This is a guest post authored by Stacey Hartman of GoDaddy.
Your chosen domain extension can help to tell your organization’s story online – about who you are and what your organization stands for. Whether you represent a club, charity, company or nonprofit organization, aligning with the .org domain is an excellent way to clearly establish your organization’s social-good identity and desire to make a difference in the world.
Once you’ve selected the .org domain, it’s a great idea to set up a custom email using your .org domain name to provide additional credibility to your email communications and create a clear and consistent online identity. It can be confusing to your stakeholders if you have a website on the .org domain yet engage in email communication from a service ending in a different “dot something.” Using a free email service instead of a custom email address also opens your organization up to security issues. Bad actors pretending to be you or someone from your organization can steal your digital identity , a serious concern especially for organizations and nonprofits, as it’s sometimes very difficult to recover from damage to your organization’s reputation.
Using your domain name as your email address will help reiterate your digital brand identity and create trust when communicating with stakeholders and constituents. One option is Microsoft Office 365 from GoDaddy. The following steps outline how to set up a custom email address.
1. Register your domain
If you don’t already have a .org domain registered for your organization, you’ll need to do this first.
Need help coming up with the perfect domain? Don’t stress, GoDaddy has a generator tool that can help you find a domain that fits your organization’s mission.
2. Choose your email plan
Once you’ve registered your .org domain, next you’ll want to evaluate your email needs. Plans that offer flexibility and scalability are helpful for when you need to expand the number of emails you are sending due to growing constituent or donor lists. You’ll also want to assess your storage needs, and whether you often send emails with large attachments or embedded multimedia files. For any organization using email to regularly conduct communication with stakeholders, it’s a good idea to start with ample storage space.
3. Create your custom email address
The Office 365 email alignment with your .org domain name is quick and simple once you’ve purchased the package that is right for your needs. You will be prompted to set up your email address, and clicking the button to create your account will bring up a simple form. Simply fill out the required fields and click the “Create” button. If your domain and email services are both set up through GoDaddy, the automated system will take care of the rest of the setup process, and you’ll receive an email notifying you once your new custom email address is ready. Your custom email address is typically ready within minutes.
Aligning a custom email address with your .org domain is a simple way to add additional credibility to your online identity. For marketing purposes, this alignment can provide clarity and confidence to stakeholders who you are communicating with online. It also adds a level of security against digital identity theft. A custom email address leveraging the .org domain shouldn’t be considered frivolous – it can be an important tool when it comes to marketing and protecting your organization.
About the author: Stacey Hartman has been with GoDaddy for more than eight years, helping customers set their small businesses up for success. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, gaming, reading, and baking award-winning cheesecakes. Connect with Stacey on Twitter.