The Differences Between Personal and Corporate Emails

Personal emails vs corporate emails: Which is better?

Neither a personal email nor a business email account is inherently better. However, how they're used can make one better than the other in certain circumstances.

For example, a personal email doesn't have the same features as a corporate email owned by a business. If you're the business owner, you'll set up your business email address and become the administrator of all the email accounts owned by the business, allowing you to create new accounts for employees.

Personal emails

Your personal email is best for personal communication with friends and family or when you don't have a business email because you're not a business owner.

For example, candidates applying for jobs might use a personal email instead of a business email because there's no need for them to communicate as though they're running a business. However, they may choose to have a more professional personal email to help them stand out when applying for jobs.

Corporate emails

Your business email address should only be used for business communications, such as customer service, scheduling meetings, communicating with employees and partners, and email automation, such as sending out email marketing newsletters and e-blasts.

Why should businesses use a corporate email?

Businesses should always use a business email account for many reasons, from security to improved relationship building with customers and partners.

Here are some more in-depth reasons why your business should use business email accounts:

Security

Personal emails are less secure than corporate email accounts and ultimately more hackable because businesses have IT processes to prevent scams that can risk your employee and customer data.

Better security protects your business' reputation in several ways. Most significantly, customers are less likely to trust companies with data breaches, especially those with regular data breaches, because they give you tons of personal information, including their names, addresses, and credit card information. If their identities are stolen because your business email wasn't secure, you'll likely lose their trust, and they won't return.

In addition, business email addresses further protect customer and business data because your employees won't typically have access to their emails when they're not at the office. Of course, they'll still know the passwords, but they likely won't use them off the clock, so private information is less likely to be shared.

Better security for customer and employee data doesn't mean that business emails are completely secure, though. Employers can easily monitor corporate emails, so employees should be careful about the messages they write and never use their business email address for personal communications.

Consistency

Business email accounts improve consistency throughout your organization in a few ways. First off, it improves the customer experience because they expect you to have a company email that uses the business website's own domain.

Additionally, it allows consistency among team members by giving everyone an email address with the same domain. This can make communicating easier, especially if everyone's emails are made using the same naming convention. For example, if you use the same naming convention for all emails, employees can easily find someone's email using the same format as their email address.

This consistency can also benefit customers and partners because they won't have to ask for email addresses. Instead, they can use the same naming convention to find the person they're looking for.

Accessibility

A business email account improves accessibility because it can be used almost anywhere. In addition, since business email addresses are also tied to other software, including everything from HR software to email marketing tools, employees can access their accounts no matter where they are.

Professionalism

Corporate emails make you appear more professional, and your reputation is everything when running a business. When sending an email to business partners, clients, or customers, you must maintain a certain level of professionalism and credibility.

If you don't use a company email address, it can make you seem flaky or unprofessional. However, using a business email address allows you to build trust because it shows you're communicating with someone on behalf of the business.

Encourages feedback

Using a business email account encourages individuals to reply to you because it demonstrates that you're talking to them on behalf of the company rather than for personal reasons.

In addition, when you use a business email address, your own domain is the same as the business website, so people can easily look up the business to begin to form a relationship with it, making them more likely to reply to cold emails.

Builds trust with customers

A business email address fosters trust with customers because they expect you to have a business email. If you respond to customer inquiries with a personal email, they may not feel the need to read or respond to your message, ultimately letting it get lost in their business email inbox.

Additionally, not using a business email to discuss business matters with a customer can be off-putting, making them lose trust in the business as a whole.

Improved lead generation

Using a business email account is a way to optimize your email content and improve lead-generation efforts because it fosters trust. When individuals trust your business, they're more likely to communicate with you.

For example, let's say you generate leads with a form on your website. Once someone fills out a form, they get an automated email welcoming them or providing them with more information about something.

If someone receives that automated email from a personal email rather than a business email, they may feel as though they're being scammed since they don't know who you are and have no reason to trust you. Instead, they'll feel more inclined to trust an email coming from a business.

Increased brand awareness

Corporate emails can help increase brand awareness by offering virtually free marketing. Any time you email someone, they'll see your business domain in your email address, allowing them to learn more about your company if they choose to.

In addition, since your business email includes your domain, you get free brand awareness whenever you email someone who has never communicated with you or your business before.

Creating business email addresses

Now that you understand the importance of corporate email addresses in business, you might be wondering how to create an effective email address. Luckily, creating a business email address is easy.

Choose a naming convention

With personal emails, you don't have to worry about a naming convention because they can be anything you want them to be. However, it's typically best to have a cohesive naming convention for corporate emails. The business email address should include your domain name or business name whenever possible.

You should also consider what comes before the @ in the email address. In most cases, this should be the name of the person.

You can choose to use the person's first name, last name, or a combination of both. For example, if your name is Henry Fonda, you can choose to make your email address henry@domain.com, henryfonda@domain.com, or hfonda@domain.com.

All of these are acceptable naming conventions for business emails, but what's most important is that you keep them cohesive and consistent throughout the organization. Everyone should have the same email address format to make it easier to remember them.

Keep it professional

While naming conventions are important, you should always keep them professional. You don't need to include any other details other than your name. Unfortunately, if you have a common name, there might be someone else in the organization who already has your potential business email address, so you'll need to think of something else that's still professional.

However, you should only ever include some form of your name in your email address. You should never include information like job titles, nicknames, or anything else that would be considered unprofessional.

Only use letters

Email addresses with numbers can be confusing and difficult to remember. Therefore, only use letters in your email address if you can. Some punctuation is common, such as a period after the first name. However, it's not recommended if there's an easier way to use your name in the address.

Don't use a free business email account (when possible)

Since it's best practice to use your own domain when creating a business email address or professional email address, you should avoid using free email accounts whenever possible. If you have a business website and hosting email account, you can create a business email address with a free business email service provider easily, allowing you to use your business domain name for email services.

Meanwhile, a free business email account may give you generic email accounts that don't use your business name. These accounts won't give you the benefits of a business email address, like brand awareness or trust with customers.

Your business email address is one of your most important business tools, so you should always use custom email addresses with your domain. If you don't have a business website, you may be able to find a free domain name to create free email addresses that look more professional.

The case for a corporate email

Whether you're running a business or simply working in one, you need a business email address for corporate communications of any type, including communicating with supervisors and partners, or to serve as logins for company-owned software.

Of course, personal emails are for personal matters and can be anything you want them to be, but corporate email addresses should always remain professional since you'll be speaking on behalf of the company, building trust with customers, and sending out marketing emails.

Once your business email is created, you can start using it to communicate. Always list your business contact email when designing your landing pages to increase engagement. You can also use your new business address for any type of communication for the business, including sending out e-blasts, responding to customer concerns, or building relationships with suppliers.

You should always use your business email when sending marketing emails, whether you're A/B testing emails or building your marketing funnel. Mailchimp makes it easy to start using your new business email address to send out marketing emails. Use our content studio to create dynamic email content or our subject line helper to improve your open rates.