Why you should care about your email footer
Most people can remember their first business card in the same way they remember what they were doing when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon or the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
I'm sure you can remember your first business card too. How you took it home and gave one to your family and friends. Most people take pride in their business card. Why? Because they see it as a reflection of them. Their own self-esteem is wrapped up in the card.
People instinctively recognise that business cards are a critical part of first impressions. Business cards are usually exchanged at first meetings and then get held on to, at least for a little while. It's rare to walk out of a first meeting and then just throw a business card in the waste paper basket.
Having established the important communications value of business cards, let me switch the concept around and ask, "Why would you not create an email footer (called a ' signature' in many email readers) that is full of impact, information and above all, is consistent with your brand values?"
You have seen it as often as we have. Organisations that spend a lot of time and effort on their brand building who shoot themselves in both feet with an email footer that, at best looks amateurish, and at worst is not consistent with their brand.
And if you think I'm being over dramatic, consider the maths ...
Say, an existing client swaps just five emails a week with your company. That's from everybody, from CEO through to the dispatch clerk. Let's be conservative and say it's only 40 weeks of the year.
5 emails x 40 weeks = 200 emails
That's 200 branding opportunities. Now consider that many emails get copied and forwarded to other employees or organisations within the supply or consultancy chain. Let's be very conservative once again and estimate that half of your organisations emails get copied or forwarded on to two people.
200 emails + 200 copied and forwarded emails = 400 emails
Now it's mushroomed into 400 branding opportunities. There's no doubting that it's a very significant communication impact. But the branding leverage doesn't stop there.
Let's assume that your organisation has just 30 clients in this category. Again, we're being very conservative.
400 emails x 30 clients = 12,000 emails
12,000 branding impacts per year compared to about 100 business cards received during introductory meetings.
But be warned. Image 7 Group are not downplaying the importance of business cards. They are critically important making first impressions and winning business.
If your emails are consistently implemented, well crafted, supports your visual brand as well as following through and delivering all your contact details, then you've harnessed a very powerful silent salesperson.
Send yourself an email and take a critical look at your email through your client's eyes.
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