Setting up a Professional Business Email And Why You Must!
When you are looking to grow your business it is essential that your professional brand is mirrored throughout every aspect of your business. So if you want to sell like and to the big companies you need to act like them.
Ensuring you communicate in a professional way is essential. Here we share top tips on email professionalism with your email address.
Although email was introduced back in 1971, it wasn’t until 1993 that we saw the dawn of what was to be one of the most effective method of communication, the electronic mail!
Nowadays most people take it for granted that a business will have an email address in which to communicate at the click of a button, however as with any marketing piece, your email address needs to be consistent with your brand. So a simple personal Gmail or yahoo address may not suffice in creating that vital first impression!
So where do you start?
At this point, let’s make an assumption that you have bought yourself a web domain name, you know that bit you type at the top of your Internet window. At the top of this page you are reading it will say old.thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk
When you purchase a domain name from one of many online traders, they will give you the opportunity, sometimes at an additional cost, to purchase a business email address; so ours are things like this: Lisa@thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk
Seems simple enough, you now have an email address purchased and ready to use, but what on earth do you do next?
There will normally be two options for you; to purchase simple email forwarding, not advisable in most cases as this is a simple forward to an email account and will not allow you to send from your domain. The second is a mailbox, with this option you should be able to view your account from a web page, via an email client is a desktop application such as Microsoft Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora or Apple Mail. Or finally to sync with your mobile device so you can always access your emails when you are on the go.
Your DNS changes
So when once you have purchased your email address, the domain name needs to have some rules set in order for the email account to become active. This is done via the DNS (or Domain Name Server) settings. This can seem pretty scary as this is the information that shows your website where to look in order to be live on the world wide web, so changes to this can break the site if the are done incorrectly. So let’s take a look at what the DNS dashboard will look like…
| DNS Entry | Type | Priority | Destination/Target | |
| @ | MX | 10 | mx0.123-reg.co.uk. | |
| @ | MX | 20 | mx1.123-reg.co.uk. | |
The priority settings are a simple back up for the email servers, so if at any one time Priority 10 is not functioning then your email will automatically swap to Priority 20. This is ideal to minimize downtime for your business through lack of email communication!
The type MX refers to the Mail Exchange and the Destination Target is the mail server address of the company that you have purchased the email from. At this point I am assuming you are not asking someone else to host the emails for you.
So now let’s take a look at how you can set up your email on your computer, and in this example we are looking at a domain purchased through 123reg but most are very similar in their workings.
First of all, you will need to open your email client for example Microsoft Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora or Apple Mail. Then you need to add a new account to your email program. The exact way of doing this will vary depending on which program you use, but you usually need to find the add new email account option.
You will need to check on the site you purchased your domain from for specific instructions for a variety of email clients, although armed with the information below you might be able to set things up yourself.
Whatever Email client you are using you will need to add a new email account and you’ll be asked to supply some details. This is the information you are likely to be prompted for by your email client are as follows:
Username: This is the full email address (e.g. yourname@yourdomain.co.uk)
Password: The password for the mailbox
For POP3:
Mail account type: POP3
Incoming mail server (POP): pop.123-reg.co.uk
Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtp.123-reg.co.uk
For IMAP:
Mail account type: IMAP
Incoming mail server (IMAP): imap.123-reg.co.uk
Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtp.123-reg.co.uk
So what is POP3 and IMAP?
Post Office Protocol version 3
By default, POP3 stores your email on the mail server until it is downloaded by your email client or mobile device. When the email is downloaded onto your computer it is deleted from the server and you cannot view them using webmail or other clients.
Internet Message Access Protocol
IMAP is the more advanced email choice for today’s modern world. It allows you to download your emails using webmail, your email client and your mobile device, where each will show all of your emails concurrently, deleting an email from one will delete from all.
So what is a catch-all account?
A catch-all will ensure that all email sent to your domain name will be forwarded to your mailbox or chosen forward email address – it literally “catches-all” email.
In short, when you buy your domain, make sure the company has a decent online support to help you set this up, just in case there are any problems! Most reputable providers should have simple instructions to help achieve the set up without too much difficulty or better still if you ask nicely, they may well reconfigure your DNS for you!
We hope this article helps you consider your email set up. If you are having any problems or would like further advice, just get in touch via info@thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk or post to our confidential mastermind group where we will add additional learning.
Our mastermind group is only £5 a month and is packed with advice and resources to grow your business. Best of all because it is confidential it means you can ask anything and get treated with respect and have business owners like you share advice. Due to the way that the Insiders work together it is a powerful way to grow your business with high quality advice and great market research opportunities too. You can join here.
Granny said “Reach for the stars” So I did….
Here our international marketer and Media personality and master class presenter for our Five Lakes Crowne Plaza event speaks about her career, and why you shouldn’t miss this event!
“My grandmother use to say “Kubi, reach for the stars, and you might just get the moon”. I took her words literally, and as a child I couldn’t stop dreaming big. Before branding entered my life I was consumed with dance and it was only after suffering an injury to my knee that I changed direction.
Once they told me I could no longer be a semi-professional dancer, I figured, if I couldn’t be i
n-front of the camera, I would at least rule behind it!
Reach for the stars, and you might just get the moon…
Granny was right…here’s my portfolio;
So, by the time I was 21 years old I graduated with a BA Hons in Commerical Music & Marketing and secured two internships, the first was in the UK with MTV Europe and the second was with Blue Flame (Puff Daddy’s Marketing & Advertising Agency) in New York. Fast forward 19 years, Lord I am getting old 🙂 and I have developed an international career with a focus on consumer marketing and branding. Working across Entertainment, Fashion, Sports and Lifestyle brands my resume includes Nike, Blackberry, L’Oreal Professionnel, Justin Timberlake/Sony BMG, Manchester United Footballer Rio Ferdinand, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Sleek Hair, OHTV, MOBO Awards and the Sex & the City Movie Premier.
Today, I still have an international career but now I juggle it with being a mother to Angel, my very talkative 3 year old daughter. When I am not on mummy duties, I tend to be in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean or the Middle East, helping consumer brands to internationalise their proposition. Most recently I have been working in the Caribbean with Jamaica National Bank and Caribbean Fashion Week. This summer I am launching Malaysian Fashion House Mimpikita into the UK market, e-tailer DFNG into Africa and one of Asia’s biggest F&B (Food & Beverage) brands into the US market. I am a “money girl” and simply love helping my clients to commercialise their brands – to turn their ideas into a financially successful venture. Delivering brand audits, capacity building, strategic planning and brand deals, I can honestly say…I love my job.
As life would have it, 20 years after injuring my knee, I now have the best of both worlds as a Brand Consultant and Media Personality. Presenting and producing business related TV and radio shows has made me an award winning media personality, and it’s amazing because now instead of doing pierrette’s, I get to use the power of the media, to empower you!”
To say we are excited about Kubi speaking for us, would be an understatement, So spread the word, and lets rocket your success too!
www.shebuildsbrands.com
Essex Business Woman Goes North (Well Norfolk.)
Susan Pattrick has been a member of the BWN since its launch in 2009 and is a passionate believer in our ethos and power to help all women in business succeed in all areas of business.
As Founder of Dancing Giraffe Susan wants to help all people with any disability access the services and support they need to. Here Susan shares why she jumped in her car and visited Norfolk’s Coordinator Denise Bretton and her events.
On 7th May I went up to Norwich to attend The Business Woman’s 
Network meeting held at Caister Hall Hotel at Caister St Edmund near Norwich. I set off at about 7.15 am not knowing how long it was going to take me to get there. It was a beautiful sunny day and the birds were singing in the trees – although I have to say I didn’t hear much of that because I had Radio 2 on. I love singing along in the car to cheerful songs as I am driving but I cannot sing in tune to save my life. It’s a good job that no one else can hear me.
I had to leave Gerald in the shed again (for those of you that don’t know, Gerald is my organisations mascot since our logo is a Dancing Giraffe and he loves attending Essex BWN events with me) he was most unhappy about that and sulked because I wouldn’t take him along. Of course it was polling day and he wanted me to take him along to the polls! He isn’t registered to vote, which is why I was trying to explain to him that he couldn’t cast his vote and even if he did it wouldn’t count! Anyway I managed to calm him down with a few tasty morsels of green shoots – that’s his favourite food and he seemed satisfied! At least when I got home he was pleased to see me – but that’s getting ahead of myself!
When I arrived at the hotel, (it was being used as a polling station), I was confronted with this beautiful old building set in the most gorgeous grounds and set back from the road in a very quiet area. It was 9.30 am when I arrived (half an hour before the meeting was due to start). I was the first one there – isn’t it always the way, the furthest away was the first one who arrived! The hotel reception staff were lovely and offered me a cup of coffee or tea whilst I waited for Denise Bretton to arrive. Unfortunately Mandie Holgate couldn’t make it because she had a client to coach. She was really miffed at missing out on the presentation. The photo 
here is the one with Mandie and I at the recent BWN event at the Crowne Plaza, Maldon where the Colchester BWN is held.
There was general networking to start with and about 10.30 Denise asked everyone to take their seats in readiness for Sophie Jewry’s presentation. Sophie Jewry, is a fabulous Business Brand Consultant. For the next hour she was very entertaining, explaining how to identify your ideal client (you need to do this for every client profile that you have) and put yourself in their shoes even down to personal things like who your ideal client loves, what they eat and how they dress. We were given a printed guide on how to identify your ideal client which is very useful to me. I didn’t realise how in depth it was just to ensure that you don’t waste money on clients that are never going to use your services. It was an absolutely brilliant hour and well worth the two and a bit hours driving time. I made several good contacts there including the Norfolk Knitters! If you get the chance to go and listen to Sophie then do take it. It is absolutely brilliant! Mandie did say that Sophie was going to come to Colchester BWN at some stage so don’t miss it! Thanks to Jayne Lloyd our fabulous photographer for the pic too. I’m the one in the branded yellow hoodie!
Join us at our events in Norfolk and Essex and if you are in any county in the UK, we would love to help you get paid to network. Learn more here.
Say Hi to Susan and learn more at Dancing Giraffes website – www.dancinggiraffe.com
Real Words From An Awesome Photographer
We loved this email, that much we are sharing it in its entirety here as a blog article:
I have been attending the BWN regularly for over a year now and have found it has had a
hugely positive effect on my business. Each meeting has a master class with knowledgeable speakers who give genuinely useful information I can then put into practice to improve my working methods, whether that be social media, public speaking or time management – I always come away with a set of action points.
The format of the meetings works particularly well, allowing for free networking and the opportunity for most (if not all) attendees to speak about their business in front of the whole group. By attending regularly I have built up relationships with many members, as a network of expert support and advice as well as gaining several new clients, who have since gone on to give me wonderful testimonials that I can now use in my future marketing.
Mandie Holgate and The BWN’s commitment to sharing
and promoting members’ updates and connecting people who can truly work well together is beyond any I have seen at other network groups, and as photographer for the group I am particularly proud to be a part of the continued conversations beyond the meetings themselves.
Thank you Mandie and the BWN for your valuable support and promotion!
Jayne Lloyd Photography @Jaynelloyd
If you would like more than just business card swapping, if you would like the network, connections, support, ideas to achieve more then The BWN could be for you. Our tagline is As Passionate About Your Success As You Are, why not let us prove it to you too.
Check out the fabulous corporate photographer Jayne LLoyd here