Emails are one of the most common forms of communication today. In fact, there are 2.6B email users worldwide, with each user holding more than 1 account. Just in the business setting alone, it’s estimated that each employee will send 10,000 emails annually! So for a 100 person company, that’s over 1M emails per year. And while the email signature may not seem all that important, think about how your company’s most important contacts are perceiving your employee’s signature: your prospects, customers, partners, vendors, influencers, thought leaders, and so many others. Often times, an email is the very first interaction an individual will have with your company directly (outside of perhaps your website, blog, or social channels managed by your marketing team).
So how can your employees represent your brand well, while also providing an opportunity for your company’s most valuable contacts to engage with your most important initiatives?
We ran across a recent infographic in a Business2Community post, authored by Danny Ashton and we love it so much we just have to share it.
First of all, we love Danny’s definition that so accurately describes what an email signature is:
“At its simplest, your email signature is an electronic business card: ‘here’s my message, and here’s how to reach me’. Identifying who you are and what you do is a no-brainer. Adding a professional-looking headshot (hi-res and appropriate to your brand) can be a nice personal touch – and potential memory-prompt to sometime acquaintances with handshake fatigue! Phone numbers and email addresses should be kept to a minimum (no more than one of each), and all this information should be neatly divided and spaced out so it’s easily accessible to your busy client.”
But more than that, according to Danny, your email signature can be a very powerful marketing tool:
“Brand consistency is a key element, whether you’re emailing on behalf of your own business or you’re part of a bigger organization. Ensuring the fonts, colours, and tone are aligned with that of your colleagues and your broader web and print marketing makes you easily identifiable and contributes to your company’s strong image.”
Danny lists out 7 ways to improve your email signature:
- Make it simple – avoid the use of too many graphics, colors and fonts
- Keep it short – include vital information and cut out needless information
- Inform your recipients – include information on any upcoming promotions, product launches, events or latest blog posts that might be of interest to the recipient
- Be consistent – your signature should reflect your company’s visual identity
- Break it up – make use of pipes (|), colons (:) or dividers to condense the number of lines
- Get social – include social media links to your company’s main accounts, unless you’re happy for people to reach out to you via your personal accounts
- Include additional details – include additional details such as your title and department so your recipients know whom they’re talking with right away
Did you know that there is actually an entire company devoted to employee email signature marketing? Sigstr allows marketers to showcase the company’s most important initiatives via call-to-action campaigns to the most engaged audience – those your employees are emailing with directly. In addition, Sigstr allows your company to gain control of employee’s email signatures to ensure proper formatting and branding on every single employee email signature. No longer will you have to worry about outdated signatures, formatting issues, or wrong uses of colors or fonts. And best of all, get the data to see what’s working!
Ready to get started with the power of employee email signature marketing? Check out the most recent Sigstr resource:
Sign up for Sigstr and start your free 30-day trial today to begin using the power of email signature marketing.
