Email is the backbone of online communication for businesses around the world. The technology has a long history of supporting communication and collaboration that dates back to the early internet. Today, email remains essential for businesses of all shapes and sizes, but not all email hosting is created equal.
If you’re using a free email provider, you might be sacrificing important features and benefits that can help your business grow. Even if you’re using an outdated or low-quality email hosting provider, you could be dealing with a host of issues that are holding your business back.
In this post, we’ll cover some of the signs that your email hosting is hurting your business and talk about how you can address these issues.
1. Your email is down
When you can’t access your email, you can’t talk to your customers, prospects, suppliers, or anyone else who’s important to your business. In short, your business can’t function.
If your email is down, you need to know about it. That means you need a reliable email hosting service that will alert you when your email goes down and help you get back online quickly.
2. Your email is slow
Slow email is a common problem with shared servers. If one of the websites on the server is getting a lot of traffic, it can slow down the server and cause email to load slowly.
This can be frustrating for your team and customers. If email is slow, it can take longer to respond to customer inquiries, which can hurt your business.
To fix this, you can switch to a dedicated server or a cloud-based email hosting service.
3. Your email is not syncing across devices
As a business owner, you’re always on the go. You need an email hosting solution that can keep up with your busy schedule. If your email is not syncing across devices, it can be a major inconvenience.
With the right email hosting solution, you can access your email from any device, and your emails will automatically sync. This means you can start an email on your phone and finish it on your computer, or vice versa, without missing a beat.
4. You have a hard time finding old emails
If your email hosting provider doesn’t offer a lot of storage space, you might find yourself constantly having to delete old emails to free up space. And if you’re not careful, you could accidentally delete an important email that you need to refer back to later.
Look for an email hosting provider that offers a lot of storage space so you don’t have to worry about deleting old emails. You should also be able to easily search for and find old emails when you need them.
5. Your email is not secure
If you’re not using a secure email hosting platform, your email is at risk of being hacked.
Not only can hackers access your email, but they can also use it to access other parts of your business, like your website, social media accounts, or even launch targeted phishing attacks using basic address lookup and public records to impersonate trusted sources.
And, if you’re sending sensitive information via email, like financial documents or customer data, you could be putting your business at risk of a data breach.
If you’re not sure how secure your email hosting is, it’s time to find out.
6. You can’t access your email from anywhere
In today’s world, you should be able to access your email from anywhere. If you have an email hosting service that doesn’t offer this feature, you’re missing out on a lot of potential business.
Imagine you’re at a conference and meet a potential lead. You want to send them an email right away to keep the conversation going. But if you can’t access your email from your phone or another device, you’ll have to wait until you get back to your office.
7. You can’t access your email offline
If your email hosting provider only allows you to access your email when you’re connected to the internet, you could be out of luck if you’re ever in a situation where you need to access your email offline.
Look for an email hosting provider that offers offline access, so you can access your email even when you don’t have an internet connection. This can be a game-changer if you ever find yourself in an emergency situation.
8. Your email is not integrated with other tools
Email is a critical tool for communication, but it’s not the only tool your team uses. If you rely on a variety of business software, it’s important to make sure your email is integrated with those tools.
For example, if your email is not integrated with your CRM software, you may miss out on valuable sales opportunities. If your email is not integrated with your project management software, you may have trouble keeping track of tasks and deadlines.
You should also think about visual consistency—like custom signatures or branded content. Tools that let you remove background from logos or profile pictures can help ensure your email visuals look clean and professional across platforms.
By using an email hosting service that offers integrations, you can make sure your email is connected to all of the other tools your team uses, which can help you save time and work more efficiently.
9. Your email is not backed up
One of the most common problems with email hosting is that your emails are not backed up. This means that if anything happens to your email account, such as a hacker gaining access or your account being deleted, you could lose all of your emails.
The best way to prevent this is to make sure that your email hosting service offers a backup solution. You should also consider backing up your emails on a regular basis.
10. Your email is not compliant with the law
One of the most important things to consider when choosing an email hosting provider is whether or not the service is compliant with the law.
In the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act requires that all businesses provide a way for their customers to opt out of receiving marketing emails. If your email hosting provider does not include an easy way for you to do this, you could be in violation of the law.
In addition, if you are sending emails to customers in other countries, you will need to make sure that your email hosting provider is compliant with the laws of those countries. For example, in the European Union, businesses are required to get explicit consent from customers before sending them marketing emails. To help manage this process effectively, businesses often rely on form tracking tools that monitor opt-in forms and consent checkpoints to ensure compliance across platforms and regions.
11. Your email is hard to set up
When a new employee joins your team, do they have to spend hours trying to set up their email account? Or does your IT team have to spend hours onboarding new email users?
If so, it’s probably time to look for a new email hosting provider. Setting up a new email account should be quick and easy. With the right provider, you can get your new email account set up in just a few minutes.
If you’re spending hours onboarding new email users, you’re wasting time and money. Look for an email hosting provider that makes it easy to set up new email accounts.
12. Your email is hard to manage
If you’re a business owner or manager, you probably don’t want to spend a lot of time managing your company’s email. But if your email hosting is overly complicated or difficult to manage, that’s exactly what you’re going to be doing.
When choosing an email hosting service, it’s important to consider how easy it will be to manage your email. Look for a service that offers a user-friendly control panel, as well as tools and features that will allow you to manage your email quickly and easily.
If your email is hard to manage, it’s time to make a change. Look for a new email hosting service that offers the tools and features you need to manage your email efficiently, so you can get back to running your business.
13. You can’t get support when you need it
Email is a critical part of your business, so you need to know that you can get help quickly when you need it.
If you’re experiencing problems with your email hosting, you should be able to get in touch with a support team that can help you resolve the issue as soon as possible.
If you can’t get in touch with a support team, or if you’re not getting the help you need, it’s time to consider switching to a new email hosting provider.
Conclusion
Email hosting is a critical part of your business. You need to make sure your email is professional, but also scalable and secure. Review your current email hosting provider and see if it’s time to make a change.
