How to Move Your Email to a New Domain (Rebranding Guide)

Changing your domain - after a rebrand, merger or name change - means moving your email too. Done carelessly, you lose messages and miss mail sent to your old addresses. Done right, the switch is seamless and nobody notices. Here's the playbook.

Plan the move

Before touching anything:

• List every mailbox and alias on the old domain
• Decide the matching addresses on the new domain (you@newbrand.com)
• Plan to keep the old domain active for a good while - people and systems will keep using old addresses for months

Step 1: Set up the new domain

Create your mailboxes on the new domain and configure its DNS - MX records plus SPF, DKIM and DMARC for deliverability. Because it's a fresh sending domain, be mindful of reputation - see how to warm up a new email domain.

Step 2: Bring across existing mail

Migrate the history from your old mailboxes into the new ones, so each person keeps their past email, contacts and calendars - the same zero-downtime approach as any move, covered in our migration guide.

Step 3: Keep the old addresses working

This is the key to a smooth rebrand. Don't just switch off the old domain:

• Add the old addresses as aliases (or keep the old mailboxes) so mail to them still arrives
• Alternatively, forward old addresses to the new ones for a transition period - see email forwarding explained

Give it a long runway - 6 to 12 months or more - before retiring old addresses.

Step 4: Update everything that uses your email

• Email signatures and out-of-office replies
• Website, invoices, business cards and letterheads
• Logins and notifications on third-party services (banks, tools, suppliers)
• Social profiles and directory listings

A simple checklist here saves a lot of "why didn't I get that?" later.

Step 5: Tell people

Send a short note from the new address announcing the change, and set an auto-reply on old addresses mentioning the new domain - see how to set up an out-of-office auto-reply.

Make the rebrand effortless

Moving domains touches mailboxes, DNS, migration and a transition plan - exactly the kind of thing worth having handled for you. DigiCloudMail sets up your new domain, migrates your mail with zero downtime, and keeps old addresses working through the switch.

Rebranding to a new domain? Contact us and we'll manage the email move.