Make Your SIG Work For You
Email is a unique opportunity when you’re marketing. It’s like being a business owner and having the customer standing right in front of you, a captive audience. Treat this person as the target market and make your signature block, your sig, work for you.
It’s part of branding. Everything about you, and everything that comes from you, is consistent and bears your stamp.
If you’re in a professional service, such as coaching, add a quotation that reveals something of who you are and what your philosophy is. Use it with, or instead of, a tagline.
One coach uses “If you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, stride down there and light the damn thing yourself” as the tagline line beneath his name. (David Wood) Another uses “To follow knowledge like a sinking star” (Nancy Fenn, VisionCoach). A third coach uses, “Give yourself what you always wanted – a coach.”
Which is the coach for you?
Quotes are especially good because they’re like metaphors. They tell us a whole lot more than what the words alone say. They tell us about the philosophy of the person who chose them.
Add a small photo of yourself. And why not let them hear your voice? Go to www.pagoo.com and get a FREE recording of your voice you can use for your sig and elsewhere.
While this form of closing may not be appropriate for use with your business, be aware of the potential of the sig.
The sig should always include: (1) Your name; (2) Your URL; (3) A tagline (“H,” or “the best in baby products.”) (4) Something special just for your target market, preferably something free. For instance, I direct the reader toward one of my free teleclasses or e-courses that would suit him or her particularly.
The logistics? Most email systems allow you to set up a standard sig that you can tweak a little as the occasion dictates. For instance, I use a quotation in my sig and if I’m doing parenting coaching with a client, I make the quotation related to parenting. But even if you have to enter the full sig yourself each time, it’s worth the effort. It shows the kind of individual attention that builds practices and gets repeat business.
Think of the sig as a mini-billboard. Let it speak for you.
Author Bio:
Susan Dunn helps clients market their practices and small businesses on the Internet. Article-writing service and ghostwriting, search engine placement. Visit her at www.webstrategies.cc and sdunn@susandunn.cc
