According to Wikipedia, an email signature is defined as:
“An e-mail signature is a block of text appended to the end of an e-mail message often containing the sender’s name, address, phone number, disclaimer or other contact information.”
There are several reasons why it is important to add more than just your name at the end of each email.
- Conveys willingness to be contacted via different methods
- Customers have the ability to research your company if you provide links to your website and social media
- Reflection of who you are
- Opportunity to promote your professional skills and company
- Build brand recognition
- Cost-effective marketing opportunity
Basic email signatures should contain the following:
- Name
- Title
- Business Name
- Telephone Numbers
- Physical Address
- Website Address
- Email Address
- Logo
- Your most important Social Media Connections (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blog)
- Confidentiality Statement
When creating your email signature, it is wise to keep it as brief as possible. One method to ensure brevity is to use hyperlinks for your contact information and Social Media connections. I attach a vCard that contains the bulk of my contact information. With the use of a vCard, the recipient of each email merely needs to click on the attachment and save it to their address book.
With today’s technology and the widespread acceptance of Social Media networking, we need to include those forums as well. We’ve been given these tools to work with that allow us to stand out from the crowd, so I feel you need to use them!
Because court reporters work and communicate with attorneys and legal professionals, the confidentiality statement is a must. I include one with every email I send.
Here is a sample of my Omega Reporting email signature without the confidentiality statement. Each of my Social Media icons are linked for easy accessibility at all times.
My next blog post will be focused on how to create an effective email signature for court reporters. Stay tuned!