If you are running a professional website or blog, a business email is a must-have. As you manage and run your business, using a Gmail or Yahoo account will not leave a good impression on your potential clients. That’s why in this article, I’ll show you how to create a free business email in the easiest way possible.
Why so much focus on a business email? It is more than just a tool to communicate with your clients. It is actually a powerful branding weapon that can be used to grow your brand and make it pop among the competitors.
Business Emails Are Very Much Needed
Let’s put this topic into perspective: If you are receiving two emails, one from jake1993@gmail.com and the other from jake@hostingwiki.com, which one would have more credibility?
Yes, these little differences can actually impact your credibility as well as customer’s trust, especially if you are handling a lot of clients or potential customers through emails.
According to Radicati, a well-known technology research firm, there were 3.8 billion email users in 2018. This number is expected to reach 4.2 billion by the end of 2020.
In addition, 86% of professionals opt to use emails to solve business matters. This statistic represents the importance of having a business email on a professional level.
As a matter of fact, 72% of customers also prefer to get an email as a marketing message from a particular brand or company.
Here are some of the most impactful reasons to create a professional email account:
You Are Less Likely to Get Mistaken for Spam
When you use a business email, with a professional domain name attached to it, not only do you look much more professional, you’re also more likely to be immediately recognized by your recipients. This reduces the chance of your emails being accidentally marked as spam.
Additionally, you get much more control over how you can build your emails, further increasing your deliverability rates.
It Provides Better Privacy
Mixing business with your personal errands will only lead to complications. If you intend to run your business seriously, you have to give a clear border between your personal and professional space.
Creating a business email gives you better privacy. Now you do not need to separate the emails from clients with the e-receipt of your monthly bills or online magazine subscriptions.
It Gives You Better Control of Your Business
You can easily organize your employees and monitor their work every day if you use a business email platform. You can also organize the system to put each client into a different category, according to your needs.
With greater control comes greater efficiency, and this will surely help your business grow quickly.
Setting Up the Basic Requirements
Now it is time for you to get started.
Setting up a professional email is not difficult, but you do have to get some basic requirements, namely: a web hosting service and a domain name.
Disclaimer: in this article, I will use Hostinger as the hosting provider.
Hostinger provides both hosting plans and domain names. You can easily get both with a single purchase.
Web Hosting
So you decided to get the hosting plan first before setting up your domain name. Here is what you need to do:
First, you need to create a Hostinger account. Pick one of the available hosting plans, then click Add to Cart.
If you are happy with the plan, click Checkout Now, you will be asked to sign up or log in to your account.
Finish your payment with the method of your choosing. There are multiple payment methods that you can choose to finish the transaction, including PayPal, Bank Transfer, American Express, etc.
When the payment is verified, you will be able to log in to Hostinger using the registered email and password.
Domain Name
Registering a domain name is just as easy. First, visit Hostinger’s Domain Checker.
Now, type in your desired domain name in the search box, then click Check It. Since you are going to create a business email, it may be better to use your company’s or product’s name.
In a matter of seconds, the domain checker will find all the available domain names for you. It will also provide some suggestions in case the domain name you want has already been taken by others.
In addition, if you are looking for a specific domain extension (.com, .site, .net, etc.), you can use the Domain Extension Filter which is located on the left side of your screen.
Click Add to Cart when you have found a name you like. Hostinger will verify the availability of the domain name once again. If everything is good, you can proceed to Select a Hosting Plan, which is basically the same process as the one I explained in the previous section.
Pick your desired hosting plan, and voila! You are now ready to create your own business email.
Setting Up Free Email Accounts in Two Ways
There are two ways to set up your business email. First, you can use the default email feature provided by your hosting, or you can use Zoho Mail that is designed specifically to handle business users.
Through this guide, I will explain how to create a business email using both platforms, so you can choose your preferred route to create a professional email for your business.
Free Business Email with Hostinger
If you are using Hostinger, creating a business email can be done through 3 simple steps. Follow this guide:
- Login to your hPanel using the email and password you have registered to Hostinger.
- On the hPanel, choose Email Accounts.
- Scroll down, and you will find the Create a New Email Account option.
Now, all you need to do is fill out your desired email username and password (you may click on Generate to get a secure, random password).
Note that the email will follow the domain you have registered on your account. You can create a new subdomain to add the email domain options.
Once you have set the email username and password, click Create. Your business email will be ready within seconds.
The number of email accounts you can create depends on your hosting plan. Additionally, be aware that your storage is limited and you may have to upgrade the email account if you need more resources.
To check the active emails or to manage each of them, you can scroll down to find the Manage E-mail Accounts section. This option allows you to see the usage of each account, configure the settings, or delete them permanently.
You are now ready to use a professional email for your business. You’re even ready to start building an email list and market your products.
If you’re running a WordPress site and want to send emails through it, check out our tutorial on how to set up SMTP on WordPress.
Zoho Mail
While creating a free business email using a hosting provider is a great option for keeping your domain, email hosting, and website hosting under one roof for easy management, it may be a bit impractical since you have to log in to your control panel just to access the mailbox.
You may need to use an independent email hosting provider that offers easier access to your business email. For this purpose, Zoho Mail is one of the best options on the market.
Zoho Mail is a professional business mail provider that offers a customizable domain and tons of other perks, including enhanced security features (TLS, 2FA, etc.), 24-hour technical support, an integrated inbox, and a powerful control panel. You can even migrate the content of your old email to a new Zoho Mail account!
Creating a Business Email with Zoho Mail
Zoho Mail is available in both free and premium plans. The free plan includes 5 GB of storage, a 25 MB attachment limit, five accounts, and single domain access for your free business email. If you are not running a large scale project, it will do just fine.
Follow these steps to create Zoho Mail free account:
- Go to the sign-up page, then type in your domain.
- Fill the Registration Details form, then hit Proceed.
- You will need to verify the registration using your mobile phone. Enter the verification code sent to your phone then click Verify My Mobile.
- Now, you will be redirected to the Zoho Mail control panel.
- Click the dropdown then pick the DNS hosting provider from the list. If your hosting DNS is not written there, choose Others.
- Notice that you will be given three options to connect your domain with Zoho Mail: Text Method, CNAME Method, or HTML Method. Choose one connecting option you prefer.
- Each option comes with different instructions, simply follow these instructions, then click the verify button.
- Note that you need to access the DNS zone editor of your hosting control panel to finish the above step. If you use Hostinger, you can easily find the DNS Zone Editor under the Advanced section on Hostinger’s hPanel.
- The DNS Zone Editor allows you to connect your free Zoho Mail account with your domain. For example, if you choose the CNAME Method to connect, you only need to create a new CNAME by clicking Add New under the CNAME section on the DNS Zone Editor, then type in the code you get from Zoho.
- Once you finished with this step, your new business email will be ready to use!
Premium Services
Using a premium service is the best option if you need more resources and have tons of clients.
Zoho Mail offers a premium plan that has a lot of additional perks, such as scheduled email backups, IMAP/POP access, email restoration, email retention, and forwarding.
You will also get a fully functioning business calendar that can be used to create professionally create and schedule appointments.
The price of Zoho premium starts from $1 to $4/month for one user.
Zoho gives you an option to try a 15-day free trial for the premium plan without using a credit card. I suggest you opt for the free trial before purchasing, just to make sure that this professional email provider works for you.
Another viable premium service option you can try is G Suite from Google. It’s a premium cloud service that allows you to create your own domain, chat with other users, or have video conferences.
G Suite does everything online. It can be integrated with almost every Google service. You will even get 24-hour phone support.
However, G Suite is quite costly. The price starts at $6 and goes up to $25/month per user. So, unless you really need a professional business email with massive resources, you may want to settle for a cheaper option.
To make sure that this email hosting works for you, try using their 14-day free trial.
Which Route Should You Take?
There are three routes you can choose to create a business email: Using your hosting, getting a free business email via Zoho, or purchasing a premium email hosting plan.
However, keep in mind that each of the routes has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Firstly, using your hosting to create a free business email is easy and budget-friendly. While it may be a bit impractical to log in to your hosting account every time you need to access the email account on a desktop, it still is a great option for anyone who needs a business email but doesn’t really access it that much.
Secondly, getting a free business email via Zoho is a viable option too. Yes, it has very limited resources and can only accommodate up to five users, but you can always upgrade to Zoho’s premium plan if you ever need more.
Lastly, If money is not an issue, purchasing the premium business email plan may be the best thing to do since it will provide you with a lot more resources and perks.
Get Professional with Business Emails!
Now you know that you need to get a hosting plan and a domain name to have a professional business email.
You can also use independent email hosting like Zoho or G Suite for this purpose. However, since the free version comes with very limited resources, you may need to consider using premium plans.
Here are the best routes for creating a professional email:
- Use your hosting provider’s email service if you want to have a free business email.
- Create a free business email with Zoho if you plan to use the email for starting out a business or for personal use.
- Buy a premium email hosting plan such as Zoho Premium or G Suite if you need a professional email with a lot of resources.
From all the points above, I can say that business emails are very much needed. Regardless of the scale of your current project, I can guarantee that having a business email will only bring a lot of positives to your cause. Good luck!
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