1.3 Setting Up Business Email
Prerequisites
Before you start, make sure you have:
- A registered domain name (Section 1.1)
- Access to your domain’s DNS settings
- About 30-60 minutes
Step-by-Step
Choose your email provider
Google Workspace ($9.90 AUD/user/month ex-GST (Starter plan, annual commitment)) — the gold standard. You get Gmail with your domain, Google Drive, Calendar, Meet. Worth it for most businesses. Zoho Mail (free for up to 5 users) — solid free option if budget is tight. Less polished than Google but perfectly functional. Cloudflare Email Routing (free) — forwards emails from your domain to your existing Gmail/Outlook. No separate inbox, but it’s free and takes 5 minutes to set up.
Create your account
Sign up with your chosen provider. For Google Workspace: go to workspace.google.com, enter your domain, choose your plan, create your first admin account (this will be something like [email protected] or your name).
Add DNS records
Your email provider will give you DNS records to add. You’ll need: MX records (these route emails to the right server), SPF record (a TXT record that says ‘these servers are allowed to send email from my domain’), and DKIM record (a TXT record that cryptographically signs your emails to prove they’re really from you). Copy them precisely into your registrar’s DNS settings.
Verify your domain
After adding DNS records, go back to your email provider and click ‘Verify.’ This confirms the records are correct. It can take up to 48 hours, but usually under an hour.
Send a test email
Send an email from your new business address to a personal Gmail. Check that it arrives, check it doesn’t land in spam, and reply to it. Then send one to a Hotmail/Outlook address — Microsoft is stricter about filtering.
Set up your email signature
Create a professional signature: your name, title, business name, phone number, and website. Skip the inspirational quotes and giant logos. Keep it clean and functional.
See Google Workspace's official setup guide for step-by-step screenshots of domain verification.
- Not setting up SPF and DKIM — Without these, your emails will frequently land in spam folders. This is the #1 reason small business emails get ignored.
- Having multiple SPF records — You can only have ONE SPF record per domain. If you need to authorise multiple senders, combine them into one record.
- Using info@ as your only address — Create specific addresses: hello@ for general enquiries, bookings@ for appointments. Forward them all to one inbox if you’re a one-person operation.
Test your email deliverability at mail-tester.com — send an email to the address they give you and you’ll get a score out of 10 with specific fixes. Aim for 9 or above.
You're Done When
- You can send and receive emails from [email protected]
- Test emails to Gmail and Outlook/Hotmail land in the inbox, not spam
- SPF and DKIM records are configured (check at mail-tester.com — score 9+)
- Your email signature is set up and looks professional
SPF and DKIM are set up here, but you also need a DMARC record to complete your email authentication. DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with emails that fail SPF/DKIM checks. A basic DMARC record looks like: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[email protected]. Start with p=none (monitor only), then move to p=quarantine after confirming everything works. Full email authentication setup (SPF + DKIM + DMARC) is covered in detail in section 7.1. Without all three, Gmail and other providers may reject your emails entirely.