We send a whole lot of emails these days. In fact, the average person sends 35 emails a day and active businesses – including real estate agents – may send twice that. (Okay, maybe ten times that number for Realtors!)
Of course, Realtors focus on branding and marketing in so many other places, including their website, Facebook page, business cards, YouTube channel, and even bus stop and grocery shopping cart ads!
But too often, they forget to put some TLC into their email signature, neglecting an invaluable tool for connecting with clients and business partners.
With all of these emails filling up our inboxes, it’s hard to stand out from the rest. But a great email signature will help you do just that, while also acting as a valuable conveyor of your brand, image, and portal to your website or social media accounts.
In fact, a great email signature will increase the rate at which your emails are opened, read, and people email you back.
The fantastic part is that once you have a nice email signature designed, it’s free and effortless to attach it to each of your emails – helping you more effectively connect with your database, referral partners, and clients.
Here are 20 best practices for Realtor email signatures:
- Think simple with email signatures, as they should just accentuate the body of the email – not dominate or distract from it. You can have a clean, simple, visually appealing e-sig that still stands out, conveys professionalism, and also expresses your unique personality.
- Resist the urge to include too much information. When you try to add your photo, logo, slogan, address, phone number (cell, office, and fax), broker information, DRE number, all your social media handles and ever award or designation you’ve ever owned, your email signature will look more like an email letter. Keep it simple with the three or four most important items prominently displayed, a few others in a smaller font or with visual icons, and the rest when they click through to your website or Facebook page.
- You also don’t want to go crazy with complicated patterns and too many colors. Contrast only works when it is very obvious what the main color is, and then one or maybe two colors at the most break the rules by being a different color. Likewise, you can add flair and color in small colored bars or shapes, and remember to match or compliment the color palette in your logo (if it’s included) so it won’t be too overwhelming.
- Likewise, using obscure, complicated, or mismatched is the easiest way to turn a good email signature into a mess. Stick with common, simple, and probably squared fonts. Using only capital letters may work, and you probably only want to use one or possibly two fonts at the most.
- You may want to use a photo in your email signature, but your stuffy old business card headshot may not be the best option to draw interest. Instead, use a photo of you in action or in a real-life pose, but from the waist or torso up.
- Next, have a designer (you can hire one for next to nothing online, or contact us and we’ll arrange it) to separate the image from the background, creating a “translucent” image. Usually saved as a .png file, you can now overlay this photo over any background, color, another image, etc. for an effect that really stands out.
- Instead of facing straight on, it looks more natural if you are turned slightly one way or the other in the photo, just make sure your eyes and open body posture will be pointed in the direction of the text, not away.
- You can do the same thing with the actual signature part of the email signature. Go ahead and sign your name, scan it, and have your graphics person add the script signature to the digital file. A handwritten signature really warms up and humanizes any email.
- When it comes to the background color of your email sig, remember that white won’t show up, while black may seem too strong and discourage viewing. Try something in an off-white or soft shade at first.
- What are the perfect dimensions for email signatures? They’re best produced in a rectangular box, about 650 pixels wide at most and between 90 and 150 pixels tall.
- Align and organize all of the information accordingly, keeping in mind that people scan top to bottom and left to right, even on an email. All the elements don’t have to be perfectly straight, but should be aligned the same (left, middle, right) and match up in height, width, etc.
- The file should also be 10kb or less so that it will show up in the right scale in your email, as well as being optimized for web use.
- Feel free to include a “trust symbol” like an award, designation, rating, etc., but only if it shows that you’ve earned the highest marks (no silver medal awards and B+ ratings) and highly recognizable among viewers.
- Include hyperlinked social media icons in your email signature, which lead directly to your website or social media accounts when clicked. You can get the official social media logos for free online.
- Information, text, and photos that are just “floating” on the email sometimes look off, so use borders, divider lines, your photo, and other elements to constrain and properly space the signature.
- Remember that about 41% of emails are opened on mobile devices like smartphones these days, so make sure it’s simple enough to present well on an iPhone screen, and nothing is so small it can’t be read of clicked.
- Once you’ve created a great email signature, you can also use it other places online, like banners on your website, Facebook and Twitter cover photos, and even as a label on other content.
- Don’t forget to make your email signature image – or individual parts of it – hyperlinked to the correct sites when you upload it to your mail system, like iMail, Outlook, etc.
- And you can set up different versions of your email signature and designate use for emails with different audiences or for different purposes. For instance, you could have one email signature specifically for buyer leads, one for sellers, one for past clients or your general database, and even one for referral partners if you wish.
- The best part about an email signature is that it’s not permanent! You should change it, update the information, and play with the design elements until you know you’ve got it right.
How will you know it’s perfect? When clients start emailing back, telling you that they really like your e-signature or start clicking on the links, driving your website and social media traffic.
Who knows? A great email signature might even land you a few extra prospects and a closed sale or two every year!
In part two of this blog, we’ll cover Do’s and Don’ts as well as a host of great ideas for Realtor email signatures.