Email messaging still remains a viable option for individuals and businesses that need to send messages to people because it’s cost effective.
Gmail has around 1.8 billion monthly active users as at the time of writing this post.
What is an email?
E-mail means electronic mail. Meaning, a message that can be sent through a network (internet).
Take note of the following:
Gmail, like other companies such as Yahoo, Hotmail and Outlook, is a platform with Google as parent company.
It is where you can create an account or mailing address (i.e abc@gmail.com) from where you can send electronic mail.
Email or mail can be in form of video, audio, image or document.
It is the message you’re sending across to another email address (i.e info@mywebsite.com).
Email address can either be the address you are using to send email or the address that is receiving the mail.
In this post, I’ll be showing you how to fill in the necessary input fields whose information may be required before you can successfully send an electronic mail.
Let’s dive in!
Step 1: Launch Gmail
To access Gmail, log in at mail.google.com using your email address and password.
If you don’t have an account, create an account at accounts.google.com.
Upon opening, locate the ‘compose’ button at the top left side on desktop or bottom right side of the android mobile app interface.
Input Fields
Step 2: Input field ‘From’
On mobile devices, ‘from’, shows the email address from which you want to send a message. This is your email address (sender’s email).
Step 3: Input field ‘To’
‘To’, indicates the address you want to send the message to (receiver’s email).
Check the FAQs to see the difference between Gmail and Professional Email.
Cc and Bcc
These input fields are not compulsory. To access Cc and Bcc, click on the dropdown arrow to the right of ‘to’ as shown above.
Step 4: Input field ‘Cc’
‘Cc’ is an acronym for Carbon Copy.
This Cc enables you to send same copy of email to more than one recipient at the same time (bulk mail).
All you have to do is add more email addresses to the Cc field as in the image above.
However, all the recipients of the mail will be able to see the list of those that also received the same copy of mail as in the image above.
Step 5: Input field ‘Bcc’
‘Bcc’ stands for ‘Blind Carbon Copy’. Adding email address(es) to Bcc field also allows you to send the same copy of email to multiple recipients at the same time just like Cc.
However, the email addresses of those included in the Bcc will not be known to others who received the same mail.
Step 6: Input field ‘Subject’
Here, you summarily tell the receiver(s) about the content of the mail using relevant keywords (what the mail is about).
Step 7: Input field ‘Compose email’
This is the message body where you add images, links, attachment and also where you write text in length (the message you want to pass across to the receiver).
Step 8: Attachment
Gmail allows you to send data such as image, audio, video and document.
To add any of these files, click on the top right icon called ‘attachment’ .
This allows you to attach audio, video, document and image files.
Step 9: Send
Now that your mail is ready to be sent, the next thing you want to do is to click on the ‘send’ button.
But before you do that, ensure you’ve gone through it and vetted carefully.
Frequently asked questions on sending and receiving email.
Is Gmail free?
Yes, it is, with 15GB storage. To create a free account, visit https://accounts.google.com.
How do I schedule an email to send at a specific date and time on Gmail app?
To schedule a mail, follow the following steps:
Click on the three dots at the top right side of the app.
From the drop down, click on ‘schedule send’ as in the image below.
Click on ‘pick date and time’.
Select the day, month and time, then click on ‘schedule send’.
How do I reply an email?
Swipe down to the bottom of the mail you received.
Now, click on:
Reply – Your reply will only be sent to the email address you received the mail from.
Reply all – You are replying the sender as well as everyone who was Cc’d or included in the ‘Cc’ list of the sender.
Note: If you were Cc’d, Bcc’d or you received the message because your email address was included in the ‘Cc’ / ‘Bcc’ list of the sender, everyone on the ‘Cc’ / ‘Bcc’ list will see your reply’.
Better still, edit the mail content and remove the email addresses of others who were Cc’d or Bcc’d.
How do I forward an email?
If you forward an email, you are sending the exact copy of the email to another email address as received from the sender.
What is a professional email address?
A professional email address can be said to be a business or self hosted email address.
The opposite of professional email address is public or free email address.
Public email address is an address that end with @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, etc.
Professional email address is one that is attached to the domain of your business.
For example, if your business’s website is ‘www.goworld.com‘, your business email can be ‘shop@goworld.com‘.
You can as well subscribe to any hosting service like Namecheap Inc, GoDaddy Inc, Harmonweb Limited.
They are web hosting service providers where you can have a professional, custom, or business email address that has your business name. For example (contact@emerge.com).
If you work in Globacom company and your company’s website is ‘www.glo.com‘, your professional email as an employee of that company can be ‘yourname@glo.com’, ‘john@glo.com’.
I hope this post was helpful. Make sure you share with your friends and colleagues.
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