When launching an online presence, you’re often told to prepare a website-building platform and web hosting to support it. While these two are essential for publishing your website on the internet an often overlooked service is email hosting.
Anyone new to the hosting industry might look at this as a buzzword. But if you’ve ever signed up for a Hotmail or Gmail account, then you’ve likely used a free email hosting service before.
While free options are great for personal use, it’s essential you get a business email hosting solution. To better highlight this, we’re looking at all things email hosting — from what it is, how it works, and business trends to convince you why you need a good hosting service today.
What is Email Hosting and How Does it Work?
Email hosting refers to the service that allows users to send, store, and receive emails using a custom account. All your incoming and outgoing data are processed by a server set up by your hosting provider. The server works by ensuring that email delivery is secure and efficient.
Unlike free emails that end with @yahoo.com or @gmail.com, you’ll know that an email is hosted on a premium service when it’s tied to a custom domain. For example, if you own an online store called yourbusiness.com, your email address can be [email protected].
10 Email Hosting Facts Every Business Should Know
1. Email and web hosting are different platforms but you can host them with the same provider
This might be an obvious one — but you’d be surprised to know how many people confuse one after the other.
Your web host and email host play two different functions. While a web hosting server provides you with the CPU, memory, bandwidth, and storage for your website files, an email hosting server stores all your email messages.
As a user, you have the option to host your emails and website with a single provider. A benefit you can get from this is that it’s easier to set up and you don’t need to contact separate companies in case you need technical assistance. You also get to manage both your hosting accounts on a single control panel.
Securing your web and email through the same provider can be cost-effective too. Depending on what they offer, most brands bundle email and web hosting together.
On the other hand, you can also opt to host separately. So say for example you’re happy with your current web host, but unsatisfied with their email hosting service.
Simply contact and purchase a package with a new provider. They’ll then give you steps on how to change email hosting.
2. More than half of businesses use email to connect with customers
Email is one of the best avenues to engage with leads and customers. In fact, 64% of businesses have an email marketing strategy in place.
So what does this have to do with email hosting?
We mentioned how professional email providers let you connect your address to a domain. In turn, this improves authority and trust. Tying your company name to an email address makes you appear more professional, giving customers more confidence when engaging with your brand.
3. Incorporating your domain in your email improves brand recognition too
Connecting your domain to your email improves brand consistency, you then gain more exposure and recognition.
You can also leverage email hosting to manage multiple addresses. If you’re running a business, this means that you could set up accounts for different functions like marketing, customer service, and technical support. So no matter what department your customer reaches out to, all their emails are connected to a single domain.
4. Business emails help you avoid spam filters
Personal email addresses can quickly put a wrench in your email strategies. Users are likely to be suspicious of emails sent by a generic address and end up inadvertently deleting them.
Low open rates and high bounce rates then trigger spam filters, sending all future emails you send straight to the spam or junk folder.
5. “Free” email is not exactly free
Everything comes with a price on the internet. So if you think you’re getting a sweet deal by signing up for a free email service, think again.
Choosing a free email like gmail.com gives Google a way to generate revenue through selling ad space. Other providers also recuperate the costs of hosting your account by selling or trading your personal information. To be sure, it’s always a good practice to read the privacy policy before signing up.
Of course, given the branding and marketing benefits, a premium service is still a more viable option than free email hosting.
6. Security is another reason to leverage a premium service
Security should be on the top of every priority list, especially when data breaches largely happen through emails.
In 2021 alone, an estimated 96% of phishing attacks arrive by email. Premium email hosts prevent phishing or spam emails by verifying senders and marking malicious messages as junk emails.
Email hosting also secures your emails by encrypting them, thus preventing third parties from intercepting or stealing your data. This feature is especially useful when your company deals with sensitive data.
7. Premium email hosting comes with two essential features: POP3 Access and IMAP Access
Email hosting providers generally offer two essential features: POP3 Access and IMAP Access.
Pop and IMAP are protocols that retrieve emails from a server so you can access your emails from any device. The differences between the two are the following:
- POP3 Access gives you the option to view new emails and download them even without internet access. This is a great option for growing businesses.
- IMAP or your Internet Message Access Protocol, on the other hand, suits bigger businesses and enterprises. It saves all sent and received emails on the server, allowing you to access your email from any device.
8. You can easily forward emails
No one wants to miss out on a possible lead. By leveraging email forwarding, you can easily redirect an email to other contacts.
Now, there are a number of free and premium email forwarding services. But instead of investing in another platform, most email hosting providers let you easily set up email forwarding via a control panel.
9. You can set up your own email server
Setting up a private email server is possible. At the most basic level, you’ll need a computer with a good hard drive capacity to function as your server.
You’ll also need a domain name for your private email server, a stable internet connection, and an email server service to route your emails. You’ll likely also need features like malware protection and spam filters.
So let’s get to the real point: Is setting up your own email server even worth it?
If you want full control and have the time and resources to manage everything on your own 24/7, go ahead and set up your own mail server.
But the more practical option is to get an email host that does the heavy lifting for you. This way, you focus more on your business instead of dealing with a plethora of technical functions and security issues.
10. Email hosting grows with your business
It’s every business’s goal to scale — so you need tools that scale along with you.
With email hosting, you have features that meet your short and long-term goals. Among them are storage capacity, multiple email management, and even customer support.
Choose a Business Email Hosting Solution that Meets Your Goals
Hosting companies have options for businesses of all sizes — there’s email hosting for small businesses and other options for enterprises.
Most businesses, including your own, might already have availed of an email hosting service. But if you’re looking for a more secure and reliable option, check out CLDY.
CLDY is a premium email hosting provider in Singapore. Enjoy high uptime, malware and spam protection, and excellent mail deliverability. Scale your package to go along with your business needs and enjoy the support you can expect from a first-class hosting provider.
