A lot of small businesses still quote and invoice from a free Gmail, Outlook or Bigpond address. It works, and it costs nothing. But an address like yourname@yourbusiness.com.au does more for trust than most owners expect, and setting it up properly also helps your emails land in the inbox instead of the spam folder.
This guide explains why a professional email address matters, what you need to set one up and the three technical settings, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, that every business domain should have.
Why a professional address matters
- Trust. Customers and suppliers are more comfortable dealing with an address that matches your business name and website. A free address can look temporary, or even like a scam.
- Consistency. Your email, website and business cards all point to the same brand.
- Control. If a staff member leaves, you still own their business mailbox and can redirect it. With a personal free account, the emails and contacts may leave with them.
- Protection against impersonation. With the right settings, it becomes much harder for scammers to send emails that look like they come from your business.
What you need
1. Your own domain name
This is the part after the @, such as yourbusiness.com.au. If you already have a website, you probably already own one. If not, our guide to registering a domain name covers the basics. Make sure the domain is registered in your business’s name and that you have access to the account.
2. An email hosting service
Common options for small businesses include Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Zoho Mail. Some web hosting plans include email too, although dedicated email services are often more reliable and easier to use on phones and laptops. Choose one that suits the tools your team already uses.
3. Sensible addresses
Personal addresses like sam@ build relationships. Role addresses like info@, accounts@ or bookings@ make it easy to hand work over when staff change. Many businesses use both.
SPF, DKIM and DMARC in plain English
These are records added to your domain’s settings (its DNS). They help receiving email services confirm that a message claiming to be from your domain really came from you.
- SPF lists which services are allowed to send email for your domain, such as your email provider, your website and your newsletter tool.
- DKIM adds a digital signature to each email, so the receiver can check it hasn’t been tampered with and really came from an authorised sender.
- DMARC tells receiving services what to do if an email fails those checks, and can send you reports about who is sending email using your domain.
Since February 2024, Gmail has required everyone who sends to Gmail accounts to set up SPF or DKIM. Senders of more than 5,000 messages a day need SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Even if you send far less than that, setting up all three is good practice and helps your emails reach the inbox.
Don’t forget your website and other tools
Many businesses send email from more than one place: their email provider, their website contact form, a booking system, an invoicing tool and an email marketing platform. Each of these needs to be allowed in your SPF record and, where possible, set up with DKIM for your domain. If they aren’t, those emails are more likely to be marked as spam.
This is one of the most common reasons website enquiries go missing. If your contact form emails arrive in spam or not at all, your email authentication is one of the first things to check. Our article on website maintenance covers other regular checks.
Moving from a free address
If you have been using a free address for years, you don’t need to switch overnight:
- Set up your new mailbox and authentication records.
- Update your website, Google Business Profile, invoices and email signature. You can make a new signature free with Undersign, our email signature generator.
- Set an auto-reply or forwarding on the old address letting people know the new one.
- Tell regular customers and suppliers directly.
- Keep the old account open for a while so nothing important is missed.
If you also send marketing emails, check the rules in our guide to email marketing for small business.
Want it set up properly?
Madexify sets up professional business email for small businesses across Pakenham, Officer, Beaconsfield, Berwick, Narre Warren, Cranbourne, Clyde and Bunyip, including SPF, DKIM and DMARC and the settings for your website forms. See our web design and development services, or contact us to get your business email sorted.
Sources: Gmail Help: email sender guidelines. Accessed 26 September 2026.
This article is part of our Domains and Business Email Guide. Browse all our guides on the guides page.
