What’s the online tool you use every single day, at least 2 hours a day?
If you’re an online coach, I bet it’s Zoom; if you’re a web developer it’s probably WordPress, and if you’re a scopist it might be CaseCATalyst.
But there’s one specific tool that every business owner uses every. single. day.
Yes, it’s email.
We business owners get an insane number of emails a day.
And often, people who email us are contacting us for the very first time, which means their first impression of our businesses are… our email addresses.
Which one looks more like your business email:
If you chose 1, it’s time for you to upgrade your email address.
See, free email addresses are nice because they’re, well, free.
But they’re also unprofessional, because they’re, well, free.
A branded email—that is, an email on your own domain—makes a world of a difference in how you are perceived by customers and vendors alike.
It also increases brand awareness and makes you more memorable.
Not to mention that if you are using email marketing, a branded email is much less likely to go to your recipient’s spam box.
So let’s go into how you set up your own branded email.
There are two elements that go into a branded email.
- The domain name
- The email host
First step: choosing a domain name
Your domain name is your personal space on the internet. It’s what you think of when you say a website’s name. In my case, my domain is uncommonstrategy.net
You buy domains with a domain registrar. If you are setting up your email at this stage, I recommend buying your domain with your email host (more on that soon).
No matter where you ultimately buy the domain name, I recommend using domain.com to check availability during the brainstorming process.
Fun fact: choosing a domain name in 2024 can take some time, because your top 2–3 names are probably already taken!
Even if you want to use your own name for your domain you might have trouble—unless your name is as uncommon as mine is. (I doubt there is another Temima Gass in the world!)
Side note: If your firstnamelastname.com is currently available, I advise you to grab it before someone else does, even if your official website will use your business name.
There’s so much that goes into choosing a business name, and it’s not something that should be done on the fly. So if you want to get your branded email up and running, just go with your name, or your name plus your description. For example: sarahsmith.com or janedesigns.com
Most domains are under $15 a year, so it’s easy to get a new one once you decide on your official business name.
Choosing your email host
The email host is the service that provides your email address. That’s the name@ part.
I recommend Google Workspaces (affiliate link)—which is simply the paid version of Gmail—for email hosting.
For $6 a month, you get your own branded email address with excellent deliverability and all the perks of a Google account.
That includes Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms and the rest of the Google suite of features.
You also get 30 GB of storage, and enhanced collaboration tools.
If you are already a Gmail user, upgrading to Google Workspaces will be a pretty easy transition, since the interface is pretty much what you’re already used to.
Plus: if you’re located in the US or EU, I have a discount code for you that will give you 10% off. Feel free to contact me here to get a single-use code.
The other popular business email service is Microsoft 365. This is Microsoft’s email client and it is the preferred email provider in corporate settings.
For $5 a month, you get the online version of Microsoft Office—including Word and Excel—which you may prefer over Google Docs and Sheets.
Your choice will be based on personal preference rather than one platform being better than the other.
The cheaper option for email hosting
If you can’t pay $60 – $72 a year for hosting, there is a cheaper option.
Namecheap is a popular domain registrar that also offers email hosting through its client PrivateEmail.
With Namecheap, you can get a domain plus professional email for just $20 a year.
The email platform comes with its own version of cloud storage, documents, and spreadsheets, if you want to use those instead of Google or Microsoft’s offering.
I have never used PrivateEmail’s platform, so I can’t speak to its ease of use, but Namecheap itself is a reliable company and the price is great for email hosting.
What most of my clients who get their email through Namecheap or other similar hosts do is connect their branded email with their free Gmail account so they can have the benefit of a professional email in an interface they’re used to, while saving $50+ a year.
I do not recommend this as a long-term solution, mainly because this setup makes it more likely that your emails go to spam.
However, if your business is in its infancy and the price makes a big difference, then this is a good workaround.
Need help setting up your Google Workspaces?
Luckily, this is something we can do in a power hour — plus migrate your emails, contacts, calendar, and set up your account to work as much as possible for you.
