Using Signature Blocks to Market Your Products or Services

A signature block is the part of a letter or email that has your name, signature, position within your organisation, and perhaps your address and firm's URL. It is also an opportunity for you to make a sales offer.

Never miss an opportunity to make a sales offer.

Let's discuss letter and email information separately because they are different in several major respects.

Signature Blocks for Letters

Because a business letter is usually printed on letterhead or has the company's address and contact details in an address block, it means that all that is needed for the signature block is a name and details of the signatory's position within the company.

That's easy, it looks like this:

Sylvia Saint


Marketing Manager

Occasionally it might have underneath other annotations eg, Encl (5) or Att (5) indicating that five (or however many) enclosures or attachments accompany the letter. Then it would look like:

Sylvia Saint


Marketing Manager

Encl (3)

It is also possible to add postscripts which commence with PS:

Why not add a postscript like "PS: Did you know that we have a special offer for mortgages this month and establishment fees are waived, saving customers $450"

It would then look like this:

Sylvia Saint


Marketing Manager

Encl (3)

PS: Did you know that we have a special offer for mortgages this month and establishment fees are waived, saving customers $450

If you don't tell people what you have available they may never know.

Signature Blocks for Email Messages

Unless your organisation uses a template with contact details, your email will not have your company's name and address on it. If this is the case then you should place those details in your signature block like this:

Asia Carrera


Finance Manager

Acme Finance Company


PO Box 2357


SYDNEY NSW 2000

Phone: 02 234567


Fax: 02 234568

Place your firm's URL here

PS: Call us today about our motor vehicle loans which are the cheapest in Sydney - 02 234598

Conclusion

You cannot afford to miss a sales opportunity. Every letter or email is a marketing opportunity. You can place brochures and other information media in letters, but in email you should not attach files unless requested.

For your email you can set up and store (in most email software) a number of different subscription blocks to use depending on who you are emailing. For example, mail internal to your organisation doesn't need to have sales details on it or the

address. International email should have international telephone details and perhaps times your company operates. You then choose the signature block you want for the specific email.

Using signature blocks to include a marketing offer makes good sense. Make sure you use it.

Copyright 2007 Robin Henry