Getting an email address with your company name in it is one of the best ways to build trust in your business and establish a professional brand image. It is a relatively easy process, which involves registering a domain name and choosing an email hosting provider.
in this blog, we’ll take you through the steps required to get a professional company email address for your new business.
Step 1 – Register a domain name
You must first register a domain name before you can set up a company email address (and website, if you’re planning to have one). You can register a domain online through any domain name registrar, such as IONOS, GoDaddy, Nominet, or BlueHost.
But what exactly is a domain name? A domain name is essentially a web address. It is the unique name that appears after www. on a website, or after @ in an email address.
Choosing the right domain will help you to establish a strong digital presence, making it easier for people to find your business online. Your domain name should be short and simple, and it should match or closely resemble your business name, or include common keywords in your industry to communicate what your business does.
Registering a domain name is really simple:
- Choose a domain name registrar
- In the domain name search bar on their website, type in your ideal domain name
- Browse through the list of available domain names and extensions (.com, .co.uk, etc)
- Choose your domain name and extension and proceed to checkout
- You can now use your domain name to set up a company email address and website
At Quality Company Formations, we have partnered with IONOS, one of the leading domain name registrars in the UK, to provide a free domain name for one year with each of our company formation packages.
Step 2 – Choose an email hosting service
To create a professional image and build customer trust, you should use an email hosting service, rather than a free email address from providers like Outlook (Hotmail), Yahoo, and Gmail. Whilst these free email accounts are great for personal use, they are not recommended for business, because they don’t facilitate custom domain names.
Email hosting services, on the other hand, are ideal for businesses. They provide more storage and support higher volumes of email traffic and larger file attachments. But, most importantly, they allow users to set up custom email addresses with their own domain names.
Bluehost, Zoho Mail, G Suite, SiteGround, and names.co.uk are some of the most popular email hosting providers in the UK. However, if you’re also setting up a website, you will find that most web hosting providers offer free email hosting with their web hosting subscriptions.
Features and prices vary across providers, so it’s worth spending some time working out your requirements and researching your options before picking an email host.
Step 3 – Create your company email address
Once you have registered your domain name and chosen which hosting provider to use, you will need to create your company email address within your email or web hosting account.
It’s entirely up to you what username you create for your company email address. For example, you may wish to use [email protected], or something more general like [email protected].
Alternatively, you may need multiple email addresses. Perhaps you employ staff, or you simply want to create the illusion of a bigger company by creating separate email addresses for different services or departments, such as [email protected] or [email protected].
Whatever your requirements, it’s important to create a professional company email address that makes a positive first impression on your customers and business contacts. Keep it simple and avoid the use of nicknames, numbers, symbols, and excessive punctuation in usernames.
