Create A Winning E-mail Signature

I receive e-mail all day long, each containing a signature with the purpose of marketing to me-appealing to me as a consumer and/or entrepreneur in some way to visit a web site or purchase a product. Signature lines are a great marketing tool, but often misused to the extent that they are either overwhelming or a major turn off to a potential client. Like any other method of marketing, your signature lines must be compelling, grammatically sound, and focused.

Think about this: If you send out hundreds of e-mail messages a day in your networking efforts, that is likened to hundreds of ads going out on behalf of your business. Take a peek right now and see what your signature line is composed of. Do you just see your name there at the end of your message, or maybe your name and the name of your company? While that does actually get your "name" out there, you are missing out on a sure-fire method of FREE exposure! Would you place a classified ad in the newspaper or a magazine that only contained your name and address? The reader will have no idea who you are or what you are advertising.

Should you belong to various online networking outlets throughout the Internet such as discussion lists, chat groups, message forums, you are familiar with the fact that most have rules and restrictions regarding signature lines. While many allow you a specific number of lines to contain your signature to, others allow advertising to be contained solely within your signature. Therefore, you will either need to create one multi-purpose signature that works within the guidelines of all groups, or develop several creative signature lines that you can interchange from one group to the other.

I have found in my networking efforts that the most effective signature that works for me is to write something that creatively leads the reader where I want him to go. I could simply sign my name, throw in my business URL, and sit back waiting for business to come to me. But that is not going to happen. What does work well is when I sign my name and include a clever P.S. message that grabs their attention and piques their interest so they will click on the URL I provide to learn more.

Samples of effective signatures are as follows:

1. Jane is giving away one free hour of word processing services as an introductory offer to her new virtual assisting business. She is in hopes that the free one-hour trial will create an extension for paid hours, thus she feels her freebie will be justified in the long run.

Here is Jane's signature:

Jane Hightower

Jane's Secretarial Services

www.herurl.com

P.S. Need something typed today? Click over to www.herurl.com and find out how you can get one FREE hour of word processing with no strings attached!

2. Gwen operates a cookie bakery. Gwen's signature service is the fact that she sells her cookies by the baker's dozen-13 cookies as opposed to 12.

Check out her signature:

Gwen Marlow

The Baker's Dozen

www.herurl.com

P.S. In today's marketplace, you seldom get something for nothing . . . at A Baker's Dozen you always get more than you pay for! See how our cookies add up at www.herurl.com!

These signatures draw interest. They compel the reader to want to know more. In the long run the viewer is going to be more apt to check out the web site than if the sender had only listed her name and URL.

In developing your winning signature, take a look at what other entrepreneurs are doing. Do their signatures appeal to you enough to compel you to visit their web sites? Compare your thoughts on those signatures containing solely the name of the individual and a list of URLs they display beneath their name to others that provide more interesting details and information.

Creatively lead potential customers to your web site by focusing on a specific item that you are selling. Do not try to market more than one thing at a time. You will lose the reader's concentration and interest.

Change your signature line periodically, possibly on a rotation basis, so that you can keep your existing and potential customers coming back time after time by offering something new or a different slant to an existing product or service.

Your signature is a viable marketing tool that is not only free, but it never expires. It is an ongoing opportunity for you to consistently keep your name before your target audience and capture their attention time after time! Spice up your signature today and gear up for success!

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Rozey Gean is the founder of the Marketing-Seek.com web site where writers, publishers, and online entrepreneurs are brought together in an easy-to-use, friendly, helpful interface.

Web: http://www.marketing-seek.com

E-mail: mailto:rozey@marketing-seek.com

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