You’ve been running your business with a personal email address? And now you want to create one that looks more professional? In this quick guide, we’ll show you how you can set up a business email account in Gmail.
This is something we often see with small companies. They use a personal Gmail account to email their customers. As well as their suppliers.
Which is a mistake. And a big one at that. Why? Because in 2023, no one is going to take you seriously with a disposable email address.
If you send professional emails from an email address ending in “@gmail.com”, most people won’t open your messages. Unless they already know who you are.
Worst, there’s a good chance that your email will be flagged as spam. Which means it may never reach your recipients’ inbox.
As a professional, you can’t have that. You need a clear, credible and trust-worthy line of communication with your customers.
And the best way to establish one? Is to create a business email account. And start building your email reputation.
What is a business email account?
A business email account is an email address used specifically for business-related communication.
You can spot these addresses very easily. Instead of ending with “@gmail.com”, like a personal email would, business email accounts end with a custom domain name.
For example, if your name is Elton Mask. And you’ve created a company named Space Y, your business email account could be [email protected].
Or something like that. While your personal email address would typically look like this 👉 [email protected].
There are A LOT of good reasons to create a business email account for your company as soon as you can. Here are some the main ones ⤵️
- It will make you easier to contact
- It will make your look more credible
- It will improve your deliverability and open rates
- It will help you separate your private and professional correspondence
And the good news is that setting up business email account in Gmail is very simple. All it takes is a few clicks.
How to create a business email with Gmail?
You can create a Gmail business email account in minutes directly from the Google Workspace webpage. To do so, follow the steps below.
1. Create your Google Workspace Account
For starters, you’ll need to create a Google Workspace Account. To do that, go to the Google Workspace homepage. And click on Get Started.
On the next page, Google will ask for your business name, number of employees, and the region where your business is based. Fill out this information. And click on Next.
Next, you’ll need to enter your contact info. This includes your first name, last name and current email address. Once you’re done, click on Next.
2. Connect your domain
To finish setting up your business email account in Gmail, you’ll need a domain name, like example.com.
A domain name is what comes after https://www. in a website’s URL. This step is important. Because Google will use your domain name to create your corporate email address.
For example, if your company was named, say Mailmeteor, your domain would be mailmeteor.com. And your business email would be [email protected].
How to get a new domain name to create you business email account in Gmail
At this point, Google gives you two options. The first one is to create a new domain name if you don’t already have one.
To do that, click on No, I need one. And search for a domain that reflects your business’s name or brand.
Google will tell you if a domain name is available or not. Try to pick something short, memorable and easy to spell.
Also, keep in mind that Google will charge you $12 per year for .com, .net, and .org domain names. Or $30 per year for .co domain names.
Once you’ve selected your new domain name, click on Next. You’re now one step closer to creating your business email account in Gmail.
How to use an existing domain name to create your Gmail business account
The second option is to use an existing domain name to set up your professional email account in Gmail.
This is useful if you already bought a domain. And you want your business email address to be the same as your website.
To proceed, click on Yes, I have one I can use. Then simply type your current domain name. And click on Next.
3. Create your Gmail business email username
Alright. It’s time to create your username. As well as the password that you’ll use to access your Gmail business email account.
Your username is what comes before the @ in your corporate email address. Once you’ve picked a Gmail username, it’s hard to change it.
So choose wisely. And make sure to respect proper email etiquette and naming conventions.
For example, if your name is Mary Belmond, you may want to choose one of the following usernames:
You can also create email groups for each department of your company. Here are a few examples of Gmail business email usernames:
Whatever you choose, make sure to use the same username format throughout your organization.
Once you’ve picked your professional username, click on Agree and continue to finish creating your Gmail business account.
And if you want to update your username at some point in the future, make sure to check our guide on how to change your Gmail email name.
All that’s left to do now is to choose a payment plan. And your Gmail business email account will be ready 🎉
How much does a Gmail business email account cost?
Gmail is free when you use it as your personal email address. But if you want a Gmail business email account, you’ll have to take out your wallet.
Depending on your needs and the size of your company, you can choose one of the following plans:
- Business Starter (6$ per month) – this is Google’s cheapest plan. It will get you a custom business email account, 100 participant video meetings and up to 30 GB of storage per user.
- Business Standard (12$ per month) – you’ll get a Gmail business account. As well as 150 participant video meetings, recordings and 2 TB of storage per user.
- Business Plus (18$ per month) – this includes a professional email address, 500 participant video meetings, 5 TB of storage per user and access to Vault, an information governance and eDiscovery tool for Google Workspace.
- Business Enterprise – this is Google’s custom plan. You’ll need to contact sales to know its price. This gets you a Gmail pro account, unlimited cloud storage, S/MIME encryption, enhanced support and advanced security, management and compliance controls.
The prices mentioned above are only valid if you take out an annual subscription. If you don’t want to commit for a full year, you can choose a monthly payment plan. But the rates will be a bit higher.
Not sure what you want to go for? Google offers a 14-day free trial. Use it to explore your Gmail business email account. And check out all of the Google Workspace features.
Should you use Gmail as your business email account?
So far we’ve talked a lot about Gmail. Because we think it’s one of the best alternatives out there to create a business email account.
But you shouldn’t simply take our word for it. So in this section, we’ll go over the pros and cons of using Gmail as your professional email account.
Let’s start with the pros. Gmail for businesses is easy to set up. And even easier to use on a daily basis.
You’ll get access to Google Workspace. Which includes a whole suite of useful productivity tools, such as Google Sheets, Google Docs or Google Meets.
Gmail can integrate with great third-party applications, such as Mailmeteor, which lets you unlock new features on your business email account.
And last but not least, creating a corporate email account in Gmail is a budget-friendly solution.
You can start with the $6 per month Business Starter plan. Which costs as much as a Starbuck coffee.
And you can easily scale your Gmail business email account later on, once your company gets bigger.
For all those reasons, Gmail is one of the most popular email clients. Especially when it comes to creating a business email account.
But Google’s emailing solution for businesses is not perfect either. First, it doesn’t have a free plan. So once your 14-day free trial is over, you’ll need to pay. Even if you’re a very small company.
What’s more, the business version of Gmail doesn’t offer quite as many features as Microsoft Outlook. One of its main rivals.
The bottom line
By now you should know why your company needs a corporate email address. And why Gmail is one of the best alternatives out there to create one.
And if you want to take it one step further? You can supercharge your Gmail business email account with Mailmeteor.
With over 5 million users worldwide, Mailmeteor is a privacy-focus email marketing solution that allows you to send personalized mass emails with Gmail.
Our free plan lets you send up to 50 emails per day. Feel free to give it a try and let us know what you think.
Happy sending :)
