Communicate flexibly via email

Crafts 4.0: Email communication is now part of everyday business for modern craft businesses. But what should you look for when choosing an email provider? And how secure is email?

This article is part of the special topic Digital Crafts

To start digital communication with customers and suppliers, businesses only need an email address and internet access. The advantages are obvious: Senders can send their inquiries and requests around the clock, and the email arrives at its destination just seconds later. Recipients can respond flexibly, whenever it suits them. This way, tradespeople, for example, aren't constantly interrupted by calls from their regular work – and even after the official end of the working day, they can answer customer inquiries or place orders with suppliers.

Which package is the right one?

Exchanging information via email works anytime and anywhere, for example, using smartphones, tablets, or office PCs. Businesses with their own website should ensure from the outset that they book a website package that also includes email addresses. It looks much more professional when the website and email address are identical. All other businesses have the choice between various providers that offer their services for free or at prices between one and five euros per month – for example, GMX, Outlook.com, or Gmail. Free services are usually financed through displayed advertising. Paid offers often include additional services in the package, such as fax functions, cloud storage, or advanced security features.

Registration for email services is completed in just a few minutes with all providers. First, personal information, such as name and address, is requested via an online form. You can then create an email address, which is immediately checked for availability. The address ending usually includes the name of the email service, e.g., t-online.de or web.de. You can choose any word before the @ symbol, such as your own name or that of your company. Activation is often immediate, but occasionally you may receive a password in advance via mail or SMS to verify the accuracy of your information.

Pay attention to safety

Security is particularly important in the business world: Emails should be virus-free and cannot be intercepted by hackers. Therefore, email services offer their customers at least basic protection with various measures: HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) or SSL technology encrypt data so that it cannot be read. Secure transmission is activated by prefixing "htpps://" in internet addresses or by activating SSL encryption in email programs. To ensure that viruses, worms, and Trojans don't stand a chance, an anti-virus program on all your devices is absolutely essential.

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If you frequently send large files by email, you should check with your provider in advance about the maximum allowable attachment size: Depending on your provider and plan, incoming and outgoing emails are limited to between 16 and 100 MB. However, some services offer the option of increasing this limit to up to 500 MB via cloud storage. The attachment is then not sent directly, but is available for the recipient to download.

Are De-Mail services an alternative?

The "De-Mail" services, launched a few years ago with significant advertising, have so far failed to achieve great success: only just over a million private customers and a five-figure number of organizations use the service so far. De-Mails were intended to be as easy to use as emails and as secure as regular mail – but from the very beginning, they were one thing above all: expensive. Sending a De-Mail cost up to 33 cents, and additional options like "registered mail" cost up to 58 cents extra, depending on the provider. Another limitation: both sender and recipient require a De-Mail account; sending to other email addresses is not possible. This means that traditional emails remain the first and significantly more cost-effective choice in everyday business life.

Text: Thomas Busch / Photo: (c) Daniil Peshkov/123RF

Successful emailing

1.) Choose a clear subject line that says a lot about the content of your email. For example, not just "Offer," but "Offer: Replacement of your kitchen window."

2.) Keep it brief, provide the recipient with all the important information, and formulate all sentences in a way that avoids any misunderstandings. This will avoid time-consuming follow-up questions and delays.

3.) Don't compose your email as a continuous block of text; instead, structure your message with meaningful paragraphs. This makes your message clearer and helps the recipient grasp the context more quickly.

4.) A valuable tool is a dictionary next to your computer—or an automatic spell checker. Your appearance, credibility, and competence are at risk when emails contain spelling and comma errors.

5.) Quote key parts of the original message in reply emails. This way, the recipient immediately knows what your reply refers to.

Technical terms

E-mail
Abbreviation for "Electronic Mail" (electronic mail), refers to the exchange of digital messages via the Internet or a network.

IMAP
The Internet Message Access Protocol allows you to process emails offline in applications like Outlook. Unlike POP3 retrieval, the mail remains on the server.

POP3/SMTP
With the support of the "Post Office Protocol 3," electronic mail is downloaded directly to the computer without manually accessing the respective web service. The "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol," on the other hand, is responsible for sending it.

Minutes
A "protocol" refers to the rules, formats, and types of data transmission between two end devices, for example between two PCs or between computers and smartphones.

Spam
Originally the American term for canned meat (an abbreviation of "spiced pork and meat"), this term is now used to describe unsolicited, mass-mailed advertising emails.

Spam filter
Special programs for filtering out unwanted advertising emails (spam). Criteria include certain keywords, senders, or the structure of the email.

SSL login
The Secure Socket Layer Protocol ensures encrypted data transmission between your PC and the mail server on the Internet – recognizable by a lock symbol in the status bar.

Virus Scanner
A virus scanner is software that can detect and remove computer viruses, worms, and other threats.