With my post on Friday called What’s Your Contact Obstacle Course, I want to continue and move onto your signature. This is also a very important part of the Contact Process. Have you given any thought or effort into your signature lately? NO, seriously?! You are missing out. BIG time!
Think about it. A potential client goes through the hoops and over the hurdles to contact you, they are interested to work with you and you reply with little or no signature. What kind of impression do you think that gives them about you, your business, and the quality of your business?
Now imagine your the client and you email someone that you are interested in working with. When they reply, their signature looks similar to this:
Ali Rittenhouse
Or Worse – They have NO SIGNATURE! Yikes!
Say you send another message to someone else you are interested in and they reply with one of the two signatures below. Notice how the ones below have the Free Gift and Social Networking links!
—
Ali Rittenhouse | Online Business Strategist & Coach
www.alirittenhouse.com
Connect with me:
OR
—
Ali Rittenhouse | Online Business Strategist & Coach
Signup for your Free Guide on Switching
Your Email to Gmail
www.alirittenhouse.com
Connect with me:
Who would you rather work with? The one who replies with little or no signature. – OR- The professional one that gives you information about them (like the 2 examples above) and gives you that warm-fuzzy-security feeling.
I am going to go with the warm-fuzzy feeling.
A few suggestions to include in your signature are:
- Your contact 411
- Your Company Logo
- Social networking links encouraging them to connect with you
- Link to sign up for your Freebie
- Link to your consultation scheduling system
- Your business picture
All of these are important and essential for your signature, I would not include all of them, that would be way too overwhelming. Less is more! Instead choose two or three. Keep it short, 5-6 lines is plenty.
Bonus Tip – If you use Gmail, be sure to update your profile so that your professional image or logo shows when someone emails you or you reply. Another great tool to add to your signature.
Agreed – you should include the ways your potential customers can reach out to you through your network engines. You can use the following instructions to put in pictures or logos if you’re using Outlook: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/create-signatures-with-pictures-or-logos-HA001124650.aspx
Regards,
Jodi E.
Microsoft SMB Outreach Team
v-jodie@microsoft.com