Reasons To Integrate Custom Domain Email To Gmail Account
When you purchase web hosting, chances are youll get a free business email right out of the box. However, it might take time to get used to because the interface is different from Gmails.
Theres G Suite as an alternative, of course, but you need to invest. The lowest plan costs $6/month for a user, whereas email hosting can start as low as $1.49/month.
Luckily, its possible to use Gmail with your own domain for free. That way, you can have the best of both worlds a custom domain email with the convenience of Gmails interface. You also dont have to log in to different platforms to manage your personal and business emails.
Get A Free Email Domain With Mailcom
If you want a 100% free email domain without needing to purchase your own web hosting and/or domain name, this is your best option.
This method wont enable you to create a custom email domain, so it may not be the best solution for established businesses. However, if youre a freelancer or just starting out and dont mind using a generic domain name, it could be optimal for you.
Mail.com enables you to set up an industry-specific email account thats completely free. You can pick from a variety of domain names such as example@graphic-designer.com or example@programmer.net. Simply sign up for an account to get started:
Once youve filled in your details and chosen your password, click on I agree. Create an email account now. Then, click on Activate your account now, and youre done:
Note that, unfortunately, this option wont allow you to send and receive emails via Outlook or Gmail. Youll have to log in to Mail.com each time you want to use it.
For Those Using An Email Provider
Since every email provider does things differently, I won’t be able togive you a detailed description of what to do. Instead, I’ll tell you the general steps, so that you have anoverview of the entire procedure. Armed with that information, you will have a better idea of what to lookfor on your email provider and registrar’s websites.
There are essentially two things that you need to do. Set things up at your domain registrar’s end sothat mail sent to your domain is directed to your email provider. You will also need to set things up at youremail provider’s end so that they will actually accept the email sent to your domain.
Some email providers allow you to do this bypointing yourdomain to their service. If they say something like letting them host your domain, or host your DNS,or asking you to set your domain to use their nameservers , this is what they want.Step-by-step instructions on how to do this, including an explanation of what this mysterious “nameserver”thing is, can be found in my article onHow toPoint a Domain Name to Your Website. Don’t worry that the article seems to be talking about awebsite and you are only concerned about email. The steps are the same, since you are essentially lettingyour email provider take over your website’s address, even if you don’t have one.
When you have done that, log into your account at yourdomain name registrar.
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How To Make A Professional Email Address With Google Workspace
Making and registering your first professional email address can seem overwhelming. But it becomes a simple process when you break it down step by step.
First, if you dont already have a domain name, you need to register one. You will also need premium web hosting with DNS support.
If you already have a domain and a website, you can skip straight to step three.
Set Up An Email Account That Uses Your Domain Name
Here, Im going to show you how to create a new email address, like , and integrate it with your Gmail account. This way, you can easily send and receive emails through the Gmail interface, but your customer will see the emails as coming from your domain email address.
The steps have been broken in two parts. First well see how to create the domain email address. Second, well integrate that domain email with your Gmail account.
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Spot The Difference: Email Address Email Alias And Business Email
When people talk about email addresses, they mean any address in the format of . However, the use and operation of email can be a bit more nuanced. For example, you can use an email alias, also known as a forwarding address it looks just like a normal email account but has no hosting space associated with it. All messages sent to the alias are automatically redirected to a hosted email address.
Both mailboxes and aliases can be personal and professional. Business email is often shorthand for a company having their own email domain rather than using a free service like Gmail or Yahoo. Companies typically use their email domain for business communications.
Sell Your Domain Name
Stuff happens. Maybe inspiration struck at 3 a.m., when an amazing new domain name woke you from a dead sleep. And that other domain you already registered? It can still help you out.
You can get it in front of interested buyers via domain aftermarket sites that only take a small percentage of the sale.
One such aftermarket option is GoDaddy Auctions.
For an annual fee and a percentage of the sale, you can list your domain name for auction or set a buy now price and GoDaddy will handle all the details.
Also Check: Domainnamechecker
Pick Your Email Address And Designate Where It Should Forward
This is where well pick an email address, so whether you go with your name or something like or , just make sure its what you want so you dont have to change it in the future. This is the email youll use to set up other services like social media accounts, if you dont have those as well.
While you can make your account a catch-all account, meaning anything that gets sent to a random email address at your domain will get sent to you, but Id recommend not to do this since youll generally receive a lot more spam emails .
If you domain hosting doesnt allow you to forward email for free, then youll probably need to change your MX record too. The easiest way to find the step by step direction for your hosting provider is to search their help section for MX or contact them! For example, heres Namecheaps help topic.
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 Use Gmail With Your Own Domain Name
So can you use Gmail with your own domain name? And if so, can you do it for free? The answers to those questions are yes and yes. And in this post, youll learn how to do it.
Specifically, Im going to show you two ways to use Gmail with your own custom domain name:
Got Any Tips On Finding A Good Domain Name
You bet. While it’s really easy to register a domain, having a good domain strategy helps you register the best domain name possible. Here are some hints:Make it easy to remember. This is why many businesses get domains with their business names in them. Some people even choose their business name only after they have a domain they like.Don’t register one that’s trademarked, copyrighted, or being used by another company. This can lead to losing the domain and legal problems.Shorter is usually better because they’re easier for customers to remember. It’s also easier to get matching usernames for Facebook, Twitter and any other social media accounts you have.Got a local business? Include your neighborhood, city or country in your domain so local customers can quickly see where you are. Check the list of geographic domain extensions .berlin .nyc to see if there’s one for your area.Avoid numbers or hyphens. Anyone who hears your web address won’t know if you’re using a numeral 5 or “five”. If your business name has a number in it, register both versions with the number and with the number spelled out .Get more than one. As traffic to your website increases, you may attract then attention of copycats who’ll snatch up similar domain names in hopes of drawing traffic away from you. Register similar or misspelled domains early so this won’t be an issue later.
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Registering A Domain Name
To register your domain with Hover, simply add it to your cart, select a term length , enter your contact and billing information and click register.
Example domain checkout. You may also have the option to purchase an email address at checkout.
Important note! Registering a domain name does not mean that you own it forever. Once the initial time you paid for has passed, youll need to renew it in order to continue owning it. If you dont do this, youll no longer own the domain and it will be available for anyone else to register. Oh and, your email will stop working too.
Enable auto-renew within your account settings to make sure you dont forget to renew your domain.
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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Start Using Gmail With Your Own Domain Today
With the methods in this post, you can get the convenience of Gmail with the professionalism and brandability of your own custom email address.
If you already have a website and email hosting, you can use the first method to use Gmail with your custom domain name for free.
If you dont have email hosting already and/or you want to completely separate your custom email address from your free Gmail address, you might want to pay for Google Workspace instead.
Still have any questions about how to use Gmail with your own domain name? Ask us in the comments!
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What Happens If I Dont Renew My Domain Name
If you didnt set auto-renewal or forgot to manually do so despite the reminders from your domain registrar, your domain name will expire. This means several things:
- Your website will no longer be accessible by anyone who types your URL.
- The domain name will be available for sale again, typically in 30-days or so after expiration.
- It can also be auctioned on a website domain auction.
In essence, failure to pay a renewal fee means lost access to your domain.
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Custom Domain Email Marketing Ideas
Email marketing has shown to be one of the most effective ways to nurture your business leads and encourage repeat business. You can use your professional email to market in earnest to potential customers and contacts to form longstanding relationships.
Not sure how? Here are some examples to get you started:
- Free eBooks or whitepapers are great incentives to get folks to sign up for your mailing list. Make sure the information is something that subscribers can use, and dont be over-promotional. Let your knowledge and experience be your sales pitch.
- Offer exclusive Subscribers Only discounts and sales. Include a promo code just for your email marketing list subscribers.
- Share tips or FAQ that you know your site visitors are hungry for. Include a how-to guide or list of tips targeting what your customers want to know. Of course, also incorporate to your website.
- Include exclusive content that is not posted publicly on your blog or site. Maybe a special how-to or downloadable PDF that only email newsletter subscribers can access.
- Provide a customer survey. The survey can ask about anything from newsletter content to product offerings. Include an incentive, such as the subscriber being entered in a drawing for a gift certificate or gift card for your products or services. What do you want to know? Just ask your subscribers will pipe in!
Quick email marketing tips
Now that youve got some ideas brewing, youll want to keep these tips in mind:
Get Email At Your Domain
To get email through your domain, you add MX records for your email account to your domains DNS records. Adding the records is like registering your address with the post office. It facilitates accurate email delivery. You get your MX records from your email host provider.
Tip: Many domain and web hosts provide email-hosting services, and they can set this up for you.
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