What Your Email Signature Says About You October 21, 2010
Posted by robewanow in Branding, Job Search.Tags: First Impressions, Letters, Personal Branding, value proposition
1 comment so far
A year ago I wrote a post about email signatures, how to write one, what it should contain and why a well written one can be so valuable.
I belong to a couple of different local networking groups as well as a boatload of LinkedIn groups as I am sure you do. So its no wonder our in boxes get a ton of email for us to fish through each and every day.
Lately I have been paying a bit more attention to how people sign their emails and it got me to thinking what does an email signature say about the sender?
If the signature provides me with their unique selling proposition – what that person does better than anyone else, I believe it lends a little more credibility to any statements made regarding that area of expertise.
If they have a title in their signature it can make it easier to determine who I may want to introduce them to in the future, whether they are looking for employment or to simply expand their network.
Phone number or email address makes it easy to get in touch or pass the information along, indicating they are willing to make connections.
It demonstrates attention to detail and networking savvy.
Many times I see just their name and a generic phrase, what does this tell me about the sender.
Perhaps they don’t understand that each time you put something “out there” it should reinforce who you are and why you are different.
Maybe they don’t realize that generic phrase is used by 100′s of other people so it ends up being meaningless.
They think no one reads it or that its trivial.
Maybe they just never thought of it. …..they should.
What’s your take?
Until next week….
Personal Brand, Clone or Something Else? March 4, 2010
Posted by robewanow in Branding, Job Search.Tags: Elevator Speech, First Impressions, Personal Branding, value proposition
2 comments
Do you have a personal brand? If so what is it?
How do you communicate it or better yet are you communicating it effectively?
To me a personal brand is NOT
- Your elevator speech
- Your value proposition
- Your job title
To me, a personal brand tells people exactly what you offer and who you are. It should flow naturally.
For more on this topic check out this great blog post Why Your Personal Brand Sucks: Attack of the Clones
Until next week….
Your Email Signature November 5, 2009
Posted by robewanow in Branding, Job Search.Tags: Job Search Tools, Personal Branding, value proposition
7 comments
Needless to say email communication is inescapable whether you use it for personal communication, business communication, a job search or networking.
With email touching nearly every part of our lives doesn’t it make sense to leverage this communication channel to its fullest? You sign your email anyway so why not make it work for you?
Having a succinct and memorable signature block is akin to a mini advertisement, each time an email goes out your “sig block” goes with it gaining what advertising professionals call - impressions.
Very simply
more impressions = more exposure = more people know who you are & what you have to offer & how to contact you.
What should you consider using in your sig file? Here are a few suggestions:
- A title – even if you are currently looking for your next opportunity you have a title. For example – Supply Chain Executive, B2B Marketing Executive, Sr Human Resources Professional. Get creative, be bold, be descriptive yet brief, don’t over exaggerate.
- Consider a tagline - for example mine is “Providing Direction For Your Marketing”. Think about what you do best and figure out how to describe it in as few memorable words as possible. This can be a challenging exercise.
- Think of an image which correlates to your tagline. Using myself as an example again I chose the directional road sign. Notice its not only in my sig block but also the symbol you should get when you bookmark my blog and it should appear in any browser tabs. This keeps my messaging consistent. When you see the symbol you hopefully think of me.|
- Of course include your basic contact information including cell phone. Also consider linking to any social media profiles such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs you write and Facebook (if the content is appropriate)
You have many places and opportunities to reinforce your brand and your email signature is one easy place to do this. Take some time and create one for yourself and use it regularly over time it will pay dividends.
Until next week….
