Wednesday, December 02, 2015

The Easiest Marketing Tactic You Can Implement Right Now, For Free


By Sarah Larson

When clients rely on us to create and implement their integrated marketing and public relations plans, the strategy and tactics are often long and detailed, supported by data, and taking months and sometimes years to implement.

However, there is one recommendation that we typically have to make to every client, and it also holds true for most other businesses, maybe even yours.

The easiest, fastest marketing tool you can implement right now, with no cost to you, is also one of the most overlooked – your email signature.

Every initial email you send for business should include a full, branded signature. It should populate automatically, so you don’t have to remember (and then eventually forget) to add it manually. And it should include all the information your business contacts need to identify and reach you.

That information should include:
  • Your name
  • Your title
  • Company name
  • Company address
  • Company main line phone
  • Your direct phone line, if applicable
  • Your mobile number, if it’s used for business
  • Your email address – yes, even though the signature is FOR your email
  • Link to company website and blog, if applicable
  • Links to relevant social media profiles, particularly LinkedIn
  • Any legal disclosure your company or industry requires
For subsequent messages in a thread or long conversation, the signature can be truncated to include just basic information or can be left off all together. With so much business being done almost exclusively by email, no one wants to have to scroll through the same long information more than once. Some companies create two signatures, one for the initial email and a second abbreviated version for subsequent responses.

It sounds simple, and it is. But as with many things in life, sometimes the simplest ones are the most overlooked. The number of emails that we receive every day with no signatures at all – and therefore no easy contact information – is still surprisingly high, even though most business professionals would say, if asked, that email signatures are important.

Adding a signature to email isn’t just a good marketing tool. It is a courtesy to the message recipient. It saves them the time and trouble of having to find your contact information elsewhere. And making business interaction easier and more efficient is always a good thing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...


Disagree.
Only for that initial message.
After that you just need name, direct number and email address if anything. And in plain text, no need for smart formats, hyperlinks etc.
The amount of screen real state that signature and disclosure take makes me dizzy and it's a waste of time when you're scrolling down a message conversation, particularly on a mobile device

Sarah Larson said...

You are absolutely right about followup messages - I should have been more clear. Updated the post to reflect that. Thanks for reading, and for commenting!