What, you don't have a signature for your email messages and articles? Then you are missing out one of the cheapest, but most efficient marketing tools. But how do you create the perfect signature for your business?
Let me show you:
When creating your own promotional email signature, first you have to figure out how you want the reader to react. Do you want her or him to visit your web site, to purchase your products, or to join your newsletter?
Maybe you even want to create several signatures for different occasions: One to promote your newsletter, one that links to your web site, one that fits the signature rules of your favorite discussion list, and so on.
Once you have decided on the goal of your signature, you can go on and create your email signature. It is best to use a real simple text editor to create your first signature, such as Notepad. I recommend to create a text file that contains all your signatures. Then it is easy to find a specific signature when you need it, and when you create a new one, you do not have to start from the scratch but modify an existing signature.
Your signature always starts with a greeting and your own name. Depending on the audience, you can also include your title and company name. However, I do not recommend to include your phone and fax numbers, at least not in promotional signatures.
Sample:
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Best regards,
Zakk Wylde
AtomPark Software, Inc.
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Next, you have to create the promotional part of your signature.
This part is like creating a short e-zine ad. You have to mention your offer, your URL and a call to action. It is not enough to only mention your URL; you have to give the reader a compelling reason to go to your site and join your newsletter or buy your product. Also, be sure to insert the working link and make your URL click-able!
Sample:
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Here are some additional tips to make your signature line more efficient:
Although your signature is a promotional item, it should be as unobtrusive as possible, just like the Yahoo! Mail signature.
Do not use exclamation marks exessively. It is enough to use one in your call to action. The same goes for upper-case letters:
USING UPPER-CASE LETTERS AND EXCLAMATION MARKS MAKES READERS FEEL LIKE YOU ARE SCREAMING AT THEM!!!
See what I mean?
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It is also important that you keep your signature as short as possible. People are annoyed when they see sigantures that look like full-blown ads and tend to ignore them. As a rule of thumb, I suggest that the promotional part of your signature should be one to three lines of text, including the URL. Each line should not be longer than 65 characters, otherwise some email clients may have trouble displaying your signature correctly.
Written by:
Paul Shuteyev
