Little Details – Signatures

Sep 25, 2009 | blog

Sometimes it’s the simple things that we overlook the most. For Personal Branding, this is occasionally the email signature. If you look over the most frequent and pervasive communications tools we have, email is still a top contender for the vast majority of folks.

With that in mind, anyone who has built a specific brand for themselves or for companies that are very brand aware, a custom email signature should be a “no brainer”. I’m surprised at how often folks tend to forget about this most basic of branding options. An email signature doesn’t have to be overly complex, or designed by a professional designer, though these are sometimes options.

On the simple side, just having a standard email signature in plain text can do wonders. It can have the basic contact information, including social network URLs if that’s desired. This works equally well for corporations as it does for individuals. For a large organization, it can allow for different telephone, cell, and fax numbers, but keeps a consistent layout and message to the recipients.

For more advanced or adventurous users, the ability to utilize HTML formatting and images makes for very impressive and robust brand statements. Going this route also allows for a picture for individual email accounts as well.

I’ve also found that having more than one custom signature is a plus. The number of sigs I use changes during the course of a year, but there are basically two that I use. One for personal emails and one for business emails. The personal one is quite simple, as I’m corresponding with people that already know me well and don’t need a constant reminder that I’m so-and-so.

The business signature is more professional and has contact information for practically any way a person can find to interact with me. Variations on the business sig for me range from the company I work for, a sig for “Social Media Breakfast” related emails, and a personal business sig. This allows me great flexibility to communicate specifically what I’m representing in that email.

Whatever route you choose to go, don’t hesitate to create your own customized email signature. Use your favorite search engine using “custom email signature” and you’ll have a number of options to help you through. So don’t leave this “low hanging fruit” on the tree – go get your sig together today.

Photo credit: darque9