How to create a free business email address

Business Communications

Every business uses multiple mediums of communication. The communication can be B2B – communicating with other businesses or B2C – communicating with the customers/ clients. Some communications are one-to-many and some communications are one-on-one. Based on the communication type and the message that needs to be conveyed, the businesses choose the medium of communication. Though there are multiple modes of communications available, the most trusted and reliable source of communication is email.

In the world of business communication, emails are inevitable, trustworthy and legal. It is important that you send business critical communications only via email. It not only provides a valid proof for communication, but also ensures the required security and the privacy of the crucial information that is being delivered.

It is also essential that such business critical messages are sent using an official email address, attached to your domain, rather than a common/ generic email addresses.

The official email address helps the customer recognize your brand, adds credibility to the message and builds trust in the relationship. Hence to create such a branding, every business should be associated with a domain that is connected with your brand.

What is a domain?

If you want to provide internet or online presence for your business, the first step is to get your own domain. A domain name is typically formed by combining your business/ organization name with a standard internet suffix called TLD (.com, .net, .info and so on). The domain names look like yourdomain.com or yourbusiness.info. A domain cannot do anything on its own. When you register a domain, the registrar provides a DNS Manager which holds the critical details like the IP Address of your website, MX records to deliver your email and so on.

In case you do not own a domain, you can buy a new domain from Zoho.

What is a website?

A website is a set of internet pages that provide information or details about your business. You will use your DNS manager to map the IP address of your Webhosting provider to your domain. This ensures that whenever someone types www.yourdomain.com in the browser, the correct pages from the Webhost get displayed and the readers are able to access the relevant information from your website.

What is a business email address?

Business email addresses are those that use your company’s domain name, like patricia@yourcompany.com. Since they resonate with your business, your customers will be able to easily identify you. Thus having addresses like these help establish your identity and enhance credibility with your customers.

You will use your DNS Manager to map your domain with your email provider, using the MX records recommended by your email provider.

Why do you need a business email address?

Though the primary reason for having a business email address is to help your customers identify you, there are many others that can be added to the list. A business email address helps you:

Project your professionalism
Having an email address that matches your brand show that you’re serious and professional about your business. This way, your business will also be taken seriously by your customers, as they are most likely to choose and trust a business with professional email address.
Show your authenticity and earn customer trust
When you or your employees send emails using the address that includes your business’ name, your customers can know for sure that the email is from an authentic source. They will identify you even before opening your content. This will help them build their trust with you and give them confidence to reply to your emails or contact your support team.
Promote your brand
With your business’ name in your email address, you are promoting your brand with every email you send. This way you’re sure to stay in their memory for a long time.
Be consistent
When you create individual and group email addresses with your domain, you make sure that every email that goes out has a standard format and thus maintain consistency.
Keep away from getting spammed
When customers recognize you by your brand name, they are less likely to mark you spam. If you use generic email accounts, your emails might not receive the recognition they deserve and end up being spammed.

Check out this video to understand why your business needs a domain based email address and how it can help you be more professional in your communications.

Best practices while creating business email addresses

There are few things that are to be kept in mind when you create a business email address.

Find a domain name that can be quickly related to your business and easily identified by customers.
Having a standard format of email addresses across your organization is important. For example, you can choose a professional email address as first-name.last-name@yourcompany.com as your standard format for all employees.
Create group email addresses like support@yourcompany.com by departments so you can manage all the department emails from one place.
You should make sure that you secure your business email address against phishing and spamming by authenticating your domain with SPF and DKIM configurations.

How to choose the best email service provider

There are multiple factors that are to be considered when you select an email service provider. Some of the most important factors include:

Easy setup
The first aspect to look for in an email provider is whether the steps provided to set up your domain with them are simple and uncomplicated. Even while keeping the process simple, keep in check that your service provider does not want you to skip the necessary authentication steps.
Efficient migration
Make sure that the service provider you select lets you migrate with efficiency all your emails, contacts and other data from your previous provider. Migration cannot be compromised at any cost because none can afford data loss.
Secure and private
Choose a service that assures you of data security and privacy. There should be multiple layers of authentication for your account and end-to-end encryption for your messages. Personal information that you have shared with the service also should be kept private—privacy compliance should be of its utmost priority.
Custom domain that matches your business
Your email domain should be relevant to your business, so make sure that the email service you select allows you to provide a domain of your preference and let you use it if available.
Robust control panel
Choose a service provider that has a powerful control panel, that lets you take control of all your domain-related settings, manage users and group addresses, set up restrictions and spam policy and do more. The service should also assure you a good percentage of uptime.
Collaboration and other business tools
It will be best if the provider has means for internal team collaboration and built-in tools like calendar, notes, contact management etc.

Creating a business email address with Zoho Mail

Zoho Mail is a secure, private, ad-free platform to host your custom domain email and gives you the best of all the factors mentioned above. Here’s how to create a free business email address.

Features under the free plan of Zoho Mail are as follows:

5 user accounts
5GB storage/user
Email attachments up to 25MB
Email hosting for a single domain
Two factor authentication

Visit Zoho Mail’s pricing page and select the pricing plan of your choice. If you don’t have an account with Zoho, you can sign up from here. You can also refer to our deployment guides to get an overview of the steps.

If you already have a domain of your own:

After you’ve chosen your plan, you will be asked to set up your account. Select Sign up with a domain I already own.
Enter your domain and click Add.
Enter the registration details as required. Click Proceed.
Check if all your details are entered correctly and click Sign Up and fill in your information in the sign up form.

Once you’ve added your domain, you will have to Verify your domain. You can then add users and create email accounts for them. Set up MX records to have all your emails delivered to your Zoho Mail account. Migrate your emails to Zoho Mail via POP or IMAP protocols. Finally complete the SPF and DKIM configurations. Read in detail about these setups.

If you already have an account with Zoho, go to Zoho Mail and click Enable Email Hosting from the top of your page and follow the above steps to set up your domain.

If you want to buy a new domain:

If you don’t have a domain of your own, you can buy one while signing up. Select Buy a new domain for my business and enter a domain name ideal for your business and check for its availability. If available, you can sign up to Zoho and purchase the domain. When you register a domain with Zoho Mail, your DNS settings will be pre-configured. Read in detail about buying a new domain.