Enterprise email—what a new business needs to know

The Microsoft 365 Marketing Team

June 22, 2016

A small investment in a business email account can be the difference between success and failure for your new business. Yet, for many businesses, finding the right enterprise email provider isn’t top of mind. Most people think email is just a given—it is free, after all, so why not just set up a simple email account, like “YourGreatNewBusiness@outlook.com?” While free email accounts are great for personal use, the lack of a proper business email solution could sneak up on you as your company starts to scale.

Be prepared for growth with an enterprise email account. Here are a few of the benefits from a business email account that you won’t get from a free email account:

Customers will notice your email address

Imagine you are at a networking event and meet your dream client. You spend the evening talking about your services and what makes you different from the competition. She is excited about what you bring to the table and asks for your business card. You hand it over only to show that your free email address does not reflect your business’s name. Instead of reading “YourName@YourGreatNewBusiness.com,” your non-enterprise email reads “YourName@outlook.com.” A familiar look of uncertainty rushes over her face and you know that she likely won’t reach out after all.

Small details can make or break trust with a client. Using a free email account implies that your business is too young, small or lacking in the technical proficiency to obtain a domain-based email address—all red flags to a potential client.

Besides gaining client trust with a business email, you also have a better chance of your email being remembered in case your business card is lost. It’s standard practice for business emails to be simple, like “YourName@YourGreatNewBusiness.com,” which allows for easier recall if someone is trying to get ahold of you quickly.

Build trust with your customers

Have you ever received spam from a friend’s personal account after their email address was hacked? Imagine receiving a scam from a client you recently partnered with. Would you want to continue sending your company’s sensitive information to this client?

Quality enterprise email accounts include advanced security protocols and spam filters to safeguard your email from outside threats. This becomes ever more important as business scales since it will protect both your employees and your customers.

Secure business email accounts give you the peace of mind in knowing that your important files won’t be subject to a virus. In addition, your customers will rest assured that they can email you sensitive information without fear of that email being hacked.

Rest assured that your technology will grow with you

When relying on personal emails, business owners often lose valuable insight into communications, which could hinder long-term growth. Enterprise email accounts ensure that your email service becomes an extension of your communication strategy. Employers and managers gain the ability to join the conversation, ensure their clients’ information is secure and their needs are met.

A standard business email provider will make it easy for employers and manager to:

Check the email of a vacationing or ill employee to ensure nothing is dropped.
Review a client email string for context on a project.
Address a conflict at work that may have started over email.
Add email accounts as your company scales.
Help an employee respond to a customer on a sensitive issue.

As businesses grow, conflict is often unavoidable. Business email accounts put the ownership of all correspondence in the company’s hands, whereas personal emails put the ownership in the hands of the individual. If a conflict arises, your business has no control over or access to personal email accounts. Enterprise email, on the other hand, puts the company in control, which is a necessity as a company grows and must become even more accountable to its customers.

Make your email work for you

The best enterprise email solutions today come packed with a suite of integrated tools to add efficiency to your workday.

Quality business email accounts might include:

Calendars for internal and external scheduling or planning.
Office applications (like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.).
Email or phone customer service support.
Consistent spam filtering and malware protection.
Huge mailbox storage for better email management.
Stronger security for protecting sensitive data.

When searching for the right enterprise email solution for your business, it’s important to compare toolset integrations to determine which option is best for you.

Save time and money

It might come as a surprise, but an enterprise email platform can save you more money than even a free solution could. Free solutions come with a set storage limit, meaning you’ll be purging your email once every few months. This not only takes time, but could leave you losing valuable emails and files in the long run.

The time it takes to manage your email storage is time you could be spending growing your company. You might consider an internal email server instead, but that requires an IT team to manage the server, which costs far more than finding a trustworthy enterprise email provider.

Enterprise email helps you scale with ease

For growing companies, switching email providers can be a daunting task. Data is often lost in the transfer, employees go without email for a few days (or even weeks) and customers grow frustrated as their emails bounce. Building your business on an enterprise email foundation will help you keep up as your company grows. Easily add and subtract accounts, change storage, back up your data and integrate collaboration tools.

Your email is a recorded history of your company, and losing any bit of that could leave you without important context as you grow. By choosing a business email solution from the beginning, you are laying the groundwork to scale with ease.