With the launch in December of our new email marketing platform we thought we would write a few of our thoughts on email marketing.
We start this series with perhaps a surprising statement. "You don't have to use an email marketing solution to be effective with your emails!"
Every time you send an email throughout the day, you have the opportunity to spread your message. Apart from ensuring you write your email well, you should also consider your email signature.
Remember Your Telephone Number
I hate receiving emails from people when they don't provide at least a telephone number under their name, even if I know the person. If I want to respond by phone I now have to dig around and look for their number. So always ensure your signature includes your telephone number, next you should ensure your web address is visible and is a link which can be clicked. Don't worry about including your email address, that's what the reply buttons for.
See an example of a poor signature below. Michael is suggesting I call if I have any questions, but doesn’t provide a telephone number.
Promote Your News
However, as well as your contact details you can become a little more interactive and suggestive with your signature. For example, if you write a blog or have a RSS newsfeed on your website, you can very easily add what’s called a headline animator to your email signature. Below is an example of our headline animator created using Feedburner. You can find out more about burning your blog/RSS feed and creating a headline animator with Feedburner at http://feedburner.google.com.
Get more followers
If you use social media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, you may also want to think about adding links to your pages. This can encourage more followers/fans.
Below is an example of our signature, notice that just above my name I include what I call an encouraging message. This can, and should, be changed periodically and can discuss new product launches, project performance etc.
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