Business email (domain email)

How do you set up a business email address?

You set up a business email by signing up for an email service and adding the mail records (MX) it gives you to your domain's DNS. Once you've also verified domain ownership and set up spam protection, the initial setup is done.

Get it right once at the start, and after that you use it like any other email, in a phone app or on a computer. Adding staff or more addresses can also be done from the service's admin panel.

If suppliers or customers have been contacting you at a personal email address, don't shut it down right after creating your business email. For a while, keep replying to messages sent to your personal address while sharing the new one, and move over gradually so no one loses touch.

1. 01Choose an email service and sign up with an admin account in your own name.
2. 02Add the verification record (TXT) the service gives you to your DNS to prove you own the domain.
3. 03Add the mail records (MX) and clean up any other MX records you used before.
4. 04Add SPF and DKIM records so your mail is less likely to land in spam.
5. 05Create the addresses you'll use, like hello@ and reservation@.
6. 06Send and receive test emails with other services like Naver Mail and Gmail, and check they don't land in spam.
7. 07Connect it to the mail app on your phone and check that notifications come through.

Which business email service should you choose?

Choose based on how many people will use it, the tools you already use and the features you need. For example, Google Workspace suits businesses used to Gmail and Google Drive, while Naver Works suits businesses that prefer a screen similar to Naver Mail.

Most charge a monthly fee per user (account), and free tiers and prices change often. Check the current price list and storage space yourself before signing up.

If you only need to receive mail, like a one-person craft studio, you can start light with "forwarding," which sends mail addressed to your business to your personal email. But your personal address may show when you reply, so if you email suppliers often, a proper email service is better.

Whichever service you choose, always turn on two-step verification for the admin account. If someone takes over your business email account, the damage can spread beyond your business, for example through fake payment-request emails sent to your suppliers or customers.

Why do business emails end up in spam?

If the recipient's email service can't find proof that a message really came from your business, it sends it to spam. The settings that write that proof into your DNS are SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

SPF is a list saying "our business's mail is only sent from these servers," and DKIM is a digital signature attached to each email. DMARC is the rule that decides what happens to mail that fails those two checks.

Google requires everyone who sends mail to Gmail to have at least one of SPF or DKIM, and requires all three from senders who send more than 5,000 messages a day. Even for a small business, it's safer to set up SPF and DKIM from the start.

To check that it's set up correctly, send an email to a Gmail account and click "Show original." If you see "PASS" next to SPF and DKIM, you're good. If that's tricky, you can ask your agency to send you a screenshot of that screen.

Why aren't contact form notification emails arriving?

Usually it's because the notification is sent from somewhere other than your business's mail server, so the receiving side filters it out as spam. Website contact forms usually have the website server or an email-sending service send mail on your behalf, and if that sender isn't on your SPF list, it easily looks suspicious.

So when adding a contact form, check where the notification emails are sent from and, if needed, add that sender to your SPF record. Before launch, submit a few test inquiries yourself and check both your inbox and spam folder.

In businesses like hair salons and clinics, where a missed booking or inquiry means losing a customer on the spot, talk to your agency about also getting text or messenger notifications instead of relying on email alone.

How should you split role addresses and personal addresses?

Management is easier if you give customers role addresses and give staff personal addresses. A role address is one named after the job it does, like info@ or reservation@.

A role address doesn't need its own account; you can use the service's "alias" or "group" feature so several people receive it together. For example, a hair salon could have mail to reservation@ go to both the owner and the manager, so booking emails aren't missed even when one of them is off.

When an employee leaves, suspend their personal account right away and transfer any mail you need to your own account. You can only do this cleanup yourself if you've held the admin account from the start.

What are common mistakes when setting up a business email?

The most common mistake is creating the admin account in the name of the web agency or an employee. Your email builds up supplier information and customer contacts, so the admin should always be you.

Another frequent mistake is leaving out the mail records when moving name servers while switching web agencies. If you're leaving this to an agency, ask the questions below in advance.

Also avoid having several employees share the password to one email account. You can't tell who sent which email, and every time someone leaves, you have to change the password and share it with everyone again. Giving each person an account or using a group address is cleaner.

• Whose name is the email service admin account under?
• Will you add all the MX, SPF and DKIM records?
• Will you set contact form notifications to come to this address too?
• If we move name servers later, will you move the mail records too?