One of the most subtle “branding” tools you can use for your business on a daily basis is your email address.
But so many people miss the boat on this, and it could be because they don’t know how to set up their email applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, to use the available email addresses that come included with their domain hosting.
If you are still using “yourname@bellsouth.net”, or @gmail, or @comcast.net … and so on, for your business email address, this article is for you.
Here we show how to set up Outlook to use yourname@yourdomain.com as your primary email address for your business. You will still need your internet service provider’s (ISP) email address – but keep it for personal items, or subscriptions, or whatever.
What we are going to do is use your ISP to access your business email on your domain’s server and deliver it to you in Outlook on your computer.
This is very easy to do, it just takes a bit of description to take you through the steps. Okay, let’s get started.
For illustration purposes, we are using Microsoft Outlook for Windows XP. The interface will look different from more recent versions of Outlook, but the commands are pretty much the same.
How to set up your website’s email account in Outlook
In the following, you will find the instructions you need to ADD A NEW EMAIL ACCOUNT to Outlook so you can send and receive from your website’s email account. The process is explained below with illustrations, but here is an overview of what you’ll be doing.
- CREATE EMAIL ACCOUNT ON YOUR SERVER
(If you are a client of ours, we save you the trouble of this step – we set this up and send you the new email and password information.) - FIND ISP SETTINGS
The next step is to open Outlook and make a note of the outgoing mail settings you are using for your ISP’s email account (probably your current default account). - ADD NEW ACCOUNT
Then you add a new email account using the settings and password set up on your domain’s control panel. - SPECIFY AS DEFAULT
You then specify this account as your default. That means all the email you CREATE will be sent from yourname@yourwebsite.com account by default. = BRANDING!!
If this is your main business, then we recommend setting your new account as the default. This will assist your marketing effort by making people aware of your company name and website.
USEFUL TIP – TEMPORARILY OVERRIDING THE DEFAULT:
If there are times when you want to send email from any other email account, simply create your email message as usual, then on the MESSAGE menu bar click on the Accounts button (Win98: File > Accounts) and select the account you want to send that particular message from.
PRELIMINARY: Create your email address on your server’s CPanel
NOTE: If you are a Concept Communiqués client, ignore this step because we have already done this for you. You will need to have handy the email address and password you received from us.
Log in to your server’s CPanel, click on Email Accounts, and set up your new email account. For this example we will be John Smith, and we are setting up jsmith@yourdomain.com. Type in your password and make a note of it somewhere safe! You will need this information to set up your Outlook account, AND to access your webmail on the internet when you are away from your computer.
You can now log out of your CPanel.
STEP ONE: Find your ISP’s “Outgoing Mail” settings …
Open Outlook and click on Tools > E-mail Accounts (in WIN98 this is Tools > Accounts)
STEP TWO: View the email account properties
Under E-mail, select “View or change existing e-mail accounts”, then click the NEXT button at the bottom of the dialog box.
STEP THREE: View the account properties
Your default email account will be highlighted/selected. (If you have more than one email account, there will be a list in this window.)
Click on the “Change” button, although you aren’t going to change anything, we just want to look at the settings.
(In WIN98, click the Properties button.)
STEP FOUR: Note the “Outgoing Mail” setting
CAREFULLY write down the information you see in the “Outgoing mail server (SMTP):” box – outlined below in yellow. (In WIN98, this information is found on the Servers Tab.)
HOT TIP: select and COPY this setting (CTRL-C, or right click and select Copy), and paste it (CTRL-V) in a new Outlook NOTE for future reference. Also removes the possibility of transcription error, as you can copy and paste from the Note when needed in future. And you won’t have to go through this whole rigmarole again. Unless you change ISPs.
In the above box, once you’ve got the “Outgoing mail server” information you need, press the CANCEL button at the bottom of the dialog box to back out of the account information and return to the main Outlook interface.
Next, we show you how to SET UP YOUR NEW ACCOUNT
STEP FIVE: Setting up your new account
Once again, click on Tools > E-mail Accounts (in WIN98 this is Tools > Accounts)
STEP SIX: Add a new e-mail account
Select “Add a new e-mail account”, then click the NEXT button at the bottom of the dialog box.
STEP SEVEN: Server type
Select the POP3 radio button, and click on NEXT at the bottom of the dialog box.
STEP EIGHT: Enter your new account information
These boxes are self explanatory, and remember to type carefully.
Obviously, you replace your own name and your new email address with our example information.
Although we have used a .com address for our example, you will be sure to use the CORRECT .com – .net – .org – .biz – .us ending for your website in all cases.
- YOUR NAME: this is what people see when they receive your email, so type in your name
- EMAIL ADDRESS: enter your full email address here
- INCOMING MAIL SERVER: note the syntax is mail.yourwebsite.com
- OUTGOING MAIL SERVER: enter your ISP setting information already obtained in Steps 1-4. Or copy and paste it from your Notes.
- USER NAME: your User Name MUST be your full email address – or it won’t work!
- PASSWORD: use your assigned password. It is case sensitive.
STEP NINE: More Settings
Proof everything carefully, and then select More Settings (in above picture, just above the Next and Cancel buttons.
This dialog box will open:
The name you type in the Mail Account box is what this email account name will be filed under in your alphabetical list of accounts. If you have multiple email addresses (yes! you can have many and Outlook will process all of them for you), make sure the name you give this account will be clear to you.
STEP TEN: Outgoing Server Tab
After you’ve entered the Mail Account info above, click on the Outgoing Server Tab and check the following:
STEP ELEVEN: Connection Tab
On the Connection Tab, if you are using DIAL-UP you would normally select the “Connect using my phone line” radio button.
If you are using cable, etc. you would select the first option.
STEP TWELVE: Nearly All Done
Click OK in the above box and you’ll be taken back to the E-mail Accounts Settings dialog box shown above in STEP EIGHT.
From there, you can either click the TEST SETTINGS button which will send a test email to your new email address, or if you want to skip the test simply click on NEXT and that finishes setting up your new account.
A “Congratulations” page will come up and when you click NEXT, you’ll be back at the regular Outlook interface.
SET AS DEFAULT
If you are planning to use this account as your default email account (all email you create will be sent using this email address), you must set the account as the DEFAULT.
To accomplish this …
- Click on Tools > E-mail Accounts
- “View or change existing accounts” will be automatically selected, click NEXT
- Your list of email accounts will be displayed
- Select your new email account by clicking on it once
- Click the button on the right labeled “Set as Default”
- That’s it!
You’re all set!
We hope you found this article useful and are now on your way to using that important branding tool for your business – your own email address!
Use this procedure to set up email addresses for your employees on their computers too. Professionalism at its best.
Please feel free give us your feedback in the comments section below.
St. Augustine, FL