Free Internet Marketing Lessons

by Alwyn Botha

Your email signature is your mini-website. 


It should persuade its readers to come and visit your 
website - it needs to be effective.


You use your email signatures:


- in your eBooks,
- in your articles,
- in your newsletter, 
- in your discussions, 
- in your testimonials,
- in your free software,
- in your daily email correspondence, the list goes on ...


After reading this article, you will know how to shorten 
your long, ineffective, story-like email signature to a
short, effective, business-like signature.



The following should be included in an email signature:


- A description of the benefits of your business to your 
   prospects
- Your name and the name of your business
- A link to your website
- A call-to-action, like 'subscribe', 'visit website' or
   'phone' for more information


Here is an example of a longwinded, ineffective signature that contains all of those elements:


-----------------------------------------------------
This article was written by Joe Soap, who is the  President and CEO of YYY Corporation (Pty/Ltd). Please visit the website at http://www.yyycorporation.com for more free articles, a newsletter, ebooks, autoresponder courses on how to succeed. To subscribe to the free, weekly newsletter, How to Suceed, send a blank email to mailto:subscribe@yyycorporat ion.com
-----------------------------------------------------



Here is the example again: shortened to be more effective:


-----------------------------------------------------
Article by Joe Soap, President and CEO of YYY Corporation Visit http://www.yyy.com for more articles, ebooks, email courses, and a free, weekly newsletter: How to Succeed - to subscribe, send a blank email to mailto:sub@yyycorp.com
-----------------------------------------------------


Compare the sentences in these two examples. Notice how all unnecessary words and phrases have been removed.


Now, read your email signature and notice how long and clumsy it seems. 


Other suggestions


- Your business name should tell its reader something about what the business does. YYY Corp. is meaningless.


A business that educates a prospective customer what it can do for them, just in the name already, is a great advantage - especially in an email signature.


- A very long newsletter subscription address might be too akward to use in an email signature. Consider using a shorter subscription alias, just in your signatures.


- A very long domain name might be akward. It might force you to start a new line if you use it towards the end of a line in an email signature. Start your long URL near the beginning of a line so that you can use all the available characters on a line.


- Customize your signature to where you use it. If, for
example, you post a tip in an eBooks discussion forum,
change your signature to focus more on eBooks.


- Do not use your business email address where you post articles or on discussion forums. Those places teem with spam robots, greedily eating all those email addresses!


- Did you notice there was a spelling mistake in the long email signature example? Spell check your signatures!



Further email signature ideas


Make your email signature stand out by making a box around it, like this, for example:



-----------------------------------------------------
- Article by Joe Soap, President of YYY Corporation -
- Visit http://www.yyy.com for more articles, ebooks -
- autoresponder courses, and a free, weekly newsletter -
- send email to mailto:subscribe@yyy.com to subscribe -
-----------------------------------------------------



Just do not go overboard, like this ...



!!!!??????????*******=======********??????????!!!
$$ Article by Joe Soap, President of YYY Corporation $$
$$ Visit http://www.yyy.com for more articles, ebooks $$
$$ autoresponder courses, and a free, weekly newsletter 
$$
$$ send email to mailto:subscribe@yyy.com to subscribe $$
!!!!??????????*******-------********??????????!!!!!!



If your signature is only two lines long, and four line signatures are allowed, put a blank line before and after the lines in your signature, like this:


-----------------------------------------------------
--
- Article by Joe Soap, President of YYY Corporation -
- Visit http://www.yyycorp.com for more information -
- -
-----------------------------------------------------


or, something like: 


-----------------------------------------------------
- -
- Article by Joe Soap: President of YYY Corporation -
- ------------------- -
- For more info, please visit http://www.yyycorp.com -
- -
-----------------------------------------------------


When someone is reading your email signature at the bottom of your articles, you have already impressed them ... they are reading your signature to learn more about you. 


Do not mess up this critical point, their mouse is hovering over the URL in your email signature - they are one click away from visiting your website, or not ...


-----------------------------------------------------
Article by Alwyn Botha of http://www.leveragedsuccess.com
Leveraged Internet Success website contains: Discussions, eBooks, articles, a weekly newsletter, and email courses. Leveraged = maximum, exponential, financial Internet success
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