How to get the most out of that often-seen personal branding space: your email signature.
Create your well-branded email signature according to this formula. Required elements are bolded, the rest are recommended when relevant:
Salutation,
Name
Tagline
Title(s), Organization
Association Membership
Phone numbers (mobile/land/fax)
Website/Social media profiles
Image
Where:
Salutation – using your email signoff to only say goodbye is a wasted opportunity. Either use an expression that’s relevant to your personal brand or wish the person something positive. The best result is a combination of both that doesn’t sound too cheesy. In my email signature, I usually say “To your job search success.”
Name – your full name.
Tagline – your personal branding tagline.
Title(s) – your current job title, your position within the organization you most associate yourself with, or just the (credible) way you want to be known.
Organization – the organization you most associate yourself with, typically your employer, a professional association you’re prominent in, or your own company.
Association Membership – any brand-related association that you are at least a member of, worth mentioning especially to people who are likely to recognize it (in the past or later in the future).
Phone numbers (mobile/land/fax) – some people include both their landline and mobile/cellphone numbers, but that’s overkill- just put the one number you want to be reached at. If you have a compelling reason to include more than one number, put each on its own line with a label to indicate which it is such as “Tel: 555-1234″ and “Cell: 555-5678″. If most people who contact you are on Skype and you prefer it, use the Skype callto syntax so that calling you is just one click away.
Website/Social media profiles – use the one url (at least) that most builds your personal brand. This might be your blog, your organization, or association membership profile (see above), social media resume, or one of your social media profiles. At minimum, list your LinkedIn vanity url.
If you’re not sure which urls to use, list 2 or 3 but use a url shortener like 3.ly that lets you customize the shortened url (e.g. http://3.ly/jstwitter) while also counting the clicks so you can measure which url people clicked more. Check the click statistics after a month of usage and then decide which urls to leave in your signature. Like with LinkedIn, use your Facebook vanity url if you decide to include your Facebook profile in your email signature.
Important: include ‘http://’ in each url in your email signature so that the recipient’s email software will automatically make the url clickable.
Image – the brand-relevant image that best represents you, such as your personal logo, a picture of your latest book or other product, or even your avatar.
Author:
Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips and humor.
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I’m guilty of omiiting everything you mention here. Terrifically clear instruction here, Jacob. I’ll be changing my ways going forward.
I’m a perfectionist normally, I think I use email too much like IM.
Love this site, it’s very “sticky”.
I’d recommend adding your email address to a signature line. Some email programs do not show email addresses in the From but display only a name or label. So, good idea to put your full email address in the signature block as well as the other data described above.
Debra Feldman, JobWhiz, Executive Talent Agent
The idea of using a personal logo is the icing on the cake. It gives your signature more sophistication, information, and professionalism. It’s a graphic hook in a typically non graphic signature. The examples in the post (click personal logo) are exceptional. Anyone who is not a designer can get some help from a carefully selected graphic artist. This is advisable, IMHO, because the last thing you need is a cheesy personal logo. The idea is that it represents you at your best.
Richard K Bloom, advertising writer and personal brand consultant
Thanks, Jacob. I’ve been tweaking my signatures over the last while, the one thing I kept missing was a salutation (which i read elsewhere was like hanging up the phone without saying goodbye- owch).
This was a great post. Branded email signatures just make sense, that’s how hotmail grew to the size it is today.
In a way, instead of just “saying goodbye.” the email signature mentioned in this post leads to the next interaction with a colleague, customer or colleague. There are no dead ends in personal branding, it’s constant continuum of possible interactions.
Thanks, Jacob
RichardKBloom,
Unstuck Unlimited, personal branding for entrepreneurs of all stripes
richardthebrand.typepad.com.