With so many people getting so many emails, your email to customers and potential customers has to be perfect. Today’s post focuses on one of the most important parts of your email; the signature.

I, for one, get about a hundred emails a day and my biggest complaint about email is that most people don’t include a signature.  I’m not suggesting a glorious John Hancock should emblazon your email, but specifically, your customers are looking for basic contact information.  If you don’t include contact information in your email, read on.

First, this is not going to be one of those long, boring technical posts about HTML signatures, bandwidth, etc. However, to be clear, I’m a big fan of keeping email signatures in text format, without pictures and logos.  This is primarily because so many people read email on mobile devices and an HTML signature might not end up looking like what you intended.

This post is also aimed at the US market.  Sorry, but my EU friends have lots of other legal requirements related to email signatures I don’t dare address.  With that out of the way, let’s get started.

It is simple common courtesy to include basic contact information in an email signature. Just signing it “Mary” isn’t enough.  Remember, you are operating businesses and this email signature is your calling card. You must strive to be “easy-to-do-business-with.”  On that note, here are some of my thoughts.

Most people like to organize contacts into some sort of address book.  Many times we’ll do business with people with whom we have not yet had the chance to exchange business cards (or yes, BUMP iPhones; the app that let’s you bump two iPhones together to simultaneously and automatically swap contact info). Providing your basic contact information allows recipients the opportunity to copy and paste your information into their address book.  This is just in case, oh I don’t know, they want to find your contact information someday…for another trip….at another time. 

As mentioned, many people also read email on their mobile devices.  Providing your basic contact information allows them to call you with one tap of the screen (or a quick scroll on Blackberry) while they’re running through the airport.

So you have now seen me write “basic information” more than a few times, so I’ll be clear.  For me, basic information includes:

1.     Your name

2.     Your title

3.     Your phone number

4.     Your email address

5.     At least one social media username – LinkedIn would be best since you can share all your contact information there.  By the way, not all corporations (read “old school” corporations) like this one though.

6.     Your main website URL 

No, I have not included a street address.  This is only helpful if you do a lot of business outside your time zone or if, for some reason, you still get a lot of snail mail.  Street address though can be found on a website or simply requested when needed.

By the way, the rule of thumb is to keep email signatures to four lines by using colons and pipes (see below).

–

John Hancock
President | Made Up Travel Company
212-555-5555 | jhancock@madeupco.com | http://www.madeupcotravel.com
@johnhancocktvl| LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/johnQhancock

You should also have two versions of your email signature; a longer one for initial emails and a shorter one for replies.

At the end of the day, your clients and potential clients are all time-starved, so do them a favor; include your basic contact information in your email.  Make it easy for them to do business with you.  If not, they’ll assume you don’t want to do business with them.