2 Easy Ways to Empower Your Inbox

Gmail offers two little-known features that can help small-business owners empower their inbox to get the most out of it.

Both involve modifying your email address. Note: #1 only works with Gmail accounts, not Google Workspace accounts using your own domain.

#1: Add periods to your email address
(Gmail Only)

Periods in @gmail.com email accounts are completely ignored before the @ symbol.

If the email I signed up with was tomstechtipsnon@gmail.com, any email sent to toms.tech.tips.non@gmail.com or tomstech.tips.non@gmail.com or even t.o.ms.te.ch.ti.psn.o.n@gmail.com (not recommended!) would all end up in the same place… your inbox.

The biggest benefit to this is readability. toms.tech.tips.non@gmail.com is much more readable than tomstechtipsnon@gmail.com. There is no question of how it is meant to be read. Meanwhile, you can while talking to someone tell them your email, and you don’t have to include the dots. Dots or no dots, it will still reach your inbox.

Bonus Tip!

As a business owner, having your own domain creates authenticity and trust with your customers. Its best not to use a basic, free @gmail.com account for your business, instead consider bringing your own domain to Google Workspace to take your business to the next level.

#2: Add text to the end of your email address, before the @ symbol and after a +
(Gmail and Google Workspace)

With Google email addresses, anything that falls between a + and the @ symbol in your address is ignored.  That means I can make my address tomstechtips+newsletter@nightowlnotions.ca, or any variation, and I will continue to receive emails to my inbox.

So… how does this help me?

Have you ever received an email from a company or person you have never heard of and wondered - “How did they get my email address?”

Have you ever wished you could filter your emails more easily into folders, without having to add new “from” rules for every single thing you subscribe to?

Let’s address both use cases.

“How did they get my email address?”

Say you’re signing up for a new account for graphics to use for your business. Instead of signing up with youremail@yourdomain.com, you could instead sign up with youremail+graphics@yourdomain.com  Make it memorable, since you’ll need to sign in with this account whenever you log in to the service.

If you later start receiving emails from an unrelated source that are addressed to youremail+graphics@yourdomain.com, you know that the company behind that service has either sold your email address, had a data breach, or otherwise shared your email address with this other organisation that you did not give your email to.

Easier Email Filtering

If instead you’re signing up for a newsletter for entrepreneurs like Nocturnal Notes, you could make the email you sign up with youremail+newsletter@yourdomain.com. Now you can direct this, and any other newsletters you sign up for, to a folder without having to set up or modify your email filters every time you sign up for a new newsletter. Always sign up for newsletters going forward with youremail+newsletter@yourdomain.com and they’ll all get filtered into your folder.

If you’re not sure how to filter your email - stay tuned to Tom’s Tech Tips.  An upcoming article will be on exactly that!