Back to Business Basics: Did You Forget Something?

When is the last time you looked at your email signature? Do you just end your emails with you name or initials? If that is how you do things then you could be missing opportunities to keep the conversation going.

Setting up your email signature and revisiting to see if it needs some freshening up is a good idea. Now with the holidays on the way you could even change it every month with a new greeting such as offer some thanks for Thanksgiving and then of course for the ‘Holidays’ of Christmas, Chanukah and Happpeee New Year.

Equally important is to check to see if your signature has a workable link back to your website. If you are on Linkedin, let them know and offer a link to connect. If you are using Facebook and Twitter, we advise the same.

Your phone number in your signature is a MUST!

A good practice is to have an email signature that has live links. Be careful not to have too many! There are some emails I get that the signature file goes on and on and …. Well you get the idea. Too much in the signature file gets particularly ugly and unwieldy once back and forth emails start – you can’t find the message amid all the signature links and you risk getting your message lost and just becoming annoying to the party you are communicating with, especially if they are on a Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device.

A good practice is your phone number first, your web address next, and 2-3 links that help someone engage with you in other ways.

Every email program has the ability to create a signature file. Even free email programs! Just go to ‘settings’ and there will be an option for ‘signature’. That is where you type in your information and add the links.

I recently stumbled on a neat tool called WiseStamp.com that gives you some great options to add into your signature file if you are using gmail. Check it out and get a great signature file for your emails.

Make the most of every email – add a signature file that encourages others to get to know you better, stay in touch with you in your social media and drive traffic to your website, blog, Facebook page, Youtube channel or where ever you are creating great content!