Emails are part of our everyday lives – both personal and professional. When you’ve had an email address for a while, it becomes a huge task to change the address. You’ve used that email address for all of your subscriptions, accounts, and logins, so you end up with lots of credentials to change over. This is a great scenario where email aliases really change the game.
Sometimes, you have to managed multiple identities within a single email account. Maybe you work in sales, or accounts, and you need a dedicated email address for the role, and you don’t want to include your name. Or maybe you’ve got a surname that’s difficult to spell, and it’s easier to have the option of an email address that’s just your first name. Again, email aliases can solve these problems.
For me, I needed to use an email alias when I got married and changed my name. Instead of creating a new email address with my new surname, I added an alias. This way, I don’t have to change my login credentials or resubscribe to mailing lists, but I'm still able to transition to my new surname.
Benefits of using email aliases
- By using email aliases, you keep all your email addresses in one place, keeping you organised. You don’t need multiple accounts, so everything is accessed through the main address.
- Protect yourself from spam by using different aliases for different activities. They also help to keep your identity private, e.g. sales, finance, enquiries email addresses in companies hide employee details.
- These business email addresses also look more professional and put together, rather than sharing personal detail-based addresses.
- By avoiding the need for multiple email accounts, you save on potential additional licence costs.
How to create email aliases in Microsoft 365
- Sign into your Microsoft 365 account
- Go to Settings, by clicking on the gear icon in the top right corner.
- Scroll down and click on “View all Outlook Settings”.
- Go to the “Email” tab.
- Click on “Sync email” and then “Manage or choose a primary alias”.
- Click on “Add email” and choose “Create a new email address and add it as an alias” or use an existing email.
- Follow the prompts to confirm the addition of the alias.
- Configure the alias to send emails from this address if desired.
Use cases for email aliases
- Different departments or roles within a company (e.g. hr@company.co.uk or sales@company.co.uk)
- Different activities or account types (e.g. shopping@yourname.co.uk, newsletters@yourname.co.uk, events@yourname.co.uk)
- Projects, event management, and campaigns (summerevent@company.co.uk, christmasparty@company.co.uk, websiteupdate@company.co.uk)
- Change of name – especially useful for newly weds.
- First name only versions, reducing margin of error for often misspelt surnames.
Managing emails from aliases
- Inbox rules: Set up rules to automatically recognise or label emails from different aliases – great for aliases created for different departments/roles, projects, and activities.
- Focused inbox: Use Outlook’s Focused Inbox to prioritise emails from important aliases.
- Search Folders: Create search folders for each alias to quickly access related emails.
- Reply and Compose Options: Choose the alias to send from when composing or replying to emails to keep things concise.
Tips & Best Practices
- Regularly review your aliases to ensure they’re still necessary. Deactivate any unused aliases.
- Keep security settings updated to protect all aliases from phishing and other cyber threats.
- Inform relevant contacts of your aliases to ensure they use the correct email address for their specific purposes.
- Maintain a list of your aliases and their purpose for quick reference.
Conclusion
Email aliases are perfect for email organisation. They make you appear more professional; they keep your inbox streamlined; and allow you to create seemingly new email addresses without the faff.
As long as you keep the aliases organised and secure, they’ll make your emails a breeze.
“Email aliases are a fantastic way of streamlining communication while remaining flexible to business changes. They're really easy to set up, but make a big impact on your day-to-day life.” - Daniel Gough, Systems Engineer at Techcare.
With our Managed M365 package, we can help you set up email aliases and keep them secure.
