Your Professional Email Signature
If you have ever shared time with a dog, you know their Pawprints can leave impressions on your heart. In fact, giving a paw is often a behavior taught to have your dog receive a treat or a hug or a high five reflecting a bond between the two of you. A pawprint, a fingerprint, both are as unique as the personalities behind them.
In your professional role, a signature at the end of your email can serve many purposes. To state the obvious, it provides the necessary contact information for recipients to reach you. It really is a must have in every professional email. There are many times your consultants, your clients, or your vendors actually have to reach you in ways other than a reply email.
Critical components of a professional signature include your title, your company name, your work and/or cell phone numbers, your website link, and your physical address, if you do not work from home. If an email recipient needs to call you, they should be able to quickly and easily find that number at the bottom of your email. If they need to mail you something, and you have a physical work address, they should not have to be googling your company name for that information. If you use email as a contact method for prospecting, a website link is essential. Make it easy for people to contact your business.
Your professional signature also is a great marketing tool. Many people include their logo in their company email signature. Take this opportunity to make a statement, brand yourself and your company, and make a positive impression. Consider it serves a very important purpose - letting everyone know who you are and how you can be reached. Think of it as your professional high five to those you correspond with for any business reason. Use your email signature to be noticed in the same way a beloved dog uses its paw to gain your attention.
Recently, it seems many people we have been corresponding with are not using professional signatures. That is a lost marketing opportunity, a lost positive impression of you and your business, and it puts a burden on those you do business with to take their precious time to figure out where your contact phone number is or where your website link might be. Do not burden your contacts with this extra work. Make it easy to find you.
There are so many interesting ways to make your professional email signature a work of art. Be creative and make sure to include one in every email you send, including emails sent from your mobile device. Your reputation depends on it.
Be well.
