Leave your Mark

Want people to remember you? Want people to find you?

Well, this is where the little things count or can help get you started….

Have you ever had one of those moments where you want to give someone a call and you don’t have their number anywhere? You have received an email, but there’s no contact information, no website information, nada…zilch! And, when you check the email address, it gives no indication of a potential website address.

Here’s the important part: ALWAYS INCLUDE A SIGNATURE IN YOUR EMAILS!

Top 5 Reasons to include your signature in your emails:

1. Shows professionalism and credibility.
2. Promotes name recognition. Most people know me as “Claire”, but don’t necessarily know my full name – it’s a good habit for people to know your full name for identifying you against other people with the same first name.
3. People can spot your email more easily and know how to contact you other than via email.
4. Signatures are a form of marketing, believe it or not! I always check out a person’s website when I see a website address in their signature – do you?
5. Saves you time if you have an automatic signature that gets placed at the bottom of your email as soon as you create a new email.

Signature Etiquette

• Keep it short – ideally no longer than 5 lines – stick to the most IMPORTANT information you want to include.
• Separate your signature from the main section of your email – good separators could include words such as “Kind Regards “, “Warm Regards”, “Yours Sincerely”, etc…
• Each line in the signature should not be very long – if it is too wide, it will seem a part of the email – you WANT your signature to stand out.
• Avoid different colours, fonts and graphics. Using graphics can affect the transmission of your mail with certain mail clients – keep it simple and standardise it with the email you are sending i.e. colour of font, type of font and size of font.
• Be careful when using HTML formatting as it may not always get to the recipient’s side as it looks on your side. It’s definitely worth testing your signature by emailing friends or alternative email accounts that you have access to that are on different mail accounts. For example, if you send an email via MS Outlook, make sure you see how it looks when the mail is sent to a Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, etc… account.
• When including your website address(es), provide the FULL URL / website address and try to ensure these are clickable – you may actually notice your website traffic increase.
• If you are happy for people to contact you telephonically, then include your landline and / or mobile number. Avoid including too many numbers. And, if privacy is an issue, leave contact numbers out.
• If you are happy for people to contact you via Skype or IM, include your Skype / IM details in the mail.
• Avoid adding unnecessary clutter or wording for example:
  • Adding a short phrase – this is very common and you need to be careful about this one as you could offend someone accidentally (especially if it is to do with religion or personal opinions).
  • Virus checks – just adds clutter.
  • Legal Disclaimer – this adds so much clutter and hardly anyone reads it. Consider only including it when it is REALLY important.

Example Signatures

There are SO many examples one can check out. Visit Google Images or click here below to see what signatures there are out there – it’s worth checking it out and seeing what other people are up to:

Summary

If you haven’t tried using a signature before, take 1 month to give it a try and see if you notice any difference in your dealings with people you correspond with via email e.g. website traffic, increase in phone calls, better communication, faster email turnaround times.

If I’ve left out any pointers, let me know!