How To Create A Custom Email Address In 3 Simple Steps
Kelly is a former Google Tech Entrepreneur and Apple Developer who has counseled businesses of all sizes and growth stages. You can find her expertise across Fit Small Business in , business website, and business trend content.
This article is part of a larger series on Business Email.
The easiest way to create a custom email address is to get your domain and email hosting directly through the same platform, such as Google Workspace. This way you wont have to buy a domain separately and manually connect it, eliminating the headache of configuring DNS servers and coming with the added benefits of top-notch email security and productivity and collaboration tools. Get started with .
Heres how to set up a custom email address in three steps:
Create Your Professional Email Account Domain
Next, youll need to register your custom domain with a registrar that offers email forwarding.
If you havent registered your domain already, you can to get a domain name, email hosting, and web hosting all for just a couple of bucks a month. You can even use this tool to see if your domain idea is available:
Why do we recommend Bluehost?
Well if youre looking for a professional email, youll probably want a website to go with it. Bluehost includes a domain name free if you sign up for web hosting, and theyre pretty much the gold standard when it comes to web hosts.
Even better, we have an exclusive Bluehost discount for you! Use the tool above or link below to get 1) a domain name, 2) website hosting, 3) an SSL certificate, and 4) email hosting for just $2.95 a month.
If nothing else, they have a 30-day money-back guarantee and pretty stellar support, so you can easily change your mind later.
How To Use A Custom Domain Name For Email
For the sake of this article, well use GoDaddy as an example. Just follow the steps below to attach a domain name to your email.
Log in to your GoDaddy account.
Navigate to Professional Email.
Fill out your email information.
Complete setup.
For the small monthly fee involved, Professional Email is a no-brainer for me to build trust and make sure emails are recognizable when landing in contacts inboxes. I use Microsoft 365 for my main eCommerce site.
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How To Make A Custom Business Email Address Using Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the leading web hosting providers. It offers a wide range of plans and is an excellent choice for making professional business email. Like other web hosting providers, Bluehost offers free email domain that can be easily personalized.
Following are the steps to make a free domain email address for business using Bluehost.
Step 1) Goto this link and select the basic plan.
Starting out we recommend to subscribe to the basic plan. This plan includes 5 email addresses even though its not mentioned in the pricing table. Please do not get confused with the Microsoft office email that BlueHost is advertising. It is the premium service, and you can switch to MS email once your business picks up. Bluehost will assist you for email migration.
Step 2) You can host your existing domain at Bluehost. If not already registered,Bluehost allows you to search your desired custom free email domain.
Many a times, your desired domain may not be available. You can usedomain name generatortools to come up with uniquedomain name ideas.
Step 3) Enter your business information.
It is important that you select a 12-month plan. By default, 36 months is selected. There is no harm in selecting 36 months, but initially, its a good practice to keep things agile and minimize cost.
Uncheck the following checkboxes:
Why You Need A Business Email Address
Here are the important reasons for using the business email address:
- It is a custom business email address and thereby is more professional.
- Business email address is short and can be remembered easily.
- You can ensure that every email you send has a standard format and therefore maintain consistency.
- Sending emails with a business name enables you to promote your brand.
- Professional email addresses are less unlikely to be marked as spam by customers.
Also Check: How To Find Email Domain And Server
How To Configure Your Email Address With An Email Client
Last, youll need some software so you can actually use your personalized email address. Many email hosts will provide an email client to use, but you can choose other programs if you prefer.
The exact steps youll need to take will vary depending on the specific email client and hosting service youre using, but will look something like this:
If youre ready to register domain email, start by searching for a domain name from Hover!
Already have a domain name? Learn more about our email hosting.
Add Mx Records For Email
Once youve verified your domain name, you also need to add another type of record called MX records so that Google Workspace can manage the email for your domain name.
You can do this via the same interface where you added the TXT record. Or, many web hosts include a built-in tool to help you add the Google Workspace MX records.
For example, with the cPanel dashboard at SiteGround, you get a dedicated Set Google MX tool in the MX Entry interface:
And thats it! You should be ready to use Gmail with your custom domain name.
Remember if you want a more detailed look, .
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What Are Spf Dkim And Dmarc Records
- SPF is a protocol for validating email, which is designed to find and block email spoofing.
- DKIM is a method for authenticating email. It enables a receiver to know that email was sent and authorized by the domain author.
- DMARC is a protocol for email authentication. It is specifically designed to give email owners the ability to safeguard their domain from unauthorized use.It is important to set SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your email accounts to avoid spoofing and spam.
Register Your Domain Name
Choose a reliable domain registrar like or Namecheap. Search for an available .com, .co, or other popular domain with a combination of your full name, or your company name.
Stay away from untrusted or cheezy domains like .biz and others. After youve chosen your domain name, proceed to checkout, and you will have become the proud owner of a new domain name.
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Test Your Email Address
Since Google confirmed that you correctly entered the MX records, this is technically not a necessary step.
But its the fastest way to take your new branded email for a spin inside the Gmail inbox.
Open another email account, Gmail, Outlook, AOL, it doesnt matter. Compose a new email and enter your new email address in the To field.
Write a random subject like First email and send it.
Now, head over to Gmail and log in with your Google Workspace credentials.
Testing your new Gmail address
If you did everything correctly, you should see the test email you send from your other account in your inbox.
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You can also try composing and sending an email the other way around to confirm that you can send mails without issue as well.
Allow Gmail To Send Emails Using Smtp
At this point, new emails to your custom domain should show up in your Gmail account. However, you wont be able to reply to them from your custom email domain yet.
To fix that, you need to configure your Gmail account to send through your custom emails SMTP server. Typically, youll find your emails SMTP server information at the same spot where you found the POP3 information:
Once you have your SMTP information:
This will open another popup window that has multiple steps.
On the first screen:
- Enter the custom email address that youre using.
- Check the box for Treat as an alias.
Next, enter the SMTP information from your email host:
- SMTP Server and Port from your email host.
- Username normally, this is your full email address, but sometimes its only the part that comes before @.
- Password the password that you set when creating your custom email address.
- Choose whichever Secured connection method that Gmail recommends.
- Click Add Account.
Gmail will then send a confirmation code to your custom email address. You need to click the link in that email and click Confirm to finish the process.
Since you already configured Gmail to receive emails from your custom domain name, you should be able to receive this email from your Gmail account. It might take a few minutes for Gmail to fetch the email from your server.
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How To Set Up And Use Your Shared Hosts Email Service With Your Domain Name
Many web hosting providers also offer free email services. As weve discussed, these dont offer the same reliability or security found with dedicated email providers. If youre just starting out or emailing occasionally, however, the ease of use of web hosts’ email services make them a good choice.
Most web hosts offering email services are shared hosts, and use an industry-standard hosting dashboard called cPanel. Well walk through how to set up email at your domain using our favorite shared host, SiteGround. The steps will, however, be very similar for other hosting providers using cPanel.
Start by logging in to SiteGround and heading to My Accounts Information & Settings Access cPanel. Now, click the Email Accounts icon. Fill in the email, password and mailbox quota for the new account, then click the Create Account button at the bottom. Youve now got an email account on your own domain!
There are no domain settings to set up here if your domain is also registered with SiteGround and you havent changed any of the defaults. If youre using a domain registered with any other registrar and pointed at SiteGround, youll need to set the MX records as follows:
- mx10.mailspamprotection.com
- mx20.mailspamprotection.com
- mx30.mailspamprotection.com
Connect To Your Outlookcom Account In Outlook
Youre done with the web configuring part and now it is time to get everything into Outlook. This is an easy process by using Auto Account Setup.
- File-> Add Account
Depending on your version of Outlook, youll get one of the dialogs below.
When you get this screen, fill out your email address and press the Connect button. When youve already stored your credentials for this account in Windows, the account will be added directly. If not, youll get prompted for your password. When you have Two-Step Verification enabled for your Outlook.com or Microsoft Account, then youll also be prompted for additional confirmation such as by entering a code obtained via an SMS text message or the Authenticator app.
When you get the dialog shown above, fill out your name, email address and password. When you have Two-Step Verification enabled for your Outlook.com or Microsoft Account, then youll have to use a special App Password instead of your regular password.
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What Is Business Email Address
Business email addresses use the domain name of your company instead of a generic yahoo account or Gmail account, for example, .
Most owners, while commencing their business use free email accounts with no custom domain name, which does not look professional. For example: or .
Since anyone can create these types of email accounts, it becomes difficult for other small businesses and customers to trust such email addresses as legitimate mail accounts.
How To Create Your Own E
The assignment of domains is organized centrally. Each top-level domain is managed by a network information center , also known as a domain name registry. Nic.com is an example of a network information center and acts as a mediator between customers and administrative agencies. Private companies such as webhosts or other internet service providers enable domain registration to happen separately or combine it with other services such as e-mail hosting. For customers, the ordering process is carried out in three steps:
To create a domain name you need to register an available domain name. Check here how to create a domain name with minimal costs.
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How To Add Email Forwarding
You do not have to set-up a forwarder from your domain email address to your Gmail address but it should provide faster delivery of new mail to Gmail. Before you configure Gmail, you should create an email forwarder.
Return to the cPanel and create an email forwarder from your custom domain email address to your Gmail address.
Now all emails to will be forwarded to your Gmail account.
Note that Google also offers Google Workspace a paid suite of business tools that includes Gmail. Google Workspace offers several business advantages especially collaborative working and organization. We discuss this below in the FAQ.
Synching Mail Calendar And Contacts
As mentioned, a big benefit of having an Outlook.com account is that you can sync your Mail, Contacts and Calendar with multiple devices. These devices dont have to be PCs or laptops but can also be tablets or smartphones .
It is recommended to use the Outlook app for iPhone and iPad and Android as it supports the most features for an Outlook.com account and it can configure your account without needing to enter any server information.
However, you are free to use any other mail app as well. Most devices have built-in support for configuring Outlook.com accounts but in case you need to do it manually, you can use the following configuration settings to configure is as an Exchange ActiveSync account which syncs your mail, contacts and calendar.
| Server/URL | |
|---|---|
| Certificate | Accept the SSL certificate when prompted |
If you are using Windows 8 or Windows 10, then you can also configure your Outlook.com account in the Mail, Calendar and People apps to get Lock Screen and Start Screen information about upcoming appointments. For details see: Live Tiles for Outlook on Windows 8.
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