You need an E-mail provider checkup

[Texas_Signmaker]

I've used Yahoo Mail for the last 13 years. I've wanted to switch many times but didn't because that would mean I'd have to change my e-mail address but that was too important and I didn't want to loose my e-mails.

Over the last year or so it has gotten worse. My e-mails that I was sending routinely ended up in customers' spam folders and lately I just wouldn't receive customer e-mails. People would reply to me or send me new e-mails and I would never get them... not even in the spam folder. That was the last straw.

I set up an e-mail address that I pay for with Microsoft Office 365 and it uses my domain name. I "forward" the e-mail from Yahoo to my new address so I don't miss any of them. Once I reply to someone that sends it to my old Yahoo account they lock in my new address.

I 100% get all my e-mails now, with NO time delay. All my e-mails go though and not land in spam folders, all is right with the e-mail world. I was able to import 13 years of e-mail data from Yahoo into Outlook and kept everything.

Just want to give you guys something to think about if you're using a free e-mail service. They are not flawless and their domain name at the end of your email address look cheesy. I only pay $13/mo for Outlook. It took about a full day to download ALL my e-mails, set-up the new e-mail address and import data into Outlook...but it was 100% worth it.

 

[netsol]

tex, it is only $5/mo if uou use O365 webmail, but it is harder to use the office web apps
for $13.you can enroll 5 devices, pc, laptop, macbook, ipad, android tablet and install officecon all 5. i still don't like the subscription model, but...
we have changed quite. a few clients over to microsoft hosting, it isn't perfect, uness you compare it to yahoo, but it is not bad (better than gmail hosted mail)

 

[Jburns]

I agree. Hotmail is getting so bad - good legit emails are going to spam and the worst well obvious spam emails are going straight to inbox.

Tip: avoid the word "free" when sending messages.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

tex, it is only $5/mo if uou use O365 webmail, but it is harder to use the office web apps
for $13.you can enroll 5 devices, pc, laptop, macbook, ipad, android tablet and install officecon all 5. i still don't like the subscription model, but...
we have changed quite. a few clients over to microsoft hosting, it isn't perfect, uness you compare it to yahoo, but it is not bad (better than gmail hosted mail)

I pay $13 for email and 5 installations of Office. Microsofts HOSTS my email domain. I dont use the online Office webapps, only the desktop versions.... pretty cheap compared to when you had to buy CDs of Office if you ask me

 

[ikarasu]

Curious, how many of you still use hotmail/yahoo/gmail address's as your business email?

I always chuckle a little bit when someone has a nice website setup... then for contact information its signcompany@gmail.com.

If you have a website, 99% of the time your host will setup unlimited e-mails for you, for free as part of your hosting plan... then you get a sales@signcompany.com e-mail rather than a free one... it makes it look much more professional.

Office $13 isn't bad, the company I work at uses it - it's nice if you need excel, word, and the E-mail client.

I personally prefer google suite though - For $7 Canadian you get an E-mail account with your domain, and 30 GB of cloud storage. For $14 Canadian you get the domain, and unlimited cloud storage... I backup every client file to google with this. I also use it as a dropbox type service to send files to clients, and we created a form on our website with a simple upload button... users can goto www.domain.com/upload, hit upload and upload whatever artwork they want, no matter what the size of it, it's great for receding files. And... you only need to pay for one E-mail address, And you can create catchalls for free... like Sales@company, admin@company, billing@company, etc.

But no matter what you decide to go with, for the small price they charge... getting an E-mail that matches with your website looks a lot more professional than using a free address, every shop should get one, if they havent yet.

 

[visual800]

I have always used my internet provider as the email....@charter.net. I had outlook express but kept having issues with it. So I ordered the Outlook disc from microsoft for $100 and installed it. Outlook is all I got none of that 365 stufff I dont need it and dont use it.

I do not allow my email to "voluntarily" throw things in spam that it thinks is spam I do all that manually and mark items as spam when they come in. My issue is with other people and MY emails go into their spam because Im either attaching an invoice or art. As far as my email looking professional with my name at the end of it I could care less. I try to impress clients with art and quotes not emails

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Having your logo at the bottom of your email reinforces branding.... kind of like how you have your avatar on here

 

[Reveal1]

We converted from a gmail business account to Office 365. Besides the locally hosted (which i prefer) Office apps, you get 1GB OneDrive for each account, excellent admin tools, Sharepoint if you need collaborative tools. This would get argument, but IMHO nobody does email/calendar integration better than MS Outlook. Having a hosted domain is marketing 101 if you want to look legit and it's so easy with so many economical options that even the pointy head guy on Dilbert could do it.

 

[Ready]

I've used Thunderbird by Mozilla since 2006. It is a 'client' package that sits on your computer; it's free; uses your domain and you can sync it with other devices.
I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned.

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/

Bob P

 

[Ldireprophil]

I’ve used Yahoo for personal email for as long as I can remember. I use Outlook 365 for business. NEVER use one of the free services for business (yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc)