One common question I get from entrepreneurs is about if it is beneficial to use a brand domain for their email addresses! What they mean is whether should they use olivefoxdesign@gmail.com OR hello@olivefoxdesign.com for their email. My answer- it depends!
Pros of using your domain (like @olivefoxdesign.com) for your email address
Enhances Brand Commitment and Authority
Your audience receiving an email from your domain strengthens your brand presence and professionalism. While your people likely won’t actively think about it, it is a signal that you are committed to your brand. They will recognize that you’ve put in the time, money, and effort into the small details of your brand.
The small touches like a custom domain email, show you are a savvy business owner and dedicated to your business’s success.
Ability to Utilize Multiple Emails
When you are using your own domain, you can set up a string of emails to help with your workflows. You can use various dedicated emails like support@yourdomain.com, hello@yourdomain.com, and va@yourdomain.com to best serve your people.
Additionally, if you have employees or contractors you can easily set them up with their own dedicated email. That way the relationships built will be tied to the business email. Email hosts also provide great streamlining and oversight with the administrator panels.
Cons of using your domain for your email address
Cost
While you can set up a gmail.com account for free, in order to use your domain as an email there are additional costs associated. If you use your website host to set up the cost is baked into using a premium provider. You can also go the route of utilizing a standalone service (see below for my recommendation*) which is about $6 per month.
Technical Set Up
While the process can be done fairly quickly, you’ll have to be familiar with some technical items like DNS and MX records. Most providers will walk you through the process so you can certainly DIY, just with a bit of a learning curve.
Purchased Domain
If you don’t have a website already established, you’ll need to secure and purchase a domain. Typically the cost is between $8-20 annually to hold a domain. If you need help building a website – don’t worry I’ve got you covered with our web design services.
How to set up a custom domain email
If you’ve decided a custom email is the best for your brand, there are two prevailing options to use for the setup. One is to take advantage of your website host email service if provided with your hosting plan. The second is to create a Google Workspace.
After a year of using the website host email, I switched over to Google Workspace (formerly G-Suite)* and haven’t looked back. The former option required more technical knowledge and there is no redundancy built-in. So if something goes wrong on your website servers, your email will likely also be interrupted. I happily pay $6 per month to have an email that has a very reliable connection and I do not need to fuss with it from a technical standpoint.
Google Workspace
Like many Google products, they have a streamlined onboarding system that will walk you through exactly all of the steps. The only scary tech part will be logging into your domain provider (where you bought the website address) and connecting the records to your workspace. Once you’ve gone through the (at the time of writing) 8 steps, you’ll log in to your email and it will feel just like Gmail. If you sign-up using this link* you can save 10% off your first year of the Google Workspace Starter plan or Standard plan. Once you’ve got that all set up you’ll have one more point of your brand connection strengthened!
TL;DR – Custom Email
For a relatively low cost, you can level up your brand connection with a domain-customized email address. If you use Google Workspace*, the setup is quick and easy.
If you found this helpful, I’d love to hear from you shoot me an email (with your new domain!) at hello@olivefoxdesign.com.
full transparency: The asterisk * indicates an affiliate link. That means that If you click through my referral link, I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase- at no additional cost to you. I am very careful in the items I select to share with you and only include items I enjoy using myself.
