What Is an Email Domain and How It Impacts Your Business?
An email domain is a part of an email address that can make a difference between successful and unsuccessful email campaigns and how your customers perceive your brand.
Did you know that the number of email users increases each year? Email marketing is in third place for content distribution, right behind websites and blogs, and it’s one of the favorite channels for most marketers — email marketing is not dead. Email remains the patform with the biggest ROI—36:1.
In other words — your email domain is the first thing people see.
To run successful email campaigns, you must understand what email domains are, how and where to choose one, and the difference between an email domain and a website domain.
What Is an Email Domain?
People typically define an email domain as a part that comes right after the ‘@’ symbol in an email address.
Each email domain is associated with an email server, and it tells you to which server an email should be delivered when you send it to a particular address.
Good examples of a domain would include @yahoo, @gmail, or @hotmail. These email domains are free, and people use them for personal needs.
What Is a Business Email Domain?
You can customize your email domain and make it unique. If you want to stand out in your customers’ inbox, creating a domain that contains your company’s name will help immensely.
For example, everyone on our team has a @campaignrafinery domain name in their email address. When we send out emails to our clients, this is one of the first things they see.
What Does the Domain in an Email Message Tell You?
A custom domain gives off a professional vibe. When you send emails from a domain that matches your company name, your recipients (customers or potential clients) know the email is from someone they can trust.
Imagine receiving an email from a company with a generic domain name, for example, company@gmail.com. You’d not have taken their offer seriously. Would you even open that email?
Business email domains don’t only benefit companies. Even solo entrepreneurs or individuals who want to be taken seriously can create a custom email and use it in their marketing campaigns.
5 Benefits of Using a Custom Email Domain
With a business email domain, you will look more professional and trustworthy. But there are many more benefits related to having a professional domain part of an email.
Here are top 5:
- Drive Sales
When your recipients are able to identify your custom domain easily, your open rates will increase. Therefore, the probability of attracting more new leads becomes greater. With more leads, you have more chances to schedule sales calls where you can turn them into paying customers.
- More Website Traffic
Not every email you send will be sales-oriented. The content of your email marketing campaign is sometimes educational.
For example, you can write a new blog that your audience will benefit from. Sharing key takeaways in your email with the link to the blog will drive more traffic to your website.
The best part?
People who click to read the blog are interested in finding out more about what you have to say. This further reflects on your bounce rate of the website, time spent on the page, and other factors that contribute to your SEO.
If you were to send such emails from a generic domain, your readers would have no idea who targets them with blogs, and they’d perceive such emails as spam. If readers see a message with a custom domain with the name of your company, it increases the chances that they will open the email and read the blog.
- Credibility
Having a custom email domain shows your customers that you are a trustworthy entity (organization or business). It paints a positive picture of your brand and helps you improve your sender reputation, which is crucial if you want to run successful marketing campaigns that bring profit.
- Security and Control
With a custom email domain, you get more control over your entire email infrastructure.
A custom domain allows you to implement advanced security measures, including:
– Two-factor authentication,
– Encryption,
– Anti-phishing tools.
For example, Campaign Refinery clients are obligated to authenticate their domains. It is impossible to send emails through our platform with a generic domain. We’ve made this decision because a custom domain resolves crucial problems related to email deliverability, sender reputation, and overall campaign success.
- Consistency
If you have multiple team members who are sending emails to your clients, having a custom domain across the board helps with consistency.
The clients can be confused if they receive messages with your offers or a new blog article from different people who have a different domain name in their email addresses.
Types of Email Domains
Several different types of email domains exist. We can distinguish them based on their characteristic purpose and ownership. Besides generic and custom email domains, the five common types of email domains include:
- Educational: Schools, colleges, universities, and other educational facilities use this type of domain. It is often followed by .edu (e.g., @university.edu).
- Governmental: Government entities at different levels use this type of domain, which commonly has two different versions—gov and state. It is followed by a country’s top-level domain (.us or .uk) or has the version of @state.gov.
- Nonprofit: Organizations such as non-profits commonly use the domain name ‘nonprofit.’
- Industry-Specific: Certain industries and organizations have special names for their domains. That’s why you’ll often see @lawfirm or @medicalgroup.
- Temporary: You can identify temporary email domains that organizers of events, conferences, or conventions create to send updates to their attendees and speakers.
How to Set Up an Email Domain?
Setting up an email domain isn’t complicated, but for someone who’s doing it for the first time, an abundance of options can be overwhelming. Experienced or not, setting up a unique domain is the first step you must take before you contact potential clients.
Remember, only with a custom email domain will you get access to the best email deliverability service on the market.
Create Custom Email Domains with Google Workspace or Office 365
Google Workspace and Office 365 are popular solutions for setting up email domains. They come from the two most reputable companies in the world. Email domain is only one of the things you get. For the price of the product, you also get collaboration tools, file storage, and productivity suites. Compare the features below to determine which solution to use:
| Aspect | Google Workspace | Office 365 |
| Email domain format | Customizable | Customizable |
| Email hosting | Included | Included |
| Collaboration Tools | Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Google Meet, and other Google tools. | Microsoft Work, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, Teams, Sharepoint and other Office 365 tools. |
| File Storage | Google Drive | OneDrive |
| Video Conferencing | Google Meet | Microsoft Teams |
| Cost (different tiers) | Business Starter: $6 USDBusiness Standard: $12 USDBusiness Plus: $18 USDEnterprise: Contact for price | Exchange Online (Plan 1): $4 USDExchange Online (Plan 2): $8 USDMicrosoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 USD |
Follow Google’s or Microsoft’s guides to set up your Google Workspace or Office 365 and get your custom email domain.
Email Domain vs. Website Domain
Although both have ‘domain’ in their names, there are many differences between email and website domains.
The email domain definition is that it’s a primary name in an email address that shows where your emails are delivered. The purpose of the email domain is to help send and receive email messages.
The website domain is a part of a web address that specifies the website’s location, and it is used to access and display content to the user.
The table below best illustrates the differences and similarities between an email domain and a website domain:
| Aspect | Email Domain | Website Domain |
| Format | The domain name of an email is always located behind @ and before the dot. | The website domain is a text the user types to reach a particular website. It is located right after www. |
| Ownership | Individuals, businesses, organizations | Individuals, businesses, organizations |
| Branding | Enforces the brand in email communication, marketing campaigns and increases trust in users’ eyes. | An essential part of online branding and online presence. Everything else is usually built around the website. |
| Security | Spam filtering, anti-phishing, encryption, authentication, etc. | SSL certificates, firewall protections, web security, etc. |
| Additional functionalities | Calendars, file storage, contacts, task management, various collaboration tools, etc. | Web hosting, CMS, analytics software, website builders, e-commerce platforms. |
| Accessibility | Email clients (Outlook, Gmail, etc.) and protocols (SMTP, IMAP) | Web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Brave, etc.) |
Both email and website domains are entries in the Domain Name System (DNS), but they serve distinct purposes.
The Next Step: Send Newsletters and Plan Your Next Email Campaign
Once you have your email domain, you can start sending out newsletters to your clients and working on your next email campaign.
Successful email campaigns are hard to create as they require good communication skills, data analytics skills, and an understanding of automation. Open and click-through rates show you the success of your campaign. But these are only the two out of 16 email campaign KPIs and metrics you need to track to ensure maximum ROI for your campaign.
Don’t let the excitement of starting a new email campaign overwhelm you. Make sure you haven’t made any of these five common mistakes when setting up an email domain:
- Using nicknames and numbers in the username: While having a professional email domain is essential, so is having a username. Keep the username simple, with no added numbers.
- Switching the email domain often: Sometimes, businesses change their brand identity. Do it too often, and your clients will start questioning the legitimacy of your company.
- Using a long domain name: A professional domain name is the name of your company. However, if the name is too long, you can consider using abbreviations.
- Using company emails for personal purposes: Although logical, not everyone may adhere to the rules. Using company emails for personal purposes may seem harmless at first, but you never know who will get a hold of your address or what information will be shared.
- Thinking you don’t need a custom domain? For some, purchasing a custom email domain may seem like an unnecessary expense. It may seem that you can use a regular extension for the distribution of content and sales, but it will always look unprofessional, even if you see some results.
Switching from a generic to a business email domain isn’t enough to run campaigns successfully, but it’s a good start.
Make the Most Out of Your Email Domain Through Campaign Refinery
Campaign Refinery is designed for marketers and business owners who want to make the most of their email marketing efforts.
What Separates Campaign Refinery From Competition?
We’ve created a premium feature for premium businesses. Through our platform, top-tier senders can finally unlock the true power of email marketing.
Join Campaign Refinery, and you get a user-friendly platform with unique features:
- Automatic List Cleaning: All harmful emails are removed before sending.
- Engagement Gamification: Your subscribers get rewards when they open and click emails, resulting in strengthening your sender reputation over time.
- Evergreen Flash Sales: You can create time-sensitive offers your users will find hard to avoid.
- Mandatory domain authentication: All customers must authenticate their domains fully.
- Credit system: We motivate clients to create smaller segmented lists in order to see better results.
Email domain names are only a small part of the equation for building your email reputation and the brand your customers can trust.
Campaign Refinery is a great place where you can use your emails effectively to drive sales and increase your profit! You can apply to explore our exclusive services and dramatically improve your email performance.
Keep your domain tight and happy emailing!
Written by Petar Mitrovic
