How to Set up Business Email Accounts

Email is the day to day information currency of online business and your ability to run your business smoothly depends in large part on your ability to set up your business email accounts in an orderly, accessible way and to maintain them in real time. Email archives also come in handy as a powerful archive of business operations and you can maximize their usefulness with a powerful, searchable and permanent email service.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Investigate Free Email Account Options

1. Check out the email product offered free by your web hosting service. Balance the appeal of having branded email addresses that include your domain name with the possibility that it lacks functionality and the likelihood that you might have problems accessing your email history if you change your hosting provider.
2. Prepare for business related email attachments by setting up attachment folders and training your system to store the various types of attachment files (PDF, Word, audio, fax) in folders where you can locate them easily.
3. Establish a fax by email account coordinated with your business email system so that you can easily email copies of orders and others documents that you receive by fax.
4. Check out Google's "Sign up for Gmail" page for a free, full function email system (see Resources below). You can set up sub-accounts, use labels and filters to sort your mail, enable mobile access, integrate with Google Talk and other highly functional Google tools, search mail almost instantaneously and you also get a lightning fast 2.8 gig virtual memory drive with each Gmail account.

Organize Your Email Accounts

5. Consider using your branded hosting service email accounts in tandem with a more powerful email service like Gmail by setting the branded accounts to automatically forward your emails.
6. Establish individual email accounts or sub-accounts for each employee ([e-mail], [e-mail], for example) and for each business function ([e-mail], [e-mail], for example).
7. Establish similar sub-accounts within a single Gmail account by adding a prefix to your regular address: for example, [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]. You can then use Gmail's powerful label and filter settings so that email is automatically sorted and organized. Gmail search tools will allow you to isolate any piece of information almost instantaneously.
8. Re-label email messages when you act upon them and they will automatically provide you with a project management tool and a status record.

Tips & Warnings

• Set up your business so that customers do not need to email you frequently. When they do write with questions about shipping, products details, returns or other issues, dazzle them with your quick and helpful response.
• Once your business is established online and your email address is out there, don't be surprised if you receive hundreds of spam messages each day. A good spam filter will protect you from them so that you scarcely ever notice.