About this book
This book explains why email signatures are a great way for you to maximize your social reach when marketing, to extend your brand to email communication, and to realize the full potential of marketing campaigns and promotions. We serve up a variety of case studies and signature examples to illustrate what works — and what doesn’t.
Foolish assumptions
In writing this book, we’ve made some assumptions about your knowledge of email signatures, why you might be interested in this book, and what you want to get out of it. We assume that:
Seeing digital email signatures as a communications channel
Email signatures as a communications tool possess all the traits of a staple marketing channel. So that’s why, in this chapter, we present digital signatures as a comprehensive communications channel.
To start you off on the subject, we explore just what email signatures are, and their relevance in the corporate (not direct marketing) arena. Then we take a look at the many positive attributes of the email signature channel, from targeted and controlled to valued and trusted, so you can see for yourself the power of this channel.
Finally, we introduce you to the 8Cs framework, the foundation for building email signatures and the subject of the subsequent eight chapters.
What is an electronic email signature?
You could think of an email signature as being rather like a modern-day, digital business card. First and foremost, an email signature tells people who they’re dealing with. At its most basic, an email signature includes personal information such as your job title, department, and maybe your phone number and email address. However, you can take things further and transform a basic email signature into a new marketing communications channel for your business by including your company logo, brand elements, promotional banners, advertising slogans, social links and content, or any other such marketing devices.
You can also put email signatures to effective use as an internal communications channel. Marketers instinctively think of external markets, but in large organizations, emails are often sent between coworkers, so considering the role that signatures can play in these internal emails is important. Maybe you take internal marketing just as seriously as you take external marketing. Maybe you see your colleagues as customers. Maybe you have direct responsibilities in that area. Maybe you work in HR, and corporate communications are a big part of what you do. Email signatures have a lot of potential for internal emailing, and in many cases, that potential has yet to be properly tapped into.
Email signatures, then, aren’t just business cards for the digital age. They can be an independent and valuable communications channel.
Why you should use electronic email signatures
Direct mail is a great communications mechanism in the right hands, and we’re pretty sure you have experience of it — either as giver or receiver, or even both. But direct mail isn’t the topic of this book.
The email signatures we’re talking about in this book are for your corporate email. That’s every email sent out of your corporate email server — the hundreds and thousands (and sometimes millions) of emails that your people send out every day in the normal course of their work. Those emails have value to the recipient:
Generally, corporate emails are peer-to-peer — one of your guys sends an email to one of their guys. Maybe one of your guys sends an email to one of your own guys, or several of your own guys or several of theirs. Corporate emails can also include those sent to customers from automated sources, such as your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Email signatures can add value to these emails, too.
Excerpts from the book
Studies estimate that each worker sends roughly 40 emails per day, a figure that continues to rise year on year. In, for example, a 50-person office that’s maybe 2,000 emails every day, which constitutes a substantial marketing audience.
Morale-boosting could be worth considering in departments with high attrition and specialization: Customer service teams may need very organization-specific training and yet their day-to-day experience may make them feel undervalued or underappreciated. Displaying certifications can indirectly demonstrate how important their contribution is.
The banner goes below relevant, significant correspondence — it naturally carries weight and credibility. The reader easily notices it because there are no other distractions, like competing ads or other graphical content. The email content has also (hopefully) engaged the reader’s full attention, so you can tone down the intensity of the banner design (if you want; naturally, every business is different).
How to digitally sign an email
If you're using a web-based email client like Gmail, first click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of your screen. From there, select 'See all settings'. Then, scroll down to the 'Signature' section and click on 'Create new'. Here, you can enter your desired signature content. Don't forget to hit 'Save Changes' before you leave the page.
For those using Outlook, navigate to 'File' and then 'Options'. In the 'Mail' tab, look for 'Signatures...' under the 'Create or modify signatures for messages' section. In the new window, click 'New' to create a new signature. Enter the name for your signature and input the content in the edit box below. Click 'OK' to save.
Remember, your email signature should be professional and succinct, providing essential contact information and a professional image. Avoid using too many different fonts, colors, or graphics, as these can distract from the message and appear unprofessional.
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