In this day and age with technology evolving faster than we can tie a shoelace, and everything is automated and collaborations seeming to be plentiful, it makes sense that we tend to look for products and solutions that can do a number of things at once. A combined packaged if you will.
The faster and more streamlined things can be for us, the better.
Now, this might be the truth and might be the way for many things in our daily lives. Especially things that can make our lives easier, for instance, a coffee machine that grinds your coffee beans, brews the coffee and pours you a cup all at the push of a button and the setting of a timer.
But one place that this sort of combining of “tasks” is not the best practice would be emails and website hosting.
You are probably wondering why this is the case, and that is what we are going to discuss in this article.
WHY SHOULD I KEEP MY EMAILS SEPARATE?
You would think that it makes sense to keep your emails together with your website hosting platform, it just seems logical right? And it probably feels like the most natural thing to do, finding a server for both your email and website hosting.
But you will find out below that this really is not the case at all.
- If one fails so too does the rest – So basically this means that if your server suddenly crashes, not only is your website non-existent till they get it up and running but so are your emails. This ultimately means that anyone interested in your business cannot get hold of you – and it could be for an extended amount of time. Emails that would have been coming through will now get lost in cyberspace, never to return. Disaster.
- Deliverability of emails – When you use a service or partner that specializes in emails and getting them to your target audience, you definitely have less to worry about when it comes to bounce backs and emails not reaching the intended person. Using the same server as the one hosting your website has a high percentage of this sort of thing happening.
- Getting the support you need – Web hosting is a huge and often complicated business. So getting someone on the line that can help you specifically with your email issues can be a bit daunting. At least when you use a service that deals only with email support, you can be sure you will get the answers and assistance that you require to get things back up and running or working more effectively.
- Moving data – I do not think I even need to mention what an incredibly frustrating job moving data over from one server to the next can be. Now imagine that everything needs to go offline for a certain period while you are doing the migration, which would include your emails if you used the same business to take care of your web hosting and emails. Again you sit with the risk of losing clients because they have no way of contacting you. Not great at all!
- Tracking of data – If you have an email list and your main goal is to grow a following or target a certain audience for your product, you would want to be able to keep track of who is visiting the website, but also who is actually signing up for your email subscription/newsletters. You want to be able to see who is actually opening your emails, who is clicking through. Are the click-throughs actually converting into sales or more interest? You can only really do this with a service that specializes in email campaigns and the analytics thereof.
SO WHERE TO THEN WITH MY EMAILS?
If you have now decided against using the same server for both web hosting and email management, you may be looking into certain other options and other businesses that could assist you.
We highly recommend looking at Microsoft Office 365.
Microsoft Office 365 – We especially like this one and it is the go-to for our clients. Our clients have used the program with minimal issues and it is fairly simple to navigate once you get the hang of it. Microsoft Office 365 offers private email hosting and provides the following benefits:
- Outlook, webmail & mobile access
- 100% Uptime Guarantee
- Huge 25 GB mailboxes
- Unlimited aliases, group lists & forwarding
- Email Archiving & File Storage (added cost)
You get the best support dedicated to your email hosting with Microsoft Office 365. We also offer the added service of helping you migrate from any previous email hosts. You have the added benefit that you can have a separate web hosting and email hosting whilst only having to contact one provider – Creative Ground, as we are Microsoft Office 365 Partners.
If you are looking for a mailing software that you can use for email marketing. Then below are several that we suggest to clients.
Our Recommendation is Mailchimp – Great for small and start-up businesses as you grow your subscribers. It is free if you have less than 2000 subscribers, thereafter the fees are minimal as your followers grow. The interface is easy to use and the tutorials are detailed and you have options of layouts and so forth depending on what you wish to get out of your mailing list. You also get the option of checking analytics and seeing who opens your emails and who doesn’t.
Convertkit – This one is a newer one on the block but has been used extensively by many businesses. It offers landing page templates, nice opt-in pages and also has an interface that is easy to use. It also allows you to track your emails, add and remove subscribers easily and also allows for tags.
Mailerlite – This service provider has the option of customizing your email campaigns so that you target the right people in the right way. It also has most of the other benefits from the other service providers.
THAT’S A WRAP
Overall there are many options available for one-stop-shop for web hosting and email hosting, but our opinion and suggestion (as is the opinion of many) is that you should look into separating the two for the reasons (and more fore sure) as discussed in this article.
And whether you want to admit it or not, emails are still the most widely used medium to market businesses, events, products and more. So make sure that your email hosting is on top form and stay in touch with your customer. If you are still unsure of what will work for your business get in touch with one of our consultants here at Creative Ground and we can help guide you.
