What is An Email Signature?
Every time you get an email, you can add a small blurb of text on the bottom. Some services, such as hotmail do this to market their own business. This Email Signature Tutorial will show you how to use signatures as another form of Internet Marketing.
Use Your Email Signature For Marketing?
If someone gets an email from you that was helpful or funny, they are likely to save it or forward it. At the bottom of the email is a perfect place to recommend your services and website in an unobtrusive way. They may even file your email and return to it later. By making it easy for them to see what to do to get help from you, they are more likely to do it.
What Should Your Email Signature Say?
You want to give enough information to be helpful, but not so much as to be annoying. Here is a recommended list of things to go into your email signature.
- Your Phone Contact
- Your Website
- How you Can Help Them
Want to put ASCII art in your Email Signature?
We strongly recommend against this, as it very rarely looks the same for you as it does for others. Here is an example of an ASCII art:
.-. \ /
( ( | - * -
'-` -+- / \
\ _|_ \
)) ^ /___\ ))
.-#-----. /|\ .---'-'---. .-#-----.
___ /_________\ //|\\ /___________\ /_________\
/___\ |[] _ []| //|\\ | A /^\ A | |[] _ []|
....|"#"|.| |*| |...///|\\\...| |"| |....| |*| |......
If this formats correctly it may look pretty cool, however, usually it does not format correctly. and instead looks like this:
.-. \ / ( ( | - * - '-` -+- / \ \ _|_ \ )) ^ /___\ )) .-#-----. /|\ .---'-'---. .-#-----. ___ /_________\ //|\\ /___________\ /_________\ /___\ |[] _ []| //|\\ | A /^\ A | |[] _ []| ....|"#"|.| |*| |...///|\\\...| |"| |....| |*| |......
It is better to not use ASCII for this reason!
Can Your Email Signature Be Used Other Places?
Yes, newsgroups, bulletin boards, or anywhere that people will see your message is a good place to post a link. It may be considered very rude to post a link to your site on someone's bulletin board, but if you answer a question and help people, and your signature has a link to your site, that is completely different!
How do You Setup Your Email Signature in Outlook Express?
Open up outlook express and and click tools, then options.
Click on Signatures, and New
Check the box that says add signature to all emails, it is polite to not add your signature on emails that already have your signature, so check that box too, like the picture.
Type in your signature and click ok, you're done!
How to Write Your Email Signature
It is important not to tell people what you do, but instead, the benefits of contacting you. For example I could say:
web site marketing
337-207-4040
digitalcrunch.com
or I could say:
Want Guaranteed Web Traffic?
Call : 337-207-4040
Visit : www.DigitalCrunch.com
The first example is dry and has other mistakes too! You always need a call to action. Tell them what to do. It can be as simple as saying "call" or "visit".
If you just put your root domain like: domain.com, many email programs will not link it for you. However, if you put www.domain.com they almost all automatically make it a clickable link.
Notice I showed them a benefit, not told them what I did. Which would you click? Use this same principle in your own email signatures.
Summary of Email Signature Tips
Every email program or service has their own version of where to put a signature, search their help files if you can't find it. The basics are the same though for all email signatures:
- Use Title Case
- Tell them what to do
- Keep them short
- Do not use ASCII art
- Use www. in front of your domain
- Tell them how you'll help them, not what you do
- Include your phone, website, and how you help
- Put your signature EVERYWHERE, and be helpful
- Many people receive text only email, DO NOT make HTML signatures