What's the #1 secret weapon that professional, big-time businesses have, and smaller operations are missing?
Is it killer marketing? A killer product? Hard-working employees?
You know what it's not?
Managed email hosting services.
If you run an online business, use a free email provider or set up your business email in-house, here's what you might not realise:
Professional email hosting services give you all kinds of superpowers. And we don't mean marketing superpowers either. Email security. Storage. Spam protection.
The benefits of managed email hosting can easily be overlooked if you're not looking for them. And those other benefits just add fuel to the fire.
Allow us to enlighten you a little bit. After all, we know a lot about email hosting…
And a lot of the benefits don't involve email at all.
In This Guide:
Why Managed Email Hosting Makes A Difference
Spam Protection Like You've Never Seen
Hidden Storage Benefits Nobody Talks About
Security Superpowers That Save The Day
Tips For Finding The Right Provider
Why Managed Email Hosting Makes A Difference
If you're like the average email user, you might not have thought too hard about the importance of the email inbox.
If you do run a business, you might think of your email inbox as a simple tool for communication. A necessary evil at best. A time suck at worst.
The thing is that email is more than just emails. And free email is nothing more than a false economy.
Email is the communication channel where every contract is sent. Every invoice is delivered. Every customer interaction takes place.
Did you know that spam now accounts for nearly half of all email traffic? A staggering 46.8% to be precise.
And for every valid email your business receives… spam is trying to sneak through the cracks.
But most free email providers let it through. A lot of the time. Which is not ideal. You can probably see where we're going with this…
The smartest business owners go through the proper channels and set up business email accounts through a professional email hosting provider.
Email hosting services have professional spam filters that do the hard work of sifting through garbage and sending emails that count to the inbox.
Simple. Elegant. Makes a massive difference.
Spam Protection Like You've Never Seen
Spam emails are one of those things that are bad, but which you can work around if you have to.
They slow everyone down. Make everyone look for things that don't exist. And they're just a waste of time and effort.
But spam is so much more than just an annoyance.
The emails and links inside that spam often contain malware, phishing attempts, and all sorts of nasty surprises.
And new types of spam are constantly being created to evade existing spam filters. It's a battle you cannot hope to win by yourself.
Managed email hosting services use multiple layers of advanced spam filtering to protect your inbox from those unwanted, malicious emails:
Sender Reputation Analysis. Checking the sender against multiple databases to detect known spammers
Content Analysis. Filtering spam based on email content
Attachment Analysis. Filtering spam based on document attachments
Customisable Rules. Business owners can make granular adjustments to spam filters
These emails still get through, even on paid email services. They just don't get through with the same frequency as with professional email hosting.
The difference is stark. Users report far fewer spam emails getting through. It means employees spend less time looking for emails that aren't there, customers get better service, and threats are filtered out.
Win win win.
Hidden Storage Benefits Nobody Talks About
This one is easy to miss. But it's a biggie. Email storage space.
Email storage space gets eaten up like nothing else.
Attachments. Documents. Pictures. Images. Before you know it, your free provider account has hit its ceiling.
Guess what happens now?
You need to choose between important emails that have attachments and keeping your mailbox under the free provider's stated limits. A false choice if there ever was one.
Delete important business messages to stay under limits?
Pay over the odds for more storage space?
Professional email hosting plans come with much more storage than free email accounts. Way more.
Some providers offer plans with unlimited storage for businesses. Which is just as it should be.
Sure, emails storage takes up more space than it used to. But there's no reason that storage should be limited either.
Managed email hosting providers also offer:
Archive Management
Mobile Access
Email Forwarding
Businesses often have a requirement to be able to go back and find old communications for legal purposes, customer disputes, or compliance requirements. Without the proper storage and archive management, finding that one, crucial email from three years ago can turn into a massive headache.
Security Superpowers That Save The Day
If we had a pound for every time a business owner asked us about security in the past year… We'd be able to finally pay ourselves in pounds.
Security is the number one worry businesses have when it comes to email. But without professional help and protection, all businesses are at risk.
Email hosting providers include a range of security features that free email services simply can't offer:
Encryption
Two-Factor Authentication
Suspicious Activity Monitoring
Regular Backups
Quarantine Systems
An IBM report found that in 2024, business email compromise attacks averaged $4.88 million per breach. Not a typo. Four point eight eight million dollars.
It's that big a deal.
Managed email hosting has more features that protect against threats and can stop those threats in their tracks.
They're not bells and whistles either. They're critical features any responsible business needs in place.
Tips For Finding The Right Provider
There's no point in getting so excited about email hosting that you just sign up with the first company you see.
The right email hosting provider is out there.
Managed email hosting services are as different as the companies that provide them.
Storage capacity is a big one. But some other features can be more important. Take the following into account when making your final decision:
Uptime Guarantees. Downtime is costly. Avoid providers who don't offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee
Support Availability. If your email goes down at 10pm at night, you want quick response support.
Integration. Look for hosting services that work with your CRM, calendar and more.
Compliance. If you're in a highly regulated industry, make sure your provider has experience supporting those regulations.
Scalability. Make sure your hosting service can scale as you grow and won't force you to start all over when the time comes.
The cheapest solution rarely ends up being the best value. And when security and productivity are at stake, that rule holds even more true.
Managed email hosting services provide businesses of all sizes with the reliable, scalable communication tool they need to compete in the modern age.
Including a bundle of hidden benefits along the way. From spam protection to storage space, security to reliability.
If you aren't convinced yet, get ready to have your mind changed…
Wrapping Things Up
If you use free email services in your business, you might be completely underestimating the power of managed email hosting.
We're not talking about marketing power. Business communications power.
The hidden benefits of managed email hosting add up fast. You just need to know where to look:
Spam protection that works
Storage space with no limits
Superpowers for security
Reliable and scalable services
Free email isn't really a solution. It's an invitation to problems.
Managed email hosting provides businesses with the tools they need to protect themselves from threats. Store everything they need. Focus on growing their business without distraction.
Email is the communication tool that businesses use to do business.
Don't short-change your business by underestimating the benefits of a professionally managed email hosting service.
