Promote Yourself Through Your Email Signature
Freelancers often shy away from marketing. Unless you’re a copyrighter or do corporate work, it can seem like foreign territory. But marketing is basically communicating to other people about yourself, and who communicates better than a writer?
If the idea of a full-on marketing program is too scary, start small. A great launch pad is your email signature, the tag line you set up in your email software to add to the bottom of outgoing messages. It still surprises me that more writers - and lots of other people, really - don’t take advantage of this simple tool, which is built into Microsoft Outlook and most other email programs.
An email signature can include anything you want it to: your name, contact information, credentials, book you’re promoting, affiliations with writers’ groups, and on and on.
My default email signature includes my contact information and links to my blog and LinkedIn profile:
MICHELLE V. RAFTER | Contributing Writer
Office (503) 452-XXXX |Cell (503) 318-XXXX
Email: michellerafter@XXXXXX.XXX
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellerafter
Website & Blog: WordCount, http://michellerafter.wordpress.com
I’ve customized my basic email sig for some of the magazines I write for on a regular basis. For example, I’m a contributing editor at an HR industry magazine, so when I’m contacting sources or editors for stories for that magazine, I promote my special standing at the publication by using this signature:
MICHELLE V. RAFTER | Contributing Editor
Workforce Management | www.workforce.com
Office (503) 452-XXXX | Cell (503) 318-XXXX
Email: michellerafter@XXXXXXX.net
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellerafter
Website & Blog: WordCount, http://michellerafter.wordpress.com
For non-work email, I use a plain Jane signature with my name and contact information. I have a separate signature for a volunteer organization I belong to, and another for my duties as a 1st grade room parent. When I send an email, I right click on the default signature and it brings up the whole signature list so I can choose the one that’s appropriate for that message.
Some freelancers are masters of the email signature. Rachel Weingarten is one. Weingarten a writer and public relations specialist and it shows. She definitely knows how to work an email sig:
Rachel Weingarten, Style is my business
*****
Shiny New Launch:
Shout Out PR - www.shoutoutpr.com
******
Creative Brand Consultant & Strategist - www.gtkgroup.com & www.gtkontap.com
Noted & Quoted Style & Marketing Maven/ Dynamic Public Speaker/Entertaining Author (I know. I’m exhausted!)
[e] rachel@XXXXXXXX.com [p] 718.787.XXXX [c] 917.287.XXXX
[B.logs] www.rachel-w.com/blogs.html
*****[BOOKS]******
CAREER AND CORPORATE COOL™ - One of Entrepreneur magazine’s five “page turners” for women entrepreneurs and a CareerBuilder pick for most interesting career book of ‘07 www.careerandcorporatecool.com
Hello Gorgeous! - A NY Public Library pick for ‘07 www.hellogorgeousguide.com
********************
Faux legal notice: If this email wasn’t addressed to you-
you really shouldn’t read it or forward it to a friend
or evil colleague- it’s bad business and worse karma…
In fact, you should immediately delete it and we’ll call it a day.
Even if you haven’t ever met her, you know a lot about Rachel Weingarten - and her sparkling personality and wit - just from reading her email sig. More importantly, you know a lot about her business.
That’s the beauty of an email signature. It promotes you and your business - and all you have to do is hit the “Send” button.
[...] 1. Use your email signature. In addition to listing basic contact information, an email signature can point people to your Website, blog, newest book and anything else you want them to know about you. Learn more in this post about using an email signature. [...]
Since I am mostly approaching magazines, I list a variety of recent publications. Here is the whole thing:
Vera Marie Badertscher
P.O. Box XXXX
XX,XX XXXXX
xxx-xxx-xxxx
http://www.pen4hire.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/verambadertscher
Vera Marie Badertscher is winner of 2007 and 2006 National Federation of Press Women’s First Place National Awards for Travel Articles. Complete writer information at http://www.pen4hire.com
A sample of recently published articles:
Your Footprint in the City and Virtuous Vacations, Both articles in Rolls Royce Owner’s Club Desk Diary 2008;
The Piano on the Beach and Surprising Nashville; Both articles in Steinway & Sons Magazine, 12/07;
BICAS, 12/07, Tucson Guide ;
Boys Will Be Boys (essay on Hawk), 10/07; On the Comeback Trail, 9/07, Arizona Highways ;
The Great Unknown, (Le Marche Italy), 7/07; Jamestown’s 400th Anniversary, 3/07, Home & Away Hoosier ;
Atlantic Coast Historic Road Trip, 5/07, AAA Living, ;
Richmond Holocaust Museum, 3/07, Arizona Jewish Post ;
Secrets of Le Marche, 1/07, Rolls Royce Owner’s Desk Diary,
Quincy Tahoma of Santa Fe, 5/06, American Indian Art Magazine .
Web articles include The du Ponts’ Place in the Country, AutomotiveTraveler.com; Acoma Pueblo, Pueblo Cultural Museum, giftedtravel.com; Titan Missile Museum for Arizona Highways.
Member of National Federation of Press Women and Society of SW Authors
Work in progress, with Charnell Havens: Quincy Tahoma: The Final Chapter. See information at http://tahoma.info
In the interest of the environment, please think twice before printing this e-mail.
This e-mail and the information it contains is confidential. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately. You should not copy it for any purpose, or disclose its contents to any other person.
Michelle, I wanted you to know that after reader this post, I decided to update my email signature.
I did want to pose the question… how long do you think is a reasonable length? I think a short signature can be effective, too.
Well, if you looked through the comments that came in on this post, you’ll see that length is all over the map. My email sig is pretty minimal and I like it that way, but as you can see from Vera Marie’s example, some sigs are almost entire resumes. Whatever you use, I think it’s a good idea to tweak it every so often to keep it fresh.
Michelle R.
Michelle, I love your idea for having different e-mail sigs for different audiences.
I do tire of seeing overly long sigs, especially when it’s from someone I communicate with frequently. It feels like they’re attaching their resume to every e-mail, and that gets old.
Here’s what I include on mine:
Kathy Sena . Writer/Editor
Specializing in parenting, health, lifestyle and women’s issues
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Phone: 310-XXX-XXXX
Fax: 310-XXX-XXXX
Email: kathysena@earthlink.net
Web: http://www.kathysena.com
Blog: http://www.parenttalktoday.com (Today we’re talking about keeping too many balls in the air…
OK, I have no idea how that smiling emoticon ended up on the end of my e-mail sig when I posted this previous comment. I definitely don’t have that on my sig!
Kathy
Thanks for the comments Kathy, and the emoticon doesn’t bother me. I have no idea how it got there either.
I can see why some people want long sigs, but I agree that they could get tedious if you’re exchanging a lot of messages.
I agree it’s good to change your email sig every once in a while, just for a little variety. It’s kind like an outgoing voice-mail message - if you call someone all the time it’s boring to hear the same old message. Which reminds me, I’d better change my outgoing messages!
Michelle R.