How many email accounts do you have? Out of those, how many do you check regularly, and how many different platforms are they on? Too many, and you\u2019re apt to miss something important. That\u2019s why we\u2019re going over how to ensure that your emails are well-organized and accessible from a single source.<\/p>\n
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One Account, Two Accounts, Three Accounts, Four\u2026<\/strong> However, you presumably have other work responsibilities beyond just checking your email, so switching between all of them just isn\u2019t a practical option. Well, it just so happens that you won\u2019t need to switch, as the email client you choose will be able to consolidate these multiple accounts for you. Before we get into how, we need to make sure that we\u2019re speaking the same language here.<\/p>\n – An email account is the individual address used to send or receive a message. In your organization, you might have employee1@yourbusiness.com and employee2@yourbusiness.com. Likewise, each employee may have a different account for their different responsibilities – for instance, employee1vendor@yourbusiness.com and employee1internal@yourbusiness.com.<\/p>\n – An email client is the program that allows you to send and receive emails. Gmail and Microsoft Outlook are two perfect examples. If you have multiple clients stored on the same server, they can be used pretty much interchangeably, each client presenting all emails. An email client also has a few features that enable you to better keep track of multiple email accounts, provided you have set it up to do so.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s go over your options now.<\/p>\n Multiple Inboxes<\/strong> Multiple Email Personalities<\/strong> To do so, you will first need to set up an email account that you do not give out, as it will serve as the catch-all address that all of your emails ultimately accumulate within. Once it has been set up, you need to set all of your other accounts to forward their contents to that mailbox – your internal IT resource should be able to help.<\/p>\n Once your messages are all being sent to the catch-all account, you will be able to respond to these emails from the address that they were originally sent to.<\/p>\n Setting Up Inboxes and Personalities<\/strong> Gmail<\/em> To add additional personalities to your Gmail account, you\u2019ll need to again navigate to the Accounts and Import tab<\/strong>. There, you will find a section labeled Send Mail As<\/strong><\/em>, with the option to Add another email address<\/strong><\/em>. This will also allow you to choose your default email address.<\/p>\n
\nBased on your work responsibilities and how your office is structured, it is quite possible that you need regular access to multiple email accounts. You could have one you use internally, one for communicating with clients, one to reach out to vendors, one to use to sign up for resources\u2026 you get the point. When all is said and done, that\u2019s a lot of email messages.<\/p>\n
\nThe people who developed the email clients that we use weren\u2019t naive. They understood that a given user isn\u2019t going to be tied down to a single email provider, and certainly not a single account. This is why email clients can support multiple inboxes, assuming they are configured correctly. Multiple inboxes allow a user to access a single client to manage multiple email accounts, streamlining the process greatly and enabling customized organization.<\/p>\n
\nOn the other hand, some users don\u2019t mind leveraging one inbox, but might still need to utilize more than one address in their correspondence. There is also a method that enables the use of a single, catch-all inbox, but enables the user to select which email address (in this case, known as personalities) their response is sent from.<\/p>\n
\nIn order to accomplish either of these tasks for your client of choice, you will need to adjust a few settings.<\/p>\n
\nTo add another account to your Gmail client, you\u2019ll need to access your Settings<\/strong>, which means you have to click on the gear icon. Once you\u2019re in your Settings, you should see a tab labeled Accounts and Import<\/strong>. Under that tab, there is a Check mail from other accounts<\/strong><\/em> section. Click on Add a mail account<\/strong>, and follow the instructions provided.<\/p>\n