How does business address and mail forwarding work?

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Whether you are making your first steps in the entrepreneurial world or have a stable foundation, you are probably dealing with many emails on a daily basis.

On paper, this is a rather time-consuming activity that requires a lot of effort and passion. What if we told you that you could streamline this process and make your team more effective? We are sure you'd say yes to the business address and mail forwarding service. In this article, we'll share instructions and tips to up your mailing game.

What is mail forwarding?

Mail or email forwarding has a self-explanatory definition. Imagine the situation when your former email address (name@domain.com) is no longer used or has been inactive for an extended period of time. However, you still want to receive correspondence and letters from people, organisations, and companies you have worked with.

Or, in another case, you want to bring more structure into messaging through your email and sort out different contacts to a personalised email address and leave the rest as it was. Statistically speaking, around 69 per cent of markets are using email marketing as one of their major methods of distribution.

In any of these cases, you would need to consider using a business address and mail forwarding services, like Hoxtonmix, to keep a strong RIO.

How does mail forwarding work?

Email forwarding is an operation that sends emails to new destinations. To make sure that everything is transferred seamlessly, you can make changes manually or automatically. Below you can find some examples of how it can be done. You can use it as a template for your current situation, or simply as a set of instructions to keep in mind.

Manually forwarding an email

Start by logging into your Gmail account and clicking on your inbox to find the specific email you want to forward. Once you open the email, you'll see a ‘Forward’ button. Clicking this button opens up a new screen where you enter the email address of the recipient. If you want to forward the email to more than one person, use commas to separate their addresses.

Besides the main recipient, Gmail also allows you to carbon copy (Cc) or blind carbon copy (Bcc) others. Just click the respective button and enter the addresses. Keep in mind, the ‘To’ and ‘Cc’ fields are visible to all recipients, whereas the ‘Bcc’ field remains hidden.

Once you've added the addresses, you can also write a message to accompany the forwarded email. Write this above the original email text. If there's an attachment that you don't want to forward, you can click the 'x' button next to it to remove it. Alternatively, to add a new attachment, click the Attach files symbol. Once you're happy with your message and attachments, click the Send button.

Setting up automatic forwarding

To set up automatic forwarding, click the Settings gear icon found on the upper right corner of your Gmail inbox. From the dropdown menu, select 'See all settings'. Then, go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab and click 'Add a Forwarding Address'.

Enter the forwarding email address and click 'Next'. A confirmation window will appear; make sure the forwarding address is correct before clicking 'Proceed'. Gmail will then send a verification email to your inbox. Follow the instructions to verify the new forwarding address.

Once verification is complete, all your new email messages will be automatically forwarded to the provided address. If you ever want to stop automatic forwarding, just click 'Disable forwarding'.

Enabling filters to forward specific emails

Gmail provides an option to set filters for specific email forwarding. To set this up, go to Settings > See all settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses. From there, click 'Create a new filter' and specify the criteria for the emails you want to forward.

The emails matching your criteria will then appear. Next to the search bar, you'll see a dropdown icon; click it to show more options. Check the 'Forward it to' box and either select an existing email address or add a new one. Finally, click 'Create filter' to finalise the setting.

Remember, this filter only applies to new incoming emails. If you want to forward emails to multiple addresses, just repeat the process for each address.

Benefits of forwarding emails

Statistically speaking, it costs 5 to 25 times more to get new clients than it does to keep existing ones. Emails are the main driver of customer acquisition and retention. That’s why every business, from corporates to small entrepreneurs, should invest in professional email campaigns and business address and mail forwarding when needed.

Email forwarding is an invaluable tool that significantly improves email communication by making it more efficient and organised. Here are the key reasons for forwarding an email.

Efficient communication

Forwarding an email is an effective way to relay information from an original email to someone not initially included. This method provides a straightforward, faster alternative to rewriting and sending a new email.

Sharing attachments

Email forwarding easily shares files attached to the original message. It eliminates the need to save the attachments and then re-upload them to a new email.

Context clarity

Forwarded emails allow the sender to provide a clear context for the recipient. This additional message reduces misunderstandings by giving the recipient the necessary context.

Email account transition

Automatic forwarding proves beneficial when changing email addresses. It reroutes incoming messages to your new account, ensuring that emails sent to the old address still reach you.

The verdict

This guide serves as a starter pack for those who need to take care of their business address and mail forwarding and up their email game. Here you can find general actions on how to do mail forwarding and why it benefits your business and customers. The sooner you figure out how to deal with it, the better for your online image. Have you got questions? You can always contact Hoxton Mix.