Tuesday

Marketing With Signature Files

A signature file is a short paragraph of text that you place at
the end of your email messages or any articles that you write. It
should be about 5 or 6 lines long and contain your contact
details with a brief summary of what you or your company offers.

The signature file offers you the best free advertising available
anywhere on the internet and can be a very powerful tool if used
correctly...

Thousands of people will read your signature file when you post
to an email list or forum.

If you've written something interesting, there's a good chance
that many of them will click on your link to find out more about
you. Which leads me to another point... make sure you include the
full URL with the 'http:// ' bit and start your email address
with 'mailto:'

Why?

Because online and in most email programs links are "clickable,"
but only if written out in the full form. You'll loose many
potential visitors or inquires if you force people to copy, paste
and (in the case of an URL) add the missing information at the
beginning.

Avoid lengthy signature files... people will take offence at a
lengthy and blatant attempt to make money from your signature
(bad netiquette!). Some may also refuse you public postings. Keep
it short and to the point.

It should have:

1. Your name
2. Your company name
3. Your web site URL
4. Your email (or autoresponder) address
5. A very brief description of your web site, product or
service.


You should end up with something like this:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Azam Corry
Now Sell!
http://www.NowSell.com
Making Money on the Internet.
No-nonsense, what-you-need-to-know help for YOUR success online.
mailto:demosig@nowsell.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Keep your signature within 65 characters wide as this the maximum
viewing width of some e-mail clients. If it's wider than this it
may "break" onto the next line, taking up more space.

If you need more room for marketing punch - this is your ad,
remember ;-) - drop your company name, don't increase the overall
length!

Got a free offer?... this is a great place to advertise it. Just
think of how many visitors you could get from an attractive free
offer advertised at the end of your posting to a list with 5000
subscribers!

Create several different versions of your signature files using
alternative wording. Use these to add relevancy to the medium in
which you're posting when you promote each of your main products
or services.

To aid in tracking the effectiveness of your marketing efforts
you can also use different email addresses or aliases that
correspond to the locations in which your file appears.

Use your signature file all the time in all the mail you send,
including those letters sent out from your autoresponders
(advertise a different product/service to that for which the
automatic reply is generated). You should also use your signature
file when posting to e-mail discussion groups, newsgroups, and
message boards.


© Azam Corry "Do it Better. Do it Faster. Do it Right!"

Azam Corry owns Now Sell! Bursting with inside information, tools
and resources to help you profit online. Top Rated by Go.com and
Recommended by About.com. Visit: http://www.NowSell.com/?SigFile

==> Get Azam's Biz Bits, viewed a "must read" ezine by thousands
of online business owners: mailto:BizBits@NowSell.com

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