The Firm: Make your email signature a marketing tool

By Peter Harrison The Daily Record Newswire Email signatures, like their handwritten counterparts, are judged by their neatness and aesthetic quality. But only your e-signature doubles as an efficient, powerful -- and free -- marketing tool for your law practice. "Each firm has a unique story to tell, whether it's about its services, lawyers or position in a marketplace. ...Your email signature can be an extension of that brand that can further the message and support the positioning of the law firm or the individual lawyer," says Keith Wewe, vice president of client service and growth at Content Pilot in Dallas, a legal marketing and content management company. Here are some tips for making your email signature more effective: Focus on how contacts can reach you. Always include your full name, title, firm name, mailing address, direct office phone number, fax, mobile phone and email address, Content Pilot CEO Deborah McMurray suggests. "You don't run the risk of someone mistyping an email or remembering a phone number incorrectly," she says. Also, if someone forwards your mail to a third party and they decide to contact you, they'll already have your contact information in their inbox, McMurray adds. Market yourself, but don't flaunt. If you have a web address, include it because it's essentially free advertising. But remember that your email signature isn't your personal ad. "[It's not for] anything that feels like it's taken from your resume. Honors, awards and rankings -- absolutely not," McMurray says. And "stay away from the cheesy quotes," Wewe says. Inspirational quotes don't belong in the world of business. Get technical. Standard Microsoft fonts such as Arial, Calibri and Times New Roman are best for email signatures because they're preloaded on most computers and won't get distorted, McMurray says. Also, solid colors such as black and dark gray are professional and almost universally readable. Including a small logo can increase your brand recognition. But "thinking your logo will somehow be missed unless it's the largest thing on the page makes it almost look comical," Wewe cautions. Even worse than too large of an image is a broken one. "It's not just plopping a logo on the page, it's actually got to live somewhere," McMurray says. Failing to properly embed an image is giving an email [provider] the chance to render it as an uninspiring red "X," she says. "I think buyers of legal services want their counsel to look and be sophisticated," Wewe says. "If you're making some common mistake in your email correspondence ... you risk [potential clients asking]: 'Is this the right counsel? If they can't get email communication correct, what else will they get incorrect?'" Published: Wed, Aug 31, 2011