Email signatures may be the best-kept secret in the marketing world, but new research shows few companies take advantage of an advertising feature that can reach many thousands of potential customers who are especially valuable since they have already expressed an interest in your product or services.
The advantages of email signatures:
* They offer opportunity for a targeted response to an inquiry
* They are free
* They are easily customized
* They are part of an expected response, so far less likely to be tuned out
Elon University professor Earl Honeycutt and Virginia Tech professor Vince Magnini researched the way global businesses, especially hotels, use sig files (email signatures) to communicate the amenities of their properties. They sent 1200 emails to various hotels requesting information on food services and facilities. Only generic signatures, or none, were appended to the email responses they received.
Their research findings will be published in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly this winter in the article, “Sig Files: A Means to Strategically Enhance a Brand’s Position.”
Lessons from this study:
1) Target your email signatures to your audience:
Do not use a generic signature that reflects your interest. Make sure it reflects the reader’s interest and particular query. For example, a response to a golf vacation inquiry should include an email signature that reflects golf amenities, not bridal services.
Make sure the links lead to the appropriate area of your website (not the home page), where the reader will find more relevant information, such as photos of the golf course, course information, and easy call-to-action information to purchase – in this case, a reservation form.
BEST PRACTICE TIP:
Create 10 or so signatures that cover most of your services. Make sure each links to relevant information and an opportunity to buy. With these created, it’s quick and simple to match and append the appropriate signature to the inquiry.
2) Keep content relevant and current:
Read and understand the message being received from the client. Honeycutt says one of the worst things a business can do is to send back a message with an email signature that is unrelated to the initial email of the potential client.
While conducting their research, Honeycutt said they received a few emails with signatures in a different language. “It’s such a waste,” he says. “They’re missing a valuable opportunity to get a message back to the client.”
3) Present the email message in the most accurate, professional way possible. No matter how strong an email signature is, it cannot compensate for a sloppy or inaccurate email message. Do not exaggerate statements made in email signatures.
4) Enact a policy or set of standards across a company so they consistently and accurately reflect the brand and message.
“It’s easy, it’s cheap,” says Honeycutt.
“You’re not having to pay for this email message and when done correctly it can pull the customer in.”
Earl Honeycutt is a professor of marketing and director of the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business at Elon University. He also serves as the 2008-2009 Distinguished Scholar at Elon, having been lauded for research that has earned peer commendation and respect and who has made significant contributions to his field of study.
Learn More in This Course: Email Essentials: Productivity and Impact
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Very interesting how about this:
5) Add all you social profiles as your contact info.
6) Brand your signature add your logo.
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