Over the years, there’s been talk that email was dead and no longer of use to businesses. However, email continues to be an essential form of communication for many companies. Even with all the advances in technology since email was first developed (back in the late 80s), businesses still find email a cost-effective tool to stay in touch.

In this article, we’ll take a look at why professional email for business still matters and what email system your company should be using.

Reasons Why Email Still Matters for Business

Professional emails for your business are still one of the best ways to stay in contact with customers:

• It’s easy to keep customers in the loop about updates and new products
• Builds trust and credibility
• Develops stronger relationships
• Reaches mobile users
• Saves time and money
• Provides a consistent form of communication
• Encourages valuable feedback
• Increases brand awareness
• Is an effective method to boost brand awareness
• Improves relationships with partners and vendors

These are only a few of the reasons that business email still matters today! So, why would your business give up on email?

Why a Professional Email Address is Essential

Though businesses recognise the continued importance of email, smaller businesses may be tempted to rely on certain free email services. These can include Gmail, Yahoo, or their ISP’s email service. Sure, these email services are free, but they’re not very acceptable for business. A professional email address is important for any business.

Stop to consider how many emails customers receive daily. With so many messages in their inboxes, customers become more selective about what they choose to open. So, it’s vital to make a good first impression with your company emails.

Here are some reasons why it’s better to have your own domain name as your professional email address:

Make a Great Impression

When you’re working to create a professional brand for your company, first impressions count even with your email. Email is one of the most common forms of communication with customers. When you have a professional email address, it creates a sense of credibility and trust, especially if the email address is tied to a credible company website.

Control

When you have your own custom business email address, you have more control over your system. In addition, it’s easy to create email addresses for new employees within the company and you have the added ability to monitor inactive email addresses.

Organise Email by Department

Most companies organise email by department. This makes it easier for customers to get in touch with the right person or department when they have an issue. In addition, there’s no need to forward messages. Everything goes straight to the right department and person.

These are only a couple of the benefits of having your own business email domain and system. Rather than relying on free email services, it’s best for your company to choose an email service such as Microsoft 365.

What Does Microsoft 365 Email System Have to Offer?

The Microsoft 365 email system has a lot to offer over a personal, free email service, including the following:

1. Custom Domain Name

As mentioned earlier, a custom domain name for a professional email address is more professional. It also makes your company look more credible and trustworthy to customers.

With a free email service, such as Gmail, you can have a domain name such as yourcompanyname@yahoo.com. However, if you choose Microsoft 365, your domain name is customizable to your company’s name. For instance, you could have an email address such as “yourname@yourcompanyname.com.”

Not only does this look more professional, but a custom domain name email address also promotes your brand. Your customised business email address also looks more professional and official when used on websites and business cards rather than using a free email service.

2. Powerful, Centralised Management

Microsoft 365 also provides a powerful admin panel that makes it easy to control how your company uses email. With a few clicks, it’s possible to create new email addresses, reset passwords, and more. This is not easy with a free email service.

3. Lowered Risk of Non-Business Use

If your business relies on a free email service, employees may use their business email account as their own. They may use their email address to sign up for shopping sites, services, and more. Employees who know an IT team isn’t monitoring their email use may use their business email as a personal email address. That’s a problem for your business.

On the other hand, if you choose Microsoft 365’s email service, you can avoid all of these problems. You control all the email inboxes of all employees.

3. Share Calendar & Contacts

If your business is like many others, it’s important to share calendar events with others. With a free email service, this is possible; however, it’s necessary to connect all the individual calendars. On the other hand, with Microsoft 365, it’s easy to share calendars and contacts with other users.

Sharing common information means employees don’t waste time importing events and contacts within the Microsoft 365 system.

4. It’s More Secure

In addition, Microsoft 365 is more secure than using a free email service. The system offers industry-leading security features, such as MFA (multi-factor authentication), an auditing service to prevent suspicious activity, and email rules to alert and prevent malicious activity. None of these features are available in most free email services.

5. Scalability

With Microsoft 365, your company email is stored in the cloud. That means it’s no longer necessary to purchase email software that’s not used if your business needs to downscale. Microsoft 365 can easily scale up or down as needed.

6. Anywhere Access

When you choose a cloud-based email service such as Microsoft 365, it’s easy to access emails anywhere on any device, whether it’s a PC or mobile device. It’s not necessary to set up forwarding services.

With anywhere access, travelling or working remotely is much easier. Your inbox is the same whether you’re in the office or away.

Summing It Up

There’s no question that Microsoft 365’s email services are superior to free email services. Sure, free is tempting; however, with the Microsoft 365 system, your company will look more professional and credible. It will also have all the other many benefits that go with this service.

Free services have their place; however, Microsoft 365 email services are the best choice when it comes to business email services.