Moving Your Email Address to a Professional Domain
When you email clients and colleagues does your email end in @gmail.com, @mindspring.com, @aol.com, or are you using your firm domain? If the former, you may have a domain name but haven’t set it up to use with your email. Or you do not have a domain name because you do not have a website. Getting a domain is easy and inexpensive, and setting up a professional email address is good branding for your firm. Here are the steps you’ll need to get your email switched over from a generic email address to professional one.
Get a Domain
If you do not have a domain name – something like xyzfirm.com – then the first step is to go register one. You will use a domain registrar to purchase the domain. They will register it with ICANN, which is the not for profit that “oversees the interconnected network of unique identifiers that allow computers on the internet to find one another.”
There are many domain registrars. Some offer premium TLD (top level domains) like .info, .work, .lawyer, .law, .legal, .attorney, .biz and others. Be careful about prices that increase after the first year, restrictions on domain transfers, the expiration policy for non-payment, and be aware that many will try to upsell unnecessary add-ons. If your domain registrar does not offer WHOIS privacy for free that is one upgrade you will want to make so that your firm’s administrative information like email, phone, and address, is not public. Spammers, marketers, identity thieves and other attackers can use public information in WHOIS to send unsolicited email or perpetrate mischief.
To see what your options are for choosing a domain name go to any domain name registrar like Domain.com, GoDaddy, or Google Domains and type in the domain name you want to purchase. Considerations for your domain name include something short, easy to say, and easy to remember. The domain registrar will show you whether the domain is available and offer alternatives and additional domains. You may consider purchasing variations so that others cannot get a domain that is similar to yours. While there are many premium TLDs, they are not very well known, so focus on getting a .com address when possible. Nothing else will be as memorable or common.
Consider the ethics opinions and RPC regarding advertising and solicitation, internet, mailings and trade names when choosing a domain names. Don’t be misleading.
Tie Your Email to the Domain
Your email has two parts. One is an email server, which you either run in the office (like an Exchange server) or is hosted (like the MS hosted Exchange or Gmail). The email server handles the transfer and storage of your emails. The other is the email client you use to view, send, respond, and retrieve your email. You may access your email client through desktop software, like MS Outlook or Thunderbird or Apple Mail, or through a browser to access a web client like Gmail or Yahoo! or iCloud. When you get a new email address with your domain you will need to make some changes to the email server and to the information help with your registrar to tell them to “talk” to each other. Then you will set up your email client to receive those emails from the server. That sounds complicated, but many services will automatically transfer the information, or you can get instructions to do it yourself.
Depending on the email client you use you may be able to upgrade and stay with the provider, or to use a custom domain you may need to make a switch. For instance, if you are using Earthlink (f/k/a MindSpring), you can upgrade to their digital marketing plan and they can register your domain, provide website development and hosting, and give you up to 50 email addresses. If you use Yahoo! you will need to upgrade to Turbify Business Email. Gmail and Outlook.com (f/k/a Hotmail) have upgraded options to use your domain name, as does iCloud Mail. Check to see if your current provider has an upgrade so you can use your own domain without leaving the platform.
If you use AOL, then to get a domain-based email address (not @aol.com) the best thing to do is switch to a different service for your work email. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 Business are good options. You can buy your domain through them when you set up the email or purchase a domain from another provider and set your service up to use the domain. You may already have a domain for your website, so you can use that domain with Google or Microsoft’s suites. Another choice is Zoho Mail. You can use your own domain name (or purchase through them), free for five users or less, though each user only gets 5GB of storage. Some domain registrars also provide business email, like inmotion and Register.com. Registrars GoDaddy and Network Solutions resell versions of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace – but keep in mind that you would be better off from a functional perspective to buy your domain and set up Google Workspace or MS 365 directly to get all the bells and whistles.
Now What?
If you stayed with the same provider and added a domain, you may still receive your email from your old email address to your inbox. If not, you can automatically forward your old email to the new email address. To access your old emails, you may be able to migrate them, or simply cut over and add “clean up old email box” to your to-do list and forward emails you need to the new address. You will need to access the old email account for some time to retrieve emails and migrate contacts, which may take a while. If you are connecting to an email client that lets you view multiple email boxes, like Microsoft 365 Outlook, you can view your old email and your new email in one place.
Add your new email address to your email signature block and add a notice about your new email address to your website and social media platforms (if you use them). Notify your clients, opposing and co-counsel, the courts, bar associations and anyone you do business with that you have a new email address. Update any ads and directory listings and don’t forget to update your business card. You can choose to update your email newsletters, or you may decide that they can continue to go to your personal email. Resist the urge to create an auto-response to let people know of your new email address as you will also be alerting spammers.
Conclusion
If you have been using a personal email for work and home, one significant benefit of getting a business email is that you can add some separation. You can have one account for your personal bills, taxes, and subscriptions, while your work email will be for client and firm correspondence. Having two email accounts may seem like one too many, but it will be easier to manage. This Forbes article has some additional motivations for updating to a professional email address, and some helpful tips on how to accomplish it. If this seems like too much for you to handle on your own, seek help from customer support from your new email provider or hire an IT consultant to help you. NCBA members may contact the Center for Practice Management for help with your options.