address

Once everything is configured and you're ready to receive email, you're probably wondering how to stop people using your old address, and how to get your old emails across to the new one.

It's a three-part process. First, redirect your mail to the new address. That way you don't miss anything, and you can reply to customers from the new address to tell them about the change.

Second, update your online accounts. Go through every account that uses your old email and switch it to the new one, so you can still get password reset links and two-factor codes. It's a simple process if you use a password manager.

Finally, export your existing emails and import them to the new address. Depending on your experience level, this can be a bit tricky. Another option is to forward essential emails from the old address to the new one as you need them. That takes longer, but you'll get there eventually.

Other reasons for a business email

Besides a polished, professional look, the biggest advantage of leaving a personal address is continuity of service. Personal email providers and ISP-provided addresses (BigPond, iiNet, Optus and so on) can discontinue their service at any time, leaving you without an address and scrambling to update your customers and accounts.

The same can technically happen with a business email provider. But because you own your domain name, you can move to a new provider and keep sending and receiving on the same address.

Setting it up with us

We specialise in setting businesses up with professional email, and we provide training and ongoing support so you can hit the ground running. Contact us to get started.