In today’s online marketing strategy, almost all who promote business have a killer email signature on the bottom. So what’s in an email signature? And how does it drive traffic to the website you are promoting?

An email signature is like a mini ad that is affixed to the bottom of an email. Its message could be as simple as your name and email or as elaborate as flashing animated graphics. And with a just few mouse clicks, you can add your signature to the bottom of your emails automatically.

Generally, an email signature is a free marketing tool, with the power to reach a large number of people.

To the individual, the email signature is a chance to be creative or make a political or social statement. To a business person, an email signature is a great opportunity to advertise your business to everyone who views your email. While advertising is often banned in mailing lists and newsgroups, email signatures are not. Just post a message followed by your worded signature.

Using email signatures costs nothing and takes virtually no time to set up. Even so, a lot of popular web marketers believe that it is one of the great ways to promote your site.

Like to know more? I hope so!

Email signatures work every time you reply to or forward any email message; the more times the email is sent or forwarded, the more times the signature is shown. Say, the second person forwards that email to his/her own circle of friends, and then each person forwards the email again and again. Your email signature linked to your website will be shown to people you don’t even know, absolutely free! So it only takes a few steps to spread and showcase your website.

Another good thing is that it is not SPAM. This is just a circle of friends forwarding emails to each other. But be sure you use the right email signature so that you’ll gain potential customers from the list of friends.

Business contacts should always have easy access to your website. Not everyone can easily memorize such a website. It’s a big mistake if you use a free sub domain in your signature as there is a great chance that people will not remember the whole website address. And that is useless. So it is important that you have a direct referral page URL in your email. Another good tip is to always set up a default email signature to be included in your emails once you use them.

So how can you make your email signature recognisable?

Your goal here is to encourage people to click to the link in your email signature. Remember that an email signature is an advertisement, and therefore, the basic guidelines for writing advertisements apply. To get the most mileage out of your email signature, here are some vital things to keep in mind.

1. Keep it simple, yet direct to the point. Most email systems and mailing lists will automatically cut off any signature exceeding 4-6 lines, so keep it below this length. It’s also a good idea to set your line lengths to about 60 characters — the optimal length for readability.

2. It should attract the people. Your email signature must be creatively done. Make use of “borders” of text or special characters.

3. Include the name of your business and a short, concise marketing statement.

4. Sell benefits, not features. Consumers will be more interested in the benefits they will receive from the products rather than its features.

5. Offer something free. An example of this is giving free information, a free-to-enter contest, free samples, etc. Your free report can contain other advertising material, but make sure that it does include free information so your customers won’t feel like they have been exploited.

6. Avoid using HTML coding in the signature. Many persons do not or cannot view HTML email. If you send plain text email, you are sure that everyone will be able to view it properly. Take into consideration different ways wherein your email signature will be recognized by the potential customers.

That’s all it takes to make your email signature stand out. So, better try it! – don’t miss out on using this free, easy advertising method to get more traffic to your website!