Small and medium-sized businesses create a free email address to use frequently in their day-to-day operations. But that is a temporary solution. Free email addresses can make your business seem inexperienced and its use makes it difficult for you to take control of communication with your employees and customers in the medium term.
Why set up email addresses with your company's domain name?
1. Help your brand grow
Using a Gmail or Hotmail account for your business is the equivalent of having a giant Google or Microsoft logo on all your correspondence. Anyone can create a free Gmail/Hotmail account, which means someone sending you an email from a Gmail/Hotmail account could be literally anyone.
However, an email from your domain it can only come from you or your employees. Also, it can help people find your website, the domain name is there in your email address.
It sounds like a small thing, but the little things matter when it comes to your brand. Do not advertise to someone else on your email address, please do so about your business, such as sales@my-company.com.
2. Gives you full control
They often start with a single free email address, but that inevitably becomes unmanageable as the business grows.
Your employees will need their own addresses, and if you don't provide one, they will use their personal accounts. That means your communication with customers is going in directions that you don't control.
The email addresses of your example domain @ my-company.com are under your control. If an employee leaves, you can redirect the emails from their old address, so that they receive the messages. This is very important.