Are You a Writer Without An Effective Email Signature?

By Rohi Shetty

An email signature is the concluding part of an email message. Most of us writers tend to neglect it and use only our names as our email signature. That’s a pity because each email is an opportunity to promote our books and services.

Not optimizing our email signature is costing us money every single day. We are losing the chance to gain readers and clients with every email.

How to Create an Effective Email Signature
Here are a few simple tips that can transform every email you send into a potential marketing machine:

1. Keep it short, preferably less than six lines.
2. Make sure you include an image, either a picture of yourself or your logo.
3. Decide on the most important information you want others to know. It could be your website URL, your latest blog post, your Amazon page, your Facebook page or your YouTube channel. However, don’t add too much information.
4. Have a single call to action. It could be to subscribe to your newsletter, check out your books on Amazon or join your Facebook group.
5. Use color to make your signature stand out, such as colored fonts and images. However, don’t go to the other extreme and use too many fonts and colors.
6. Most important, optimize your email signature for mobile devices. After you create your email signature, send a test message to yourself and check it on your cell phone. Are the fonts and images too small? If so, make the necessary changes and check again.

How to create your email signature in Gmail
Gmail lets you add an email signature automatically at the end of Gmail messages as a footer. You can put up to 10,000 characters in your signature.

To add or change a signature:

1. Open Gmail and click Settings in the top right.
2. In the “Signature” section, add your signature text in the box.
3. You can format your message by changing the text style or adding an image.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Save Changes.”

For more troubleshooting options, click here.

Email Signature Generators
You can use special software that configures an HTML template and adds it to your email provider (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) to generate customized professional email signatures.

HubSpot Free Email Signature Generator
HubSpot lets you add different colors, social media links, images, layouts, certifications, and a call-to-action.
Exclaimer Free Email Signature Creator
Exclaimer lets you add your logo, banner, and social media links.
htmlsig Free Email Signature Creator
ZippySig Free Email Signature Creator
WiseStamp Email Signature Creator (Paid)
WiseStamp has a vast variety of templates, apps, and designs to fit any type of business. However, you have to pay $6 per month for their service.

Email Signature Samples
Here are some random samples of email signatures from the email messages in my Gmail inbox.

Aneeta Sundararaj
Aneeta Sundararaj
http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com

Kyle Gray
Kyle Gray
Content Strategy Quiz | Audiobook | Blog

Lynette Chandler
Lynette Chandler
BlogEnergizer.com

Marketing Right, LLC
P.O. Box 542
Havelock, NC 28532

Joanna Penn

(Clicking on the image above opens https://thecreativepenn.com/books/ )

Ellen Violette
Ellen Violette
The eBook Coach
www.theebookcoach.com
ellen@theebookcoach.com

P.S. If you want to discuss more personalized coaching options. go to:
http://bit.ly/schedulewithellen for a “FREE” 15-minute consultation.

Ellen Finkelstein
Ellen Finkelstein
www.ChangetheWorldMarketing.com

P.S. How do you get others to do some of your work? Anything besides outsourcing, partnering, and using Private Label Rights content?
Join me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ChangeWorldMktg

Connect with us on Facebook!

Some links in my newsletters are affiliate links

And the award for best email signature goes to:

Pamela Wilson

Pamela Wilson,
Founder, BIG Brand System
Build your business with BIG Brand System courses
Let’s connect: Find me on Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | Pinterest

Get Master Content Marketing
“Pamela Wilson’s book will be an indispensable guide on your content marketing journey. She breaks down the whole process into practical, proven, easy-to-follow steps and explains everything in clear, engaging language.”
Master Content Marketing is available in print, ebook, and audiobook formats.
About Pamela Wilson: I’m an award-winning graphic designer and marketing consultant and I’ve helped grow businesses of all sizes for more than 30 years. With Big Brand System, I want to help you grow yours.
Build your online business without the usual overwhelm: register for Plan & Grow BIG.
Join the 1000+ business owners who get free monthly online business training: register for Brown Bag Workshops.

Question? Comment? Click reply and let’s talk.

Conclusion
As you can see from the examples above, most of us are neglecting the marketing and branding potential of our email signature.

Two bonus pro tips:

• Review and change your email at least once a month. Even the most engaging signature will become stale after a while.
• Use the P.S. strategically to boost the impact of your email signature. (See the signatures of Ellen Violette and Ellen Finkelstein above.) As far as possible, use P.S. with every message because most readers tend to read it. {:-)

Join the conversation
Have you updated your email signature after reading this post? What changes have you made? Let us know in the comments below.

(15 July 2018)

Rohi Shetty is a doctor, health writer, and digital publisher. Check out his Kindle books on Amazon and connect with him on LinkedIn. You can contact him here if you want his help to publish your books on Amazon or with other e-book retailers.

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