By mbretous@hubspot.com (Martina Bretous)

There are a few things in life that can earn you that “official” status.

For me, it’s anytime I see someone with a blazer or suit. I think “Oh, that person is definitely handling business today.” Probably because in Miami, the only time anyone subjects themselves to multiple layers in this heat is for official business.

Online, a verification badge gives you some official points. A great-looking website takes it that much further. But a custom email domain? Well, that’s peak official. It signals structure and organization.

Let’s talk about the benefits of getting a custom email domain and how to get one.

Personalized email domains can be used for both your employees and the departments in your company.

There are two types of personalized email domains:

• A regular custom email domain – This includes an inbox and has all the features of a regular email service.
• A forwarding email domain – This is only a customer-facing alias used to forward emails and doesn’t have an inbox. Ex: You set up support@yourcompany.com and have all emails sent to that address forwarded to martina@yourcompany.com or martina@gmail.com.

If you’re a small business and don’t anticipate a high volume of emails, you can start out with a forwarding custom email domain. It looks professional and you don’t have to sift through a separate inbox, as all emails will go to another inbox.

However, as your company grows, you’ll likely need to invest in a separate inbox for your business emails.

Benefits of a Custom Email Domain

We’ve already covered how a personalized email domain looks “official,” but let’s talk about what that means in concrete terms.

Back in 2016, GoDaddy ran a survey and found that 75% of Americans think a domain-based email is a key factor in trusting a small ecommerce business. They even ranked it as three times more important than having an active social media channel.

The report also revealed that some consumers (about 24%) would hesitate to share their personal information with a seller using a personal email address.

It’s likely that these figures have gone up recently, given the prevalence of email phishing attacks. Today, consumers may be a little bit warier of a business without a custom email domain and with one that doesn’t match its website.

When you have a custom email domain, it adds to your credibility and serves as another way to show consumers that you are a reputable company.

In addition, a personalized email domain helps you organize your incoming emails based on the various departments within your company.

For instance, you can have info@yourcompany.com for consumers to send their general inquiries. You could have shipping@yourcompany.com for order-specific inquiries, and countless others based on your business needs.

This can be incredibly helpful in managing incoming and outgoing emails, especially as your company grows. You may also want to designate a team member to be the directly responsible individual (DRI) for that email …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron