The importance of signature in an email

Working mostly online and having to follow up on multiple web projects on a daily basis, I receive dozens of emails every day from clients, partners, and colleagues in my own field of work.
It is surprising to see how in many cases the signature-at the close of an ’email-is overlooked if not omitted altogether. On closer inspection, in addition to being a useful reminder of how to be contacted, the signature if well used can become an effective marketing tool, one of the easiest and most immediate ways to promote a service, new product or event.

What it is and how to use it

The signature can be configurable on one’s e-mail program and structured in 5-6 lines.
It is the part that is automatically inserted at the end of every message sent. It can be considered somewhat like our electronic business card.
In an age when we are now inundated with emails, with our signature (name, role, company and website) we give our recipient a clear and unambiguous signal about the author and origin of the email. Far easier to decipher than a simple address displayed in the “From” field.

At least two important parts should be considered when creating your signature: the main one, relating to general contact information, and another optional one, with possible marketing connotations. Let’s look at them in detail:

General Information

It is the essential part of the signature, which should NEVER be missing from all emails sent.
A few lines are sufficient and can include name, company, web address, telephone and fax number, email address, VAT number and Rea, which are required by law:

–
Mario Rossi
Neikos digital agency

Home page

tel. +39 0824 25 569 fax +39 0824 181 0515
m.rossi@neikos.it
P.iva 01130960626 – REA No. 96751

If we want our signature to be even more “essential,” we can omit the email address, since it is easily accessible from the “From” field. Possible additions to the main part of the signature may instead be the role or position held within the company (to be placed after the name line), company address, Facebook address, and instant messaging references:

–
Mario Rossi
Marketing manager
Neikos digital agency

Home page

facebook.com/Neikos.web.agency
tel. +39 0824 25 569 fax +39 0824 181 0515
m.rossi@rossitravel.it
skype: mario.rossi

Neikos Ltd.
Via Grimoaldo Re, 26
82100 Benevento
P.iva 01130960626 – REA No. 96751

Signature as a marketing tool

As unusual as it may seem, a signature with a recognizable style can benefit one’s business and act as a real marketing tool. One line, for example, might be enough to enter (and promote):

• The ‘announcement of a new program, service, product, publication
• A quote reflecting the company’s point of view
• The ‘invitation to a special event, meeting
• The invitation to subscribe to its newsletter
• The invitation to learn about the offer for a stay (bed&breakfast/agritourism/hotel) or a tasting or dinner (winebar/restaurant/wine bar).

Other optional items may include:

• very simple graphic elements, such as a horizontal line or a series of marks to distinguish your signature from the rest of the email;
• call to action via a link to specific page on your site.

In any case, when creating this type of signature it would be wise to leave the bare minimum for the actual contact part (name, company, web, tel) and focus on what we want our recipients to know:

–
Mario Rossi
Rossi Travel Agency
http://www.rossitravel.it
tel. +39 006544 fax +39 0045645
P.iva 01130960626 – REA No. 96751
****************************
You want to increase your purchases
online? Ask me how to…
****************************

In this example, the call to action expressed in the link, could take the user to a contact form of Mario Rossi’s company.

Summary advice for those who want to try their hand at…

• Outgoing emails, always include your signature in every email sent (to customers, suppliers, partners… )

• Consider always using your signature in discussion lists and forums as well, but be careful to use a very short signature that contains no more than one link. Instead, in blog comments, limit your signature to your name and the name of your site (with links)

• Create different versions of your signature and use them depending on where they will appear or depending on the recipients. Some mail programs (Outlook for example) allow you to create various signatures and choose which one to send in a message each time. If your program does not offer this option, save your signatures in a plain text file in an easily accessible folder on your computer.

• If you use autoresponders, don’t leave out the signature at the end of your message.

• Do not overdo the length

• Avoiding including the greeting-which will always be the same- in the signature would make it cold and impersonal in the long run. Better to keep the greetings in the body of the message, keep them alive.

• Even disclaimers and legal notices should not appear with the signature at the close of emails; you may find yourself having to write several times in the course of a day to the same recipient, perhaps forcing them to read a simple “OK” in a cumbersome text kit. To get around this surplus of text (and KB) you could have a page created on your site accessible only by links in email and containing disclaimers and legal notices.

• Be creative and show personality. Shannon Kinnard in his “Email marketing, rules and strategies for results-oriented online communication” (Apogeo Publisher) gives the example of “a witty advertising writer who uses funny and lively idioms at the end of her e-mail messages. (…) She claims that people told her they always enjoyed reading her messages because they knew there would be something funny at the end. The most important thing is that people remember her; moreover, her creative labels serve to reinforce her image as an advertising writer“. True, creating a memorable signature file or one that has character can become a complex achievement to achieve, but it certainly helps people remember you.

Finally, an invitation to consider these numbers: let’s say 12 people work in your company, each sending an average of 8 emails a day (with the company signature and tagline); assuming 230 working days in a year, that would mean 22,080 business cards or advertisements distributed annually at no cost.

Not bad for a simple signature.

Author: Nando Ruggiero – project manager