Most of us have an embarrassing email username haunting our inboxes (parakeetlover91, tapdancergal, bbbbballer23—you know the ones). As a technological rite of passage, all those cheeky and overly earnest handles were part of figuring out how to be a person on the internet.
In your business dealings, a well-chosen email address can contribute to a professional image, leave a positive impression, and reduce the risk of missed messages. Parakeets will always have your love, but modern professional communications call for a professional email address to match. In today’s digital age, that means showing up as yourself and having clear, concise email addresses for your business.
Elements of an email address
While every individual email address is unique, each one follows a basic email address format:
Local-part
Your email address’s “local-part” is your username. It can be composed of letters, numbers, and most alphanumeric characters.
@
The “@” symbol is a mainstay of all email addresses. It was first used in 1971 by email pioneer Ray Tomlinson to separate the name and machine of the intended recipient. These days, it separates a username from the mail provider or custom domain location.
Domain
Your email domain denotes the destination web server where your mail will be sent. For a personal Gmail account, for example, the domain name is gmail.com; a professional domain is typically a company name or, for personal brands or portfolio websites, your own name.
Tips for creating a professional email address
- Keep it simple and memorable
- Use your name, not your title
- Use punctuation sparingly
- Maintain primary and secondary inboxes
- Connect your web domain
- Keep generic inboxes generic
Creating an email address seems simple enough, but when you consider how many of them already exist—about 7.9 billion as of 2023—things get a little trickier. The key is finding a way to present yourself as clearly as you can with the options that remain.
Here’s what to remember:
Keep it simple and memorable
Business email addresses should be easy to communicate out loud. If you’re in a meeting, or attending a networking event, your email should be clear enough for someone to write it down accurately and follow up with you if needed.
Use your name, not your title
Job titles come and go—even within the same organization—which means there’s no place for them in a business email address. Save your job title, company information, professional credentials, and/or degrees for your business email signature instead.
While you can include your job function in your email address if you wish, you may find that it feels out of date or inaccurate down the road. This works best for consultants or self-employed professionals whose skill set is their trade, like “janethewriter@domain.com” or “jdoe.legal@domain.com.”
Use punctuation sparingly
Using periods and underscores to separate names and initials can prevent spelling errors and make your address easier to read, but using too many can have the opposite effect. Aim for a single convention and stick with it through your address.
Maintain primary and secondary inboxes
For organizational and privacy reasons, it’s not a good idea to use the same email address for personal and professional use. Keep things distinct with two (or more) email accounts: one primary business email address and a separate inbox for your personal mail.
Connect your web domain
Most website packages come with a few free business email accounts attached to your custom domain. Using your own domain—instead of one like @gmail.com or @yahoo.com—can be more professional and assist with brand recognition. Once your addresses are set up, connect them to your preferred email provider (Gmail, Outlook, or other mail app), as well as any CRM and marketing software like Hubspot or Klaviyo.
Keep generic inboxes generic
For messages that aren’t intended for a specific person, you can set up a generic contact email inbox that’s accessible by multiple employees or multiple departments. You can then direct incoming messages from potential clients or customer inquiries to the appropriate team member.
Simplicity and predictability are a key piece of a generic email address; the idea is to make it as easy as possible for someone to contact you. Think, “marketing@yourdomain.com” or “contactus@yourdomain.com.” You may find that a straightforward generic sales email inbox generates more leads than one with a clever—but less intuitive—username.
Professional email address ideas
Many companies, even in creative or casual industries, have an established email naming convention, but creating a professional email for yourself may take a little extra experimentation—especially if your name is relatively common and an associated email address is already taken.
Here are some professional email address ideas for creating email addresses for you or your team, along with a few examples of how you might structure your username:
Full name
First, see if you can get away with using your full name (janedoe@domain.com). If you do use a middle name or middle initial, try including that (janexdoe@domain.com). Or you could use punctuation to differentiate yourself and for readability (jane.doe@domain.com, jane.x.doe@domain.com).
Partial name
Alternatively, you might choose to highlight only your last name and denote your first name with an initial. This preserves some user privacy and offers more variations. Small companies with just a few team members could opt to show only the user’s first name (jane@domain.com), while larger companies may benefit from structuring the local part around a combination of first and last names, such as the first initial plus the middle initial and last name (jxdoe@domain.com).
Team inboxes
As a founder or team lead setting up the core inboxes for your company, there are a few shared handles you might include, depending on your business needs. Generic email inbox addresses save time by enabling team collaboration when monitoring and responding to incoming emails.
- Freelance submissions: If you rely on freelancers and community contributions, consider using industry-related keywords, like “pitches@domain.com” or “submissions@domain.com.”
- Recruitment: For fast-growing brands or hiring teams, “careers@domain.com” or “jobs@domain.com” are an easy, intuitive way to track job applications or inbound interest.
- General outreach: For generic sales inbox addresses, keep things simple, like “inquiries@domain.com” or “sales@domain.com.”
- Customer service: “Help@domain.com” is a common customer service email address, while “returns@domain.com” works for a generic returns email inbox.
Business email ideas FAQ
What is a good business email address?
A good professional email address eliminates confusion and confirms your identity for the sender. In some cases, like client-facing positions, an email address may reflect the user’s department, like customer service or sales.
What is the most professional email address?
The most professional email address is one of a few variations on your full or partial name, with limited punctuation (periods or underscores) and no numbers. While using a free domain like Gmail or Yahoo is sometimes unavoidable, using a custom domain with the business name contributes to a more professional image.
What are unprofessional business email addresses?
Unprofessional business email addresses are those that reference outside interests, jokes, and nicknames, or feature strings of numbers attached to your name.
