If you’re running a business, it is key to ensure you come across as professional and reliable, and one of the elements that will allow you to achieve this is your email. Plenty of small businesses will start off using @gmail.com, it’s free and it works, but there’s a difference between “it works” and “it works for your business”.
Your email is typically the first thing any potential customer sees, it appears on your invoices as well as your website contact page. For some, seeing ‘[email protected]’ can send a quiet signal that you may not be fully committed to your brand.
The good news? Fixing this with UK2’s email hosting will only cost you less than £2 per month.
Your Email Address Is Part of Your Brand
It may sound like a small factor in terms of establishing your business, but customers notice. In a world where it’s never been easier to research a business, every detail matters and your email address plays a part in that. A custom domain shows that you’re professional and serious about what you do.
There’s also the consistency factor. If your site is using an email such as ‘yourbusiness.co.uk’, with your social media using that same name alongside your Google Business Profile, a Gmail address breaks the chain. A business email that matches your domain, ties everything together and makes your business feel more cohesive.
It’s a small change with a large impact on first impressions.
Free Emails Land in Spam
A frustrating factor many don’t consider when using a free provider is that emails sent from addresses like Gmail or Yahoo are often far more likely to land in someone’s spam or promotions folder than emails sent from a custom domain.
Why? Because professional email hosting includes email authentication. Three DNS records (SPF, DKIM and DMARC), tell email providers like Google and Microsoft, that your email is legitimate. Without them, your quote or invoice looks like spam to the receiving server.
It’s the difference between landing in the main inbox and being buried amongst a sea of promotional messages your customer will likely never look through.
If you’ve ever sent a quote and had to follow up asking “did you receive my email?”, it is very likely that this is the reason. Established email hosting will solve this issue.
Security and Data Ownership
Free Gmail accounts get hacked. They get locked. They can get accidentally deleted. These are things that happen more often than people think. And when that happens to a business account, you don’t just lose the emails, you’re losing your contact details, invoices and project history, among other things.
With a free email, there’s no dedicated support line you can contact. No backup you can restore from. There’s no one to help you get back in.
Business email hosting changes that. You receive top-quality virus and spam protection that is built in, as well as getting automatic backups to ensure you never lose those important emails. However, if you do find that something goes wrong, you have access to a support team who are always at the ready to answer your queries.
Another angle that often catches growing businesses off guard is, if an employee leaves and they’ve been using a personal Gmail account for their work, that client communication also leaves alongside them. With business email hosting, you control the account. You can disable the access, transfer the mailbox and keep all the conversation history. Your data stays where it belongs.
Scalability and Storage
Gmail only gives you 15GB of storage, sharing from your email to your Google Drive, Google Photos and everything else. For a small business, sending and receiving invoices, attachments and client files will quickly take that up.
And what happens when you hire more employees? You can’t easily share a Gmail account for team use. You end up with awkward workarounds, shared passwords and conversations getting lost.
Email hosting gives you a dedicated mailbox storage per person, in order to avoid any hassle. You have access to shared calendars and collaboration features that just work. And when you need to add a new team member, it’s a few easy clicks. No account sharing, no lost emails, no problems.
It scales with you. Free email doesn’t.
Features That Actually Make a Difference
Beyond the basics, business email hosting comes with features you don’t realise you need until you’re trying to run a business without them.
Your email syncs across your phone, laptop and webmail seamlessly. Reply on one device and it shows as read on all of them.
Email forwarding, meaning you never miss an enquiry, even when you’re on holiday or working late.
Catch emails sent to typos of your domain, so you don’t lose business because someone made a spelling mistake.
These aren’t elements that are just nice to have, they can make a large impact on the success of your business.
It’s Cheaper Than You Think
Professional email hosting is remarkably affordable, something that may surprise first time or small business owners.
At UK2, Professional email hosting starts from just £1 per month. Compare that to the price of a lost client because your quote was misdirected to their spam or the frustration of hitting your storage limit mid-project and you can understand why professional email hosting pays for itself many times over.
If you’re serious about your business, opting for a professional email is worth it.
Conclusion
Using a free email account for your business is understandable, as it’s easy to set up and for many of us it works well enough at first, however as your business expands, you begin to notice issues that can have an impact. Credibility can suffer as a result, data feels insecure and the workarounds become a daily frustration.
Upgrading to business email hosting isn’t an expense. It’s an investment in how your business presents itself and how securely you operate.
UK2’s Professional Email plan gives you your own domain, 10 GB storage solely for your emails, virus protection, 24/7 UK-Based support and so much more, to support your growing business.
Browse our Email Hosting plans today to get started.
