Free-Reprint Article Written by: Mark Silver See Terms of Reprint Below.
***************************************************************** * * This email is being delivered directly to members of the group: * * [email protected] * ***************************************************************** We have moved our TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article. Be certain to read our TERMS OF REPRINT and honor our TERMS OF REPRINT when you use this article. Thank you. This article has been distributed by: http://Article-Distribution.com Helpful Link: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Overview http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- Article Title: ============== An Email Signature That Really Holds Water Article Description: ==================== Your email signature? You're counting on the perfect person reading it, clicking the link to your website, and becoming the perfect customer. Unfortunately, most email signatures just don't deliver. Why not? Additional Article Information: =============================== 814 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line Distribution Date and Time: 2006-12-29 11:24:00 Written By: Mark Silver Copyright: 2006 Contact Email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For more free-reprint articles by Mark Silver, please visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/index.shtml#Mark_Silver ============================================= Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters: ============================================= If you use this article on your website or in your ezine, We Want To Know About It. Use the following URL to let us know where you have used this article, and we will include a link to your website on thePhantomWriters.com: http://thephantomwriters.com/notify.php?id=4146&p=load HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of Article Are Available at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/s/an-email-signature.shtml#get_code --------------------------------------------------------------------- An Email Signature That Really Holds Water Copyright (c) 2006 Mark Silver Heart Of Business http://www.heartofbusiness.com/ You know that little dangling thing-a-ma-jig that hangs on the end of your emails? Your email signature? I bet you don't pay it much attention. But, all the same, you're kinda counting on it doing its job. You're counting on the perfect person reading it, clicking the link to your website, and becoming the perfect customer. Unfortunately, most email signatures just don't deliver. Why not? Email readers have been getting a workout. Have you ever spent time in the gym, or jogging, or just out having fun in the sun, and gotten really thirsty? You know, -really- thirsty? I exercise hard about three times a week, and let me tell you, during and afterwards I'm drinking a lot of water. If you want to ask me a question when I'm parched like that, I'm more than likely going to stop you in mid-sentence, "Hold on- I gotta get a drink." Anyone I know who has email is getting a work-out. There is a LOT of email coming through. People in the midst of an email workout tend to read it, answer it, and move on to the next! Right? Isn't that what you do? So what happens when you see a signature that looks like this? "Spiritual business healing Mark Silver Heart of Business 503-282-3037 http://www.heartofbusiness.com " That's right- you zzzzip! right past it, onto the next email. Chances are, unless you get a rare intuitive hit, you aren't going to click on it. It's even worse if you participate in an online forum. At least if someone has emailed you, there's already a relationship happening. If you are posting something in an online forum, or in a yahoo discussion group, you want people to click through your signature to your website. But they don't. Give the poor email reader a drink of water. What you want is the signature equivalent of a drink of water in the middle of a hard workout- one that actually gives your email reader something useful, right now (just a click away). They aren't hard to write, and I think you'll have fun with them. Ready to write some signatures that deliver a cool glass of water on a hot day? Keys to Serving the Water * Don't go home. Your home page, even when it's written effectively, is meant to connect with people. But it doesn't necessarily give immediately useful information. Instead, link to an article you've written. And, if you need a format for an article that works, I've got a link at the end of this article that will help you. * Be polite, and ask before you give. The key here is asking. Most signatures are statements. But, by asking a question, and especially a question that is relevant to what's true for them: "Are you thirsty?" it's hard for the reader not to engage with you- by clicking. Then, once they click through, you have a strong action step at the end of your article: ask them to subscribe. Because they've just gulped down some of your water, they'll be more likely to sign up for a regular dose from you. Which is what you were hoping with your original, 'home-page' signature. Right? An example: I wrote an article about how to hand off your most hated business tasks. So, I created an email signature that links to that article: "In running your business there are things you love to do, and things you don't... Wondering how to hand off your most hated business tasks? Read this article: http://www.heartofbusiness.com/articles/2006/Apr19.htm " Notice I had a one-sentence summary of the main problem the article solves, and then I asked a question. And then the link. Very simple. * Important Note for Links: Always include the 'http://' in front of the 'www' - that ensures that nearly any email program will automatically turn it into a clickable link. Without the 'http://' your link may just be plain text- and no one will click - because they can't click. Here's another one: "No matter how much, or how little, your business earns, it always seems as if there's just enough... Is it ever possible to go from 'just enough' to extra? Profitability: How to get from 'just enough' to having extra. http://www.heartofbusiness.com/articles/2005/July11.htm " Go ahead and click through on either of those links to see what's at the end of the article. And then write some new, thirst-quenching signatures, and go get those thirsty email readers some water. Liked the article? Bugged you? Questions? Drop me a line. And here's the article-writing resource I promised earlier, (in the form of a signature): "You know you need to write articles for your business, because they position you as an expert, and create trust with your readers. How -do- you write articles that get read, remembered and recommended? Read this article: http://www.heartofbusiness.com/articles/2006/Aug2.htm " My very best to you and your business, Mark Silver --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com --- END ARTICLE --- Get HTML or TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/s/an-email-signature.shtml#get_code ..................................... TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules (Last Updated: May 11, 2006) Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR: ..................................... *** Digital Reprint Rights *** * If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog, You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as Hyperlinks (clickable links). * Links must remain in the form that we published them. Clean links should point to the Author's links without redirects having been inserted into the copy. * You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks must be retained with articles. You can change where the paragraph breaks fall, but you cannot eliminate all paragraph breaks as some have chosen to do. * Email Distribution of this article Must be done through Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email. * You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for proper display of the article in your website or in your ezine, so long as you can maintain the author's interests within the article. * You may not use sentences from this article as an input for any software that steals sentences from others in order to build an article with software. The copyright on this article applies to the "WHOLE" article. *** Author Notification *** We ask that you notify the author of publication of his or her work. Mark Silver can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** Print Publication Reprint Rights *** If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT publication, you must contact the author directly for Print Permission at: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ..................................... If you need help converting this text article for proper hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this free tool: http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl ===================================================================== ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION http://thePhantomWriters.com is a paid article distribution service. thePhantomWriters.com and Article-Distribution.com are owned and operated by Bill Platt of Stillwater, Oklahoma USA. The content of this article is solely the property and opinion of its author, Mark Silver http://www.heartofbusiness.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ---------------------------------------------------------------------
