How To Set Up Mail Forwarding in Plesk?

Email forwarding can be set up with just a few clicks. Read this short article which gives a step-by-step guide on how to achieve this.

Updated: 14 Dec, 21 by Susith Nonis 9 Min

List of content you will read in this article:

Emails are still one of the most efficient and secure ways to communicate with more than one user. Businesses have been using email systems to reach customers on an everyday basis and they do this by following certain mail forwarding techniques. When we talk about email forwarding, it simply means that one sender with a single email address and sends the same message to multiple email addresses. So there will be only one sender and multiple recipients. It can work the other way around too. Multiple email addresses can send their queries from different locations to one single destination. 

In business teams, you may hear email users use the terms “server-based forwarding” and “client-based forwarding.” Forwarding mail not only gives companies a cost-effective solution to reach more users, but it also avoids storing long and unmemorable mail addresses. In this article, we are going to elaborate on that subject and take a closer look at some benefits and working of email forwarding services. 

Forwarding emails is larger than just sending the same message to different users. It acts as a middleman to convey the message sent from a company to its customers. Mail forwarding is usually run in a virtual office that takes care of sorting and sending messages.

PS: check out our tutorial on creating emails using Plesk.

This mail redirection technique is flexible for any business because it allows people to control messages sent to the users and the queries received from customers all over the world.

This is different from ordinary emails because forwarding email addresses doesn’t need an actual inbox, whereas regular ones use email clients like Google and Outlook. Also, regular emails do not come with bouncers or some might say redirectors to forward messages to only some specific email address. 

In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of setting up mail forwarding for an email address in Plesk.

Step 1: 

Log in to Plesk and go to Mail > Email Addresses.

selecting the mail address

Step 2: 

Select the "Forwarding" tab > select the “Switch on mail forwarding” checkbox.

switching ON and OFF the mail forwarding ceckbox

In the available space, write the email addresses (one or more) to which you want the mail forwarded to, then click "OK". (Note: when entering multiple emails use spaces, commas, semicolons or start from a new line)

Step 3: 

If you want to turn off mail forwarding then simply untick the checkbox and click "OK".

If you don’t want any copies of forwarded messages in the mailbox then simply go to Mail > Email Addresses and deselect the Mailbox check box.

Keeping a mailbox or not

Having a robust mail forwarding system can not only simplify customer interaction but can also integrate multiple addresses into one account. Business domains can be used to create one such email address and use the same to send emails to multiple mail addresses. In most cases, this single account links to many domain name addresses that handle certain segments of a business, so managing multiple emails becomes super easy and less time-consuming.

With mail forwarding, you can never lose important messages from family or clients, as it can be used to connect with old and used email addresses. The best part is that you can avoid telling them you have a new email address. Finally, it helps in managing multiple roles at work and it does this by simplifying redirecting messages from old addresses to newly set forwarding mail using the same domain name. 

When we talk about a business environment, the most important and challenging to achieve is gaining the trust of customers. Now, there are many ways to maintain a high level of trust factor and standards for the business to do well in selling products. One of the main ways is to continuously put efforts to interact with them and solve their problems.

Now, this is not possible to do with every single user, so it is crucial to deploy a mail forwarding service to reach all customers. Along with increasing the trust factor and building a relationship with the customer, businesses also get several benefits with mail forwarding and we have highlighted some main ones below: 

  • Mail Security 

Recovering from an email theft is time-consuming and you may never get to retrieve all documents and personal information. This is where mail forwarding eliminates security risks and safeguards the identity of a business. Brand identity is important and once it's gone, it cannot be brought back, so take proper precautions regularly. 

  • Inexpensive Mailroom 

Mail forwarding providers use a digital mailbox to scan and send mail, so there is no real equipment used that would cost a lot of money. By not spending a dime on shredders, printers, and physical mailrooms, you are saving time, money, and space to grow your business. 

  • Easy to respond 

When you have digital mailing systems, you can instantly resolve your customer problems. You can access that one single account from anywhere in the world, and still be interacting with your users. 

  • Professional Appearance 

Having a mail forwarding account is just going to elevate the level of professionalism your business follows and it again develops that trust factor with your customers. With a professional appearance from the outside and solid security features, users are likely to select your business over other competitors. 

  • Flexible 

Mail forwarding is flexible to scale to any level, so if something unexpected happens down the line for your business, you can always rely on your mailing system. This also enhances customer experience and online activity, as it is covering more areas. 

  • Multiple users can sign up 

When working in a business, employees do need to type emails and check them from time to time. Business professionals can simply add more users to the same account and allow them to view and control messages. 

Mail forwarding can be modified to meet the specific requirements of a business, so it is essential to take a look at each type of mail forwarding and then decide which is the most suitable option. 

Server-Based Forwarding 

When mail forwarding is done to target servers, then it is called server-based forwarding. In this method, the servers come with no mailboxes and they can redirect messages without ever needing to change their envelope address. If we take primary servers into account, then we can observe some changes in the address and it also sends the same message to the user’s mailbox. 

Client-Based Forwarding 

When it comes to clients or mail user agents, users send emails manually by adding all the necessary attachments and message text. The same can be viewed by the customer and they can reply as well. In client-based forwarding, there is one thing to keep in mind and that is server information. When clients forward the email, everyone can see the information of the server that sent the email, so it becomes easy for recipients to download and open any and all attachments. 

Role-Based Forwarding 

Having multiple teams to work on a business makes perfect sense but to have multiple accounts for employees to have a personal look at business operations is not feasible in real-time. So, role-based forwarding brings in an effective system to help response teams fulfil queries on time. It also eases the workload for many employees. 

Optimizing your mail accounts and filtering unrelated emails is necessary to make the most out of customer interactions. The first thing to take care of is your email client. You need to check if it has been classified correctly by the spam filter. You don't want your emails to be considered spam or bulkmail. One of the free filters to consider adding to your mail forwarding system is SpamAssassin, as it can identify spam emails even outside of your client. 

In terms of authentication of emails, you need to remove any type of header or shuffle message placed in the body. This is crucial for your mail forwarding system because if DKIM signatures break, all information will be lost related to authentication. Some common mistakes that lead to DKIM breakage are modifying anti-spam/anti-virus programs and re-encoding the message. 

If you are not a mail server administrator, you need to change the forwarding settings so that spam messages are not sent to multiple addresses. You should also not change the envelope address in this case because if your mail user agent detects spam, then all your emails will fall in the same category

A mail forwarding service is a must-have for online brands and businesses. When it comes to selecting an option, you need to consider whether the personalization of emails is possible or not. Custom designs and templates that can be included in emails can grow business revenue by using a cost-effective system.

Even if there are multiple clients, these services handle them effortlessly. The only things to take care of our optimization and spam filtering features. If these components are reliable, then customer-company interaction will be effective in the long term. 

If your, looking to have your very own mail server instead of using third-party software, you can create your own mail server on Linux: here's how!

Susith Nonis

Susith Nonis

I'm fascinated by the IT world and how the 1's and 0's work. While I venture into the world of Technology, I try to share what I know in the simplest way with you. Not a fan of coffee, a travel addict, and a self-accredited 'master chef'.