I have a friend who is a Senior Digital Media Marketing Strategist. I have no idea what that title means—but judging by the 6-figure salary he was recently offered by a Fortune 500 company (which he turned down), he must be quite good at his job. One of the things that makes him good is his ability to find opportunities in the even the most over-looked places. A piece of advice he recently gave me was to make every email count, even if the specific email you are sending isn’t a marketing blast or direct sales opportunity. One way he recommended to make every communique count is to better leverage your email signatures. Smart advice considering the last thing people read in your email is your signature, so naturally it should contain actionable material.
After probing a little further with good ol’ faithful Google I’ve come up with 10 ways to better-leverage your email signature:
1. Website Directs
It is fairly self-evident that you should include your website in your email signature, but you can customize this further by using different landing pages for different clients/customers/prospects. If you are sending an email to an existing customer then include a link in your Current Customer Signature that directs them to a page with new products or offers (and if you are really on the ball use your CRM to determine their past purchase history so you can offer them similar products). If your email recipient is a prospective customer then send them to your website page that has the highest conversions or offers something of value, like a free trial.
For this you need to create multiple email signatures and name them after which type of client/prospect they were created for. A little time consuming to pick an email signature each time—but I promised you value, not time-savers.
2. Include your Blog
Many people, and companies, spend a lot of time creating and updating blog content but they often fail when it comes to blog-promotion opportunities. Put a link in your email signature to your blog, but try not to make it a generic one to your homepage (because quite frankly with the every-blog-is-a-blogger mentality people don’t care about generic blogs anymore), instead link to your most-recent or most-popular blog post(s).
If you simply don’t have the time to update your email signature regularly with blog updates, then consider using a tool like WiseStamp, which automatically creates dynamic email signatures using your most recent blog posts. It also automatically generates an RSS-like feed promoting your blog content.
3. Multiple Social Media Accounts
Most marketers these days link to a social media account in their email signatures. Some link to personal accounts, others link to company accounts; I recommend using both. Using both a (quasi-)personal account and a company account lets people get to know both you and your company, which is a good idea since they are buying your company’s products but they are buying them because of their relationship with you. Including your personal social media accounts lets them get to know you as a person, and people are more likely to buy something from someone they feel they know.
As a bonus it helps you build your personal brand—handy if you ever sprout off on your own or switch companies and want to bring your portfolio of clients with you.
4. Link to a Book or E-Book
People like authors. We think they are smart and authoritative. You may not have published a print book but consider publishing a short e-book on a topic in your field. It makes you come across as knowledgeable, authoritative and as an expert in your field. After all, sales and marketing is all about credibility.
5. Up-Coming Conferences and Events
If your contacts are in your vertical, or interesting on the going-ons in your vertical then be sure to include up-coming events and conferences. This will help establish you as someone fully involved in their field while providing a service to your contacts. If it is an event sponsored by your company it helps spread valuable awareness.
6. Marketing and Sales Offers
Another no-brainer but you’d still be surprised how many marketers don’t update their signatures with the latest or best-performing offers and deals.
7. Case Studies
What’s better when communicating with potential customers than sharing stories of happy customers. If you don’t have case studies then create some (its surprisingly simple). If your busyness (read: laziness) outweighs your desire to create case studies then use a simple customer quote, “John really saved my ass by overnighting X product to me. He makes me look good”.
8. Specific Industry Research
Make your email signature stand out by including a very specific tidbit of industry research that may be applicable to your clients and prospects. This could be something as simple as “CRM Research Institute determined 125% YOY growth from using X product”.
9. Free Tool
Free online tools engage prospects in your service/products by offering them something they can use, while at the same time engaging them in your website. Free online tools like calculators, educational games, etc., are often too hard to resist.
10. Free Consultation of Product Demonstration Offer
You likely offer some sort of free demo, trial, or consult—give it some marketing love by putting it in your signature. Its a great reminder for people who were once interested in your products but haven’t been to your website in a while to be reminded about your free demos.
There are so many ways to make your email signature work for you. Try mixing up the options above to keep your email signature fresh and to get people interested in seeing whats in your email signature this week. Another word of advice though for internet marketers reading this–don’t use ALL of them at one time.
Robin Wilding is a professionally trained Canadian journalist striving to bring journalistic-era intergity to online media. She has a second degree in Political Science--with a focus on International Relations and the developing world. Currently Robin is a contributor to several technology publications, including Brajeshwar.com, SocialTechnologyReview.com, HostingIndustryWatch.com, AnimationCareerReview.com and CompareBusinessProducts.com. She also works for several web developers; and does ghost writing for several high level executives within the technology sector. Robin's work is showcased in her portfolio: http://shownd.com/robinwilding
