How to Create a Professional Email Address Ideas

Most people are oblivious to the importance of an email address in their professional and personal life. Whether you are an individual or an organization, it is essential that you create a professional email address that will adequately represent you and what you stand for.

Other reasons why you need to create a professional email address:

• It can improve your credibility as a professional or business.
• A professional email address will help you build brand credibility.
• The right professional email address will create a great first impression in the minds of your receivers.

Basically, whether you are a business trying to reach more clients or you are an individual looking for employment or trying to network, a professional email address is essential to how your email receivers view your email. Learn how to create a professional email address.

How to create a professional email address?

Now that you know the importance of creating a professional email address, you must be wondering; how can I create a professional email address that gives my receivers the right impression?

Here are some steps you can follow:

Step 1: Get a custom domain name

The very first step is to get a custom domain name. The domain names you are probably familiar with are those that end in ‘@gmail.com', or ‘@outlook.com.' While these are free, they are unprofessional. Your domain name should be unique to you and your professional brand.

It is effortless to create a custom domain name, simply:

• Get an email provider with custom hosting. Gsuite offers custom hosting for professional email addresses. There are others like iCloud, Outlook and Yahoo, FastMail, ProtonMail, and Zoho Mail. Do your research and settle on the one that works best for you.

Step 2: Choose a format for your email address name

Once you have your domain done, choose an email name format that works best for you. There are a ton of email formats out there, and later in this article, we will give you some email name address ideas you could try.

Step 3: Consider your email display name

Next, select your email display name. An email display name is a name the receivers of your emails see at the top of their email address. Think of it as an email identity. It is the name your email receivers identify your emails. You can stick to just your first name and last name or your business name.

Best practices for creating a professional email address

There are some best practices to follow when creating a professional email address name. They include:

• Keep email name short. Having a short email address name means people are likely to remember it.
• Make sure the name is pronounceable. No one will recall a name they cannot pronounce, so make sure the name you pick is easy to pronounce. If you are using your first name and last name in your professional email, and either of them is difficult to pronounce, you can shorten them to initials, which are easier.
• Stay away from diacritics. There is a time and place to use diacritics, and it is not in your professional email address name.
• Make sure the name is memorable. The goal is to have receivers remember your email address and your brand. Do this by creating an easy to remember professional email address.
• Think of the long term. Whatever name you pick for your professional email address should be one that can last long term. If the name you settle on might be one you wouldn't want to use in the long run, consider changing it. For example, if any of your names could change for any reason (marriage, divorce, etc.), consider sticking to the stable name.

Things to avoid when creating a professional email address

Aside from the professional email address ideas above, you should also keep the following tips in mind:

• Avoid using numbers in your professional email address name. Most people add numbers to their personal email address names. This is usually because it is hard to find a unique email address name. But, for a professional email address, adding numbers to your email address name can come off as sketchy and unprofessional. Also, when you are using a custom email address name with a domain, finding a unique email address name is much easier.
• Stay away from nicknames in your professional email address name.
• Skip the mention of religion, race, gender, sexual preference, or anything that provides information to your receivers that they do not need to know and could potentially use to form a bias against you.
• Also, bypass indicating your position or profession in your professional email address. Leave things like ‘Engr', ‘Prof,' ‘CEO,' etc., out of your professional email address name.

Email service providers

As mentioned earlier, there are a plethora of email service providers available for you to use. It is a simple matter of finding them, comparing the prices and offerings, and settling on what works best for your current email needs.

These email address service providers offer things like:

• Paid plans with different packages you can choose from.
• End-to-end encryption on your email messages.
• Storage of a certain amount.
• Collaborative tools for employees in your company.
• Tight privacy feature, etc.

A few things to look out for when picking an email service provider for your professional email address are:

• Is it easy to keep your inbox organized?
• Does the email service provider allow you to access your account from other email clients?
• Is the spam filter as active as you would want?
• And of course, does the email service provider allow you to use a custom domain and address?

All these are significant factors that will ultimately determine which service provider you choose to invest in. Pick a provider that matches your needs, and you are good to go.

The best email service providers for privacy.

Hushmail

Hushmail is the first email service provider on our list as their service is not just secure; it is also owned and operated on their own server. This means that your data doesn't leave the server. Other features this platform has that makes it extra appealing for privacy enthusiast are:

• Two-step verification process
• Automatic encryption
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)

TorGuard

The next email service provider on our list is TorGuard. A VPN provider develops this email service provider. With features like PGP email encryption and end-to-end security, it is a trusted and secure email service platform.

Tutanota

Another secure email service provider is Tutanota. With this platform, your entire inbox with all your contact information is encrypted. The service is so secure that even if a court orders them to hand over your personal information, they would only provide the encrypted emails without decrypting them or providing the court a way to decrypt them. For organizations where privacy is of the utmost importance, and email service providers like this could come in handy. Other features this service provider has are:

• The platform doesn't ever store unencrypted data on their server.
• They provide end-to-end encrypted emails to any email provider
• Tutanota automatically encrypts all aspects of an email (subject, attachment, body, etc.)

Some common professional email address formats

Now, let's get into some common professional email address ideas you can try.

• Making use of your name:
  • First name + middle name+ Last name
  • First name initial + middle name initial + last name initial
  • Last name + first name
  • Last name + first name initial
  • First name + last name
  • First name + last name initial
  • First name initial + Last name initial
  • First name
  • Last name + first name initial+ middle name initial
  • Last name + first name + Middle name initial.
  • Shortened first name + shortened last name
  • Shortened first name + shortened last name + shortened last name

• Feature your location or company name: Adding a location to your email address if it is tied to a specific location is a great email format. A few ways to do this are:
  • First name + city name
  • First name + state name
  • First name + Company name
  • First name + Last name + company name
  • Company name + City name

• Be creative: Your email address doesn't have to be boring for it to be professional. You can get creative with the names you choose. Some tips to help you:
  • If your brand is in a unique niche, pick an email address name that is on-brand.
  • If you use humor in your branding, incorporate that into the email address name that you choose.
  • But, if your brand is on the more serious side, you should stay away from names that could come off as unserious or offensive to your email receivers.

• Let form follow function: When you pick an email address with the sole aim of attracting inquiries on your website, the best practice is to name that email address according to the inquiries associated with it. Examples:
  • Use email names like ‘[email protected]' or ‘[email protected]' for emails that are going to a particular department.
  • For emails that serve a particular purpose, e.g., ‘PR' or ‘Enquires', make sure you use the role the email serves as the email name.
  • Name + role is another great idea for emails that both serve a particular role, but are specific to people in that department. So, for example, if you are creating an email for someone named Laura in the marketing department, the email address format could be [email protected].
  • For any emails relating to careers, you could use ‘careers', ‘WorkWithUs.' or even ‘jobs' as the prefix to your email names.
  • Use the prefix ‘info' or ‘general' for an email address for any information.
  • Another great format for a community connection email address could be ‘[email protected],', ‘[email protected],' and even ‘[email protected].'

• Highlight your brand: Put the spotlight on your brand, so whoever gets an email from you know where it is coming from. Of course, this could become redundant if the domain name you chose is also your brand name. So something like [email protected] doesn't sell well. Only use this format when your domain name is not your brand name.
• Switch up your sales words: Most people get turned off when they see sales terms used in an email address. If your target audience is like this, you can switch up words like ‘sales,' or ‘marketing,' for words like ‘visibility,', ‘growth,', or something else related to sales.
• Replace inquiry with an alternative: Another word you can switch up in your email is ‘inquiry,' simply because it could get boring or might not exactly suit the service you are trying to render. Instead, you can replace it with words like ‘[email protected]', ‘[email protected]' or even ‘[email protected]' whatever you chose, make sure it fits your brand identity and the purpose of setting up that email.

When to use a professional email address

Whether you are a business or an entity, you can use your professional email address when:

• You are sending work-related emails to your professional associates.
• Communicating about volunteer opportunities.
• Board appointments pop up, and you need to send out communication.
• Trying to approach a company or network to a group of people.

When not to use your work emails.

Just as there is an appropriate time to use your professional emails for your communication, there are also instances when you shouldn't consider using your professional emails to communicate, they are:

• If you have a separate job, don't use your professional email for it.
• Paraventure, you need to send out communication not related to your company work; avoid using your professional email.

Final Words

Creating a professional email address is straightforward and easy. By following this detailed article, you will have your professional email address set up and running in no time.