8 Reasons Why You Need To Get a Personalized Email Address For Your Business

If you have a goal of starting a website for your business, add one more thing to your to-do list — getting a personalized email address. 

Company branding ensures potential customers understand your brand and makes you look professional. Just like you’d have a custom URL for your website rather than something like mybusiness.wordpress.com, you also need a professional email address to provide consistent branding. It shows that you’re a professional, and that you’re trustworthy.

Just think about it: Would you rather receive a business email from [email protected], or [email protected]?

Why you need a custom email address 

Customers look for legitimacy before deciding to work with a business. So, if you’re looking to brand your business as legitimate and professional, you should use a professional email address. Some more reasons for getting a customized email address include: 

1. @Gmail or @Yahoo may look “unprofessional”  

Using free email addresses detracts from the value you want to offer your customers. For example, if you were thinking about spending a fair amount of money with a company, which salesperson email would you feel more confident in: 

[email protected] or [email protected]? 

An email address with yourdomain.com at the end ensures potential customers get a good impression of your brand. 

2. You’re already paying for a personalized email hosting service 

If you’ve purchased a domain name for your website, you can use that domain for your email addresses as well. As we’ll see later, setting up an email address with your custom domain name is easy. 

3. You can standardize email addresses with personalized email hosting

As you grow your staff, this is especially important. Why? Because you can use the same format for every other email address when you have a domain email address. For example, you can use [email protected] or first[initial][email protected]. That provides consistency in your business, and customers can easily remember the formula for your company email addresses. 

4. A branded email does marketing for you 

If you use a domain-based email address, you’re getting your brand in front of more eyeballs. When your branded email address appears in each employee’s email signature, business cards and social media accounts, it will be an opportunity to attract new business. 

5. You can create as many emails as you want

Even if you’re a one-person operation, you can create a new email address for different aliases such as sales and customer service.

In addition, it’s more efficient to have separate emails for different business functions. If you hire for those roles one day, you can simply assign those email addresses to other employees.  

6. When someone leaves your company, you keep control

What happens when your marketing manager leaves, taking their email with them? If they were using it to conduct business for your organization, you wouldn’t be able to access those emails. On the other hand, if you set up an account under the person’s name, you can redirect those emails to your newly hired marketing manager.  

7. Enhanced security measures

In an era where data breaches and cyber-attacks are increasingly prevalent, a custom email address allows for more advanced security features. Unlike free email services, many custom email hosting solutions offer enterprise-level security measures like end-to-end encryption and two-factor authentication. When clients see that you prioritize security, it adds an extra layer of trust.

8. Greater storage and file sharing capabilities

Most free email services have limitations on storage and the file sizes you can send. With a custom email hosting service, you often get more generous storage space and can send larger files easily, which is crucial when you’re working on bigger projects or dealing with substantial amounts of data.

How to create your personalized email address 

You cannot get a free domain email address such as [email protected] unless you pay for web hosting. A web hosting provider like Bluehost provides a custom email domain with any hosting package. The good news? It’s super affordable. Bluehost also has a free domain with all new signups, so you only pay for hosting. 

To create your Bluehost email, simply set up your domain name and configure your email address. Then, connect to your preferred third-party email service provider, such as Gmail or Apple for free. 

Let’s look at the steps in more detail. 

1. Set up your domain name 

First, go to Bluehost and click the green Get Started Now button. 

Bluehost has four pricing plans: Basic, Choice Plus, Online Store, and Pro. 

The Basic plan is ideal for a starter website or blog, and if you only require a few email accounts. If you want unlimited email accounts, then the Plus plan is ideal. 

Click Select on the plan that suits you, then register your free domain. Enter your business name into the box, then click Next to search for the domain name. Bluehost will check if a domain name matching your brand name is available. If it’s not, it will give you some alternative suggestions, or you can search for a new domain name. 

Next, enter your billing information and submit the form. 

You’ll successfully create your hosting account and receive a welcome email from Bluehost with login info to your hosting control panel. That’s where you’ll manage your business email accounts and other settings. 

2. Create your free personalized email address 

Navigate to the Email section in the hosting account dashboard and click on the Add Email Account tab. Enter your email account’s username and password and click the Create Account button. Bluehost will create the email account and notify you. 

3. Connect to your preferred third-party email service provider 

After you’ve created your free personalized email account, you can connect it to a third-party email provider like Gmail. You do this to use your domain-based email with the tools and benefits provided by email providers. For instance, you can connect your personalized email address with Google workspace so you can use applications like Google doc, google spreadsheet with that email.

For this step-by-step guide, we’ll use Gmail. Here’s how to go about it: 

Log in to your Gmail account and select see all settings from the gear menu in the top right corner. 

Go to the Accounts and Import tab and click Add a mail account. 

That will open a new window where you’ll enter the email address you just created then click Next.  

Type your full business email address and Bluehost password in the username and password fields. 

You’ll now have linked your Bluehost email address to Gmail, which will set up email forwarding from your Bluehost email address to your Gmail folder. However, you’ll need to update Gmail if you want to send emails from your Gmail address. Bluehost will ask you if you want to set this up. Click Next after selecting ‘Yes.’ 

You’ll then be prompted to verify your email address. Once you’ve re-entered your email address and Gmail password, Gmail will send a verification code to your Bluehost email address. 

On your Bluehost account, click on Email Manager and select View Inbox. Copy the verification code and paste it into the correct field in Gmail, then click Verify. That should configure your outgoing mail. 

Final thoughts

First impressions are everything. How potential customers see you will determine how successful your brand will be. Not only does a custom email address deliver a level of professionalism, but it also empowers your users to receive and send emails consistent with your brand. If you already have a custom domain and are paying for hosting, you can use that domain for your email addresses.

If you’re not a current Bluehost customer, we invite you to learn more about our hosting plans. We offer a variety of plans for all users, including basic shared hosting, WordPress hosting, and more!