Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

5 Things I Want in Your Email Signature

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imageThe beauty of the email signature is that it’s versatile. And that’s great. It can show your personality (or lack there of), and it can have colors and font changes, whatever. But here’s the deal, it needs to have 5 things (besides your name/company/title)…

  1. Your Email Address – I know what you’re thinking “umm, I’m emailing you so you have it.” TRUE, but often times I will introduce folks via email and I copy and paste from the signature so they have all each others info up front. Another reason, if you are forwarding or adding someone into an email chain they can snag your email easily if needed.
  2. Phone Number – YES I need your number. Why? Because sometimes the response needs to be a phone call, and I don’t want to go hunting for it.
  3. Social Media– tell me how and where to follow you! Duh, this is an easy way to get more followers, and if I have an introduction to a new person, social media is a GREAT way for me to learn more about you (and vice versa).
  4. URL– I need a link to your website folks. Especially if I don’t know much about you, or you reference something on your site, I don’t want to go hunting for it.
  5. Mobile Signature – everyone has multiple ways of sending and receiving emails these days. If yours is short and to the point and maybe has a typo, let folks know that it came from your smart phone or tablet. And make it clever and personal to you. Your mobile signature really only needs to say “sent from my mobile device” it doesn’t need all the other stuff. Unless you’re traveling for a while and it’s best for folks to have your phone number too.

I know there are ton of other things you can add to your newsletter but most importantly make sure it’s clean and helpful for folks. I don’t need 5 ways to call you. I don’t need a fax number (I mean, really? Do I?) Your email signature is your digital business card, make sure I get what I need, so I can easily answer you every time.

So this quiet end of August work week, take a moment to review your email signature and make sure it’s representative of you, helpful to your potential clients, current clients and your network.

Stake Your Claim

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imagesOne of the “funnest” parts of my job is helping clients to claim and enhance their online reputation. This includes making sure all their online presence is correct, up to date, and claimed by them.

Lately I’ve worked with two clients who have some fun challenges. One client has two Google+ Business Pages setup (and after contacting Google+ we discovered one is a BRAND page, no clue how that happened). Anyway, the good news is, that Google has an active response system, and they’re really helpful about getting everything figured out and cleaned up.

Another client has a similar business in the same office park area as them, who has mis-claimed a few of their locations. So, we get to go in and request from Bing/Google/Yelp/etc. that they are the correct owners of the space.

So, here’s my helpful tip for you this summer so you aren’t spending a lot of money on me fixing this…CLAIM YOURSELF online. Google+, Bing Places, Yelp, Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/etc. there’s a bazillion places, and you may not need to claim them all, but get the basics set. I use to recommend Brandify to folks, but it now has a fee. However, they have a free trial period, and if you have a bit of time, I’d suggest signing up for the trial, get the info you need from them and then cancel the account (well, until Brandify sees this and yells at me…).

I don’t care if you don’t want to be online, like it or not, your business is online. You need to at least own it, before someone else does.

 

Magic Beans Aren’t the Answer

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I seem to have a knack for losing or letting a client go and then “magically” new clients fall in my lap within a few days. It’s not because I’m lucky, it’s because I do a lot of consistent things in my work that don’t seem to amount to much at the time, but in the long run are a part of the bigger picture. Take this blog post for example; will you hire me because of this post? Probably not- but you may start reading other posts, and realize I’m nuts and exactly what you need to grow your business

A client last week asked me how many clients came from social media. The short answer is none, and the longer answer is over half. It’s a mix, and you have to find that right mix for you and your business.

Figure out where your Target Market is- and start spending more time there, online and offline.