Small Business1 min read
sales@ vs support@ vs hello@: Which Business Email Addresses to Create
Role-based email psychology — routing rules, when to use a shared inbox, and keeping search sane as you grow.
hello@ is friendly and vague — fine for five-person teams. support@ sets expectation of a response SLA. sales@ tells recipients they may get a pitch reply. Pick names that match how you actually staff responses.
Quick summary
- hello@ — the general front door on your website; someone triages and forwards
- support@ — existing customers with a problem; needs an owner and a response target
- sales@ — prospects, quotes and partnerships; answered by whoever sells
- billing@ — invoices, receipts and payment questions, kept apart from support threads
- Reply from the address the customer wrote to, so the thread stays in one mailbox
What each address is for
- hello@ — the general front door on your website; someone triages and forwards
- support@ — existing customers with a problem; needs an owner and a response target
- sales@ — prospects, quotes and partnerships; answered by whoever sells
- billing@ — invoices, receipts and payment questions, kept apart from support threads
Start with fewer addresses
A two-person business rarely needs all four. Start with hello@ plus a named mailbox each, and add support@ or sales@ when one type of mail starts to bury the rest. Every role address needs someone who reads it — an unanswered sales@ is worse than none.
Keep search sane
- Reply from the address the customer wrote to, so the thread stays in one mailbox
- Give each role mailbox one owner and one backup
- Put role addresses on the website and invoices, and personal addresses in ongoing conversations
- On OquMail, each role address is its own mailbox, counted within the 15 free mailboxes