Thursday, May 8, 2014

Writers, Are You Taking Advantage of Your Email Signature Line?

by Edie Melson

It’s important that in today’s digital age, writers don’t pass up marketing opportunities. Unfortunately, I see a lot of writers doing just that when they send out emails. Your email signature line is prime marketing real estate.

If you’re not certain what a signature line (sometimes called a sig line) is, it’s the line or lines including or directly below your signature. You can set up one that is automatically generated within your email program. Just go to settings, signature, and set it up.

The addition of my book, blog, and social media info in my sig line has made it much easier for people to:

  • Find my blog.
  • Buy my book.
  • Follow me on social media.

Here are the basics you should include:
  • Your name and/or the name you write under.
  • A link to your website.
  • Your blog address.
  • Your twitter account name.
  • Your Facebook Fan Page link.
  • A link to your latest book (if you write books).

When you include links in your sig line, make certain they are clickable. For instance, I don’t say follow me on Twitter, @EdieMelson, I actually link to my Twitter profile. That way the person reading my email doesn’t have to go to Twitter and do a search for @EdieMelson, they can just click and are taken to my Twitter homepage.

Warnings:
  • Keep your signature line to a maximum of 15 lines. Anything more and people lose interest.
  • Try NOT to add graphics, except for book covers, gimmicky graphics take longer to load and the person who receives the email often has to click on a permission tab to see them and most of us don’t bother. 

Here’s a screenshot of my email sig line to help you see what it looks like.



Special Note: don't forget to set up email signatures on all your devices—anything you send email from—like: 
  • Cell phone.
  • Tablet.
  • Ereader.

Now it’s your turn, what questions do you have about adding a signature line to your email?


Don’t forget to join the conversation
Blessings,
Edie

TWEETABLES

23 comments:

  1. I just changed mine. I had some of the things you suggested, but added two more. Thanks so much Edie.

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    1. Mary, glad I could help! Thanks for stopping by, Blessings, E

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  2. Great content as usual, Edie! Love it!

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  3. Edie, do you recommend using a printed signature or putting one in every time? For example, I have my sig line color coordinated to my blog. The first line reads "Carol" in a font close to what I use on the blog. Under that I have my full name and information (thanks for the tips on that, too). Should I leave the "Carol" on there or should I type in "Carol" in my e-mail font with no color?

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    1. Carol, as long as it's legible, it completely your call. By legible, I mean any email program offers that particular font. Font availability does vary from program to program. Hope this helps, Blessings, E

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  4. Thanks so much for sharing this! I've wondered how to do it and couldn't figure it out. You make being a writer so much easier :)

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    1. Jennifer, I just share the things that used to frustrate and confound me! Thanks for stopping by, Blessings, E

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  5. Excellent post, Edie, and I couldn't agree more that email signatures are one of the most overlooked marketing opportunities out there. Surprising that many professionals don't even use one!

    My team analyzed over 700 million emails signatures and you can check out what we found here: www.evercontact.com/blog/infographic-the-anatomy-of-an-email-signature.1.html (feel free to add the html if you'd like).

    Lastly, I agree 100% that graphics should be done well if added at all, and definitely in HTML as otherwise, they often come up as attachments.

    Cheers,
    Brad

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    1. Brad, thank you for sharing that valuable info! I appreciate that you clarified the info on graphics. That's so important. Blessings, E

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  6. I just tried to set it up and found everything you stated, but when I e-mailed a test message to myself, the sig line wasn't there. I tried it twice. Any thoughts as to what went wrong?

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  7. Replies
    1. Ellen, so glad you got it to work! Blessings, E

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  8. I have a signature on my aol. I just added it to my gmail. I need to add it to my phone. Thanks!

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    1. I'm so glad you found this helpful! Blessings, E

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  9. Though I'm a bit late in adding my appreciation, thanks so much for this info, Edie. I just changed my signature line on my iPad--something I didn't know was possible to do until your blog arrived in my inbox. You're great!

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  10. Thanks for sharing this, Edie. I am late in sharing my thanks, but I appreciate this! So, question.....how do you add a link to your signature line?

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  11. Congratulations, your blog is appealing and informative. Going through your Information, I found quite a few new ideas to implement.

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