Set up Your Email for E-commerce Success

With email persistently boasting about being the most convenient business communication tool, despite the appearance of all those new shiny apps, it’s no wonder that polishing its functions has become all the rage. Business people need no explanations in this regard; an optimized email service is a truly powerful tool that always delivers.

Before Email

To set up business email, you will need an electronic address first. New businesses pay great attention to designing websites with a story, each more eye-catching than the previous. So, first things first.

To even begin thinking about email communication with your clients, you will need a domain. The fastest way to obtain one is via an internet domain registrar (IDR) or via a web hosting service. There are numerous IDRs around, with prices being fairly leveled. No need to engage in lengthy comparisons — the competition is fierce, which is well reflected in the prices.  

Domains bought from a web hosting service include a number of email addresses. The exact number depends on the package — these are also fairly leveled, too. Choose a package depending on your business’ size and strategy. Large companies will need more email addresses. Conversely, smaller ones will benefit from cheaper packages.

How to Choose an Email Service

Many web hosts offer the forwarding option, which means that all incoming emails will be forwarded to the common email address of your choice, hosted by an email service provider. Most common ones are Outlook, Yahoo and Gmail, with Yahoo being most widely used in the U.S.

Another solution would be to purchase an email service for business purposes exclusively. Of those, there are also many, with most popular choices including Google Apps for Business, Microsoft Office 365 and Amazon WorkMail. When it comes to this option, comparing prices and requirements will come in handy. These solutions are not necessarily cheap and often have alternatives — especially when it comes to small businesses.

If you don’t know how to go about that (and many have their misgivings), simply ask yourself a couple of questions. First, how many email addresses do you already have in your database? Secondly, do you use (or plan to start using) dynamic content, personalization and transactional emails? What form of segmentation do you use? Most importantly, what is your business’ projected growth?

When you have the answers to these conundrums, compare the offer of different email service providers. There are several factors to look into, with the most important ones being: email automation, authentication and deliverability, reporting, overall usability, list management and social media integration.

• Email automation is a must for marketing campaigns. What you should consider when choosing an email service provider in this regard is dynamic content, shopping carts and how easy it is to create welcome emails.
• Authentication and deliverability make certain that all of the emails you send actually reach your customers’ inboxes. You wouldn’t wish them to be blocked by spam filters, let alone ISPs (check common blacklists online).  
• Reporting tools are essential when it comes to monitoring your email campaigns, or, rather, their efficiency. They should, therefore, be easy to use and comprehensible at a glance. Common factors that make it convenient include the ability to export data for offline analysis, to integrate reports with website analytics and multi-campaign analysis.

• Usability may appear to be a vague term, but, in fact, it encompasses a couple of standards. The first question you need to ask yourself here is: what if something goes wrong? Make no mistake about it, it is certain to, at least from time to time. A preferable email service provider is able to address the issue at hand in a timely manner (which usually translates into ASAP in the business world).
• List management should be seamless. At any given moment, you should be able to keep track of multi-campaigns, with at least the most basic aspects being covered. The absolutely essential segmentation criteria include demographic and behavioral data.
• Social media integration goes without saying in the age of online communication. Statistics shows that most emails are being accessed on mobile devices, along with social media platforms. The email service provider of your choice should offer at least integration with most popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter.

Connect It All!

Once you have everything set up, it’s time to connect your domain with the email service. There are different ways to do this, with the most common ones being webmail, connectivity with email clients, mail forwarding and hosted services.

In Brief

Webmail stores emails on the registrar’s servers. They are accessed via a web browser.

Connectivity with email clients allows you to use a desktop email client to access your inbox. A common example would be Microsoft Outlook.

Mail forwarding ensures all new emails are being forwarded to your email address hosted elsewhere.  

Hosted services are similar to webmail, as they store messages on provider’s servers. A common example would be Amazon WorkMail.