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Your email signature is more important than you may realize. For many real estate professionals, an email signature can boost site traffic, increase social media engagement, and serve as a branding opportunity.
Your signature is like a digital business card. Because it is included at the end of every email correspondence that you’ll have with your prospects, leads, and clients, it’s crucial that your email signature is a positive representation of you and your business.
Additionally, if your email is forwarded, your signature will travel with it, ensuring that any readers who are new to your business will be able to learn more or get in touch with you.
Follow these five best practices to transform your email signature into a powerful component of your real estate marketing:
1. Include all your social media accounts in your email signature
In this day and age, your social media accounts are an essential communication channel. In the same way that you reply to emails or phone calls, you need to be vigilant and actively reply to people who reach out to you on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Because social is an important part of client communication, make sure you include it with your other contact information in your email signature.
Listing where you’re present on social media will also get you more followers on Twitter, likes on your Facebook page, or views on YouTube.
SOCIAL MEDIA SIGNATURE EXAMPLE:
In the email signature above, realtor Jane Neale includes hyperlinked icons for every social channel where she’s active. This provides a simple, visually-appealing way to take stock of where you can find her on social media.
Many viewers are already familiar with these simple social icons, because they already see the same images on their phone and elsewhere online. Even if you’re only on one or two social sites, including them in your email signature will help generate more follows and likes, in addition to signaling to your audience that you are a modern agent who is present and participating on social media.
2. Put your picture in your email signature
Do you have a professionally-photographed headshot for your real estate business? You should definitely include it in your email signature!
Adding a professional picture of yourself creates a feeling of personalization surrounding any messages that you send out on behalf of your business. After all, do you feel more connected to a bunch of words in an email, or to a person who is talking with you?
PROFESSIONAL HEADSHOT SIGNATURE EXAMPLE:
The image in the email signature above is expertly shot and would be equally at home on a business card or a LinkedIn profile. Likewise, your own headshot should look professional and formal. This is not the space to share a poorly-lit snapshot, a picture from your latest vacation, or a selfie.
The picture should feature you and only you – preferably with a white or blank background that isn’t too distracting.
3. Keep your email signature design clean and simple
Keep in mind that not every email recipient will see images if you include them in your signature. Some email programs, such as Microsoft Outlook, automatically blocks images embedded in emails.
While there’s no avoiding the possibility that your images may be blocked, you can ensure that your signature is still legible if this happens. Instead of putting all your contact information on an embedded banner, list it in a visually-appealing, typed-out format.
CLEAN DESIGN SIGNATURE EXAMPLE:
The example above includes an image. However, if that picture was not visible, viewers would still be able to see all the contact information for this agent. The loss of an image doesn’t detract from the email, or deprive recipients of any contact info that they may need.
4. Let your logo stand out in your email signature
Whether you’re emailing leads, current clients, or colleagues, your email is an extension of your brand and represents you as a professional. Keep those email communications consistently on-brand by including your agency’s logo in your email signature.
Prominently featuring your logo in your email signature is a great way to add a degree of professionalism to your communication. It will also keep your brand at the forefront of your email recipients’ minds, which is especially helpful when you’re communicating with leads who are deciding whether or not to use your services.
AGENCY LOGO SIGNATURE EXAMPLE:
As you can see above, your logo doesn’t have to dominate your signature, but it should be present.
Keep in mind how it will look when your email is read on mobile devices, or on email clients where images may be blocked. Test out the placement of your logo in all these scenarios to ensure that your email signature always looks on-point.
5. Feature reviews and awards in your email signature
Social proof is a powerful thing. Stellar reviews from real-life clients will always resonate much more with leads than simple self-promotion. Why not include glowing reviews in your email signature, so your happy clients and your business are linked in the minds of your future customers?
If you have a 5-star review on Zillow, your email signature is the perfect place to alert readers of this accomplishment. You can also provide the link to a page of reviews, or a list of recent awards you may have won. You can also quote one review in particular, as long as it’s a short sentence.
SOCIAL PROOF SIGNATURE EXAMPLE:
As you can see in the example above, the tail end of your signature is an ideal location to point readers towards your positive reviews. It’s a great reminder that you’re not just bragging about being a great realtor; you can actually prove that you are everything you say you are.
