Why you
should care about your business email
Email is a common channel for communication in business and
first impressions are key. It is important that every part of your email comes
across as professional to ensure that the receiving party is paying more
attention to what you are trying to say than how you said it. Poor email
communication can cost you customers while hurting your brand and reputation.
Use a business email solution and ensure the email domain
matches your website
Often small business owners will use their personal email or
a free account like Gmail or Yahoo. Although it may seem like an easy approach
to kick off your business with a free email, the result is that some customers
may struggle to trust your business. Having a proper business email address,
with a domain that aligns with your company name and your website, instills a
level of trust that you are a professional company. In some cases, the size of
your business is important to the customer as well, and having a professional
email address awards you the opportunity to appear like a larger company than
you actually are.
There are two key players when it comes to business email
providers, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace (formerly G Suite). Google is a
popular option for small businesses looking to set up their own account, while
professionals tend to recommend Microsoft 365 for businesses of all sizes.
According to Gartner’s last market research on the topic, Microsoft had 87.5%
of the email market share while Google held 10.4%.
Business email accounts are not costly and come with other
benefits that will help your business be more efficient and productive. These
business accounts allow you to use the same domain as your website, ensuring
that consistency customers are looking for.
Protect your company with email threat protection
91% of all cyber-attacks begin with a phishing email to an
unexpected victim. Furthermore 42% of workers self-reported having taken dangerous
action (clicked on an unknown link, downloaded a file, or exposed
personal/business data online).
It’s more important than ever to be proactive in your
company’s security and that starts with your email. No matter what your email
system, out of the box they do not provide any security. They may offer
very basic spam filtering, sending emails to a junk folder, but the goal is
always to ensure delivery of everything, good or bad.
Microsoft’s Defender for 365 allows you to stop email-based
threats before they reach your device. Microsoft Defender for 365 is
included in some plans and available as an add on for others. Once users
have an applicable license, policies can be customized to help keep you
safe. Policy types include anti-phishing, anti-spam, anti-malware,
attachment scanning & link scanning. Each of these categories allow for
general customization, then utilize Microsoft’s global repository combined with
artificial intelligence to determine what should be allowed vs what should be
sent to junk or quarantine. In my experience this combination is considerably
more effective than competing 3rd party systems like Barracuda
and Mimecast.
Decide on an employee email address or a company email
address
The name used in your email can also impact how someone
perceives your company. Before creating your email addresses, you will
need to ask yourself what your customers prefer. Some people prefer to
work with an individual, so having an email address with the employee’s name
may make sense. Others may find comfort in working with a larger
company. In these instances, it may be better to make a company level, or
generic email address like info@company.com or support@company.com.
You may also consider a hybrid approach where your primary
outbound email is an employee level address, but you are able to receive emails
from company level addresses as well. In order to manage the expense,
this can be done by creating an employee level as your primary then creating
any company level emails as an alias or shared mailbox.
Use CC & BCC properly
When you are entering recipients into your email message,
you’ll find three options: TO, CC & BCC (often hidden by default). If
you’re sending an email to more than one person, it is important that you
utilize these properly.
The TO field should be used for the primary
recipient of the email. If you are looking for a response, the To field
tells the group of recipients who you are expecting a response from.
The CC field, or carbon copy, is used to
include additional recipients in your email so that they are informed but shows
these recipients that you are not expecting a reply from them.
The BCC field, or blind carbon copy, is
used when you want to include additional recipients to keep them informed, but
you do not wish for others in the email to be aware of their inclusion.
Recipients in the BCC field will not be visible to anyone else in the
email.
Use a campaign solution for sending bulk emails
If you are planning on sending an email to a large group of
people, it is recommended to use an email campaign solution like Constant
Contact or HubSpot.
Sending an email to a large group of recipients without
using a campaign solution puts you and your company’s entire email domain at
risk of being blocked for spam and/or blacklisted.
This is especially important if you are sending emails for a
newsletter or other reason where the recipients may wish to opt out.
Use a descriptive subject
The subject of your email will be one of the first things
seen. Have you ever opened an email message based on the subject, and ended up
completely confused and a little annoyed when it was about something entirely
different? It is important that your subject provides an accurate
representation of what you are looking to communicate. Ensuring you use a
quality subject will allow your recipient to understand and prioritize what
they are about to see, allow you to easily find the email in your records in
the future and will reduce the chances of your email getting caught in
someone’s spam/junk filter.
Keep your message focused
There’s nothing wrong with explaining things in detail; it
can provide clarity and reduce misunderstandings. But when an email message
starts to look like a novel, you can quickly lose the recipient’s attention.
To avoid this, stick with one topic per email when possible.
When you do need to include more information, use bold sub-headings so the most
important details are clear.
When possible, it may also be helpful to summarize the email
first, then drill into the details. This allows the reader to understand
what you are asking of them and prepare themselves for the details to
come.
Review before sending
You’re probably thinking this is about spelling and
grammar. Those are very important, and you do need to read over
everything to ensure you don’t make a mistake, however you also need to
consider the tone of the email. It’s easy to let things fly when you’re
sending an email, however some conversations can easily be misunderstood in
email. Take a moment and ask yourself if anything you have written could
be misconstrued; if so, you may consider picking up the phone and having a
verbal conversation.
Include a professional signature
Adding a signature block at the end of your email increases
the professionalism of the email, but it also provides an opportunity for you
to share other relevant information with the reader. However, it is
important that you do not take it too far, a signature should be clean and
simple. Limit your signature to things like your name, title, alternate
contact information and company website. You may also wish to include
links to one or more social media accounts but be careful not to make the
signature too overwhelming.
When it comes to formatting, stick to professional
fonts. You’ll want to avoid fonts like comic sans. You may also
consider adding some color to the text. If you have brand colors, usually
used in your logo, you may consider making the company name that
color. Also consider both light and dark themes that exist in many email
applications today. Although a signature with dark colors may look good
on your screen, they may disappear when read by someone whose email client is
in dark mode.
Over the years, there has been a good deal of arguments
around whether to include images in your signature. Best practices today
say that you should avoid them unless you are designing the signature in HTML
or using a 3rd party service. This will result in a cleaner,
more professional signature and avoid other challenges that come into play
regarding embedded images in email.
Closing
thoughts
Email is an important method of communication in business,
even if it’s not your first preference. Following these business email best
practices will help you keep your email communication professional
and productive allowing confidence that the impression you’re making is a
good one.
Are you in need of a business email solution for your
company? Email us at info@leanonmeit.com
