Email signatures are the digital equivalent of your business card. You’ve probably seen a variety of styles inserted at the bottom of email messages you’ve received.
Email signatures are a powerful marketing
tool you should always be using to brand and market your business online.
Benefits of an Email Signature
- It brings your email messages to life.
- It’s a green alternative to paper cards.
- You have a virtual card to share with contacts you haven’t met in person, such as social media and internet connections.
- It supports the branding of your business when your website, stationary, business card and email signature all contain a consistent theme and message.
- Email is a great free place to advertise! Why not also ad your special offers?
- Anyone who forwards your email will also see your email signature.
What Your Email Signature Should Look Like
A good model for an email signature is between 4-8 lines in length and should include the following:
- Your Name
- Business Name
- Tagline
- Phone number(s)
- Email & Website Address
Additional elements you may also like to add:
- Other ways to connect with you such as through social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn).
- Your promotions and special offers, for example;
My new ebook “Choosing a Home Business that Works”
will be available Jan 1st
or
Get my Jumpstart program, on sale now for just $99
through the end of the month (reg. $149)
Types of Email Signatures
There are basically two types of email signatures, text and html.
Text: a text signature is just your contact information in text format at the bottom of an email, and is easy to do yourself.
Html: an html signature contains images that are hosted on a website. Unless you are savvy with computer code you will need a professional to create one for you.
Both text and html email signatures should contain working links to your website!
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What You Should Not Have in Your Email Signature
Don’t just use the “insert image” command to put a picture of your business card at the bottom of an email. It takes up the recipient’s disk space and is poor netiquette. Do use a text or html format.
Don’t use your personal/home email address. It’s unprofessional to have “uglytoes@email.com” or “kidtaxi479@email.com.” Do use your business email address exclusively in your signature.
Don’t clutter your email signature with other people’s quotes, jokes or poems. Do make everything about promoting and branding you.
How To Get Your Own Email Signature
You can easily create your own text email signature by typing it in at the bottom of an email message (or using copy/paste). Most email programs today will also allow you to set an automatic function to insert your signature
on all outgoing messages. Just check the “help” section of your email program for specific instructions.
To get a great html email signature you can hire a web designer or a graphic artist. There are also many companies online (myself included) that will create a professional one for you ranging from $20-$200.
You can find websites which offer free signature makers online. Just add your own text and upload images. However, I haven’t personally found any of these free programs to be a good alternative to a professionally
created signature. Free signature makers insert advertising and links back to there own website. Remember this is not about them, it’s all about you!
Michelle Brubaker
