5 Ways Sales Leaders Use Email Signatures to Generate Business

According to a recent study by HubSpot, 75% of companies say closing more deals is their top sales priority— yet 30% of salespeople say closing deals is getting harder. It can be daunting to think that your company’s top priority might be your biggest challenge as a salesperson. So, we’re constantly thinking about how we can bridge the gap – and turn every opportunity into a closed deal.

To be successful in sales, there are multiple critical skills, scores of best practices, and thousands of techniques that impact sales performance. Ultimately, sales leaders know that success boils down to two things: preparation and execution. And part of that success relies on knowing what tools are available to help you become a trusted resource for your prospects.

Email marketing is a proven tool, and marketing automation has made its way into nearly every organization around. But what you might not have realized is that as a salesperson, you don’t have to rely on the weekly blast from Marketing to start impacting your close rate today. And email signatures are a great way to get you there.

How Big is Email, Really?

Radicati shows that as of 2018, there are about 124.5 billion business emails sent and received each day. HubSpot research shows that 86% of professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes. Think of all the emails you send on a daily basis. Each message presents a huge opportunity to get your targeted message in front of a prospect in an unobtrusive way. While the inbox certainly is crowded, it remains one of the most cost-effective and reliable methods of communication. It can be highly personalized, with a significant impact on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and repeat business. Perhaps the most underutilized part of the email is the email signature. Email signatures offer a great way to help boost sales conversions. Most brands don’t optimize their email signatures. In fact, 52% of companies don’t use signatures at all.

How Can You Use Email Signatures?

Forward-thinking sales leaders know how to maximize the white space at the end of your email with interesting, informative, and valuable information. If you are like most people, your email signature probably includes a pleasant, professional closing. Something like, “Regards, John Smith, VP of Sales.” It is nice, but let’s be honest: it is boring and does not do much for promoting your business, your product, or yourself. Instead, you want an email signature that works for you by highlighting company information and/or by engaging recipients and eliciting a response, such as a click, a sign-up, or some other action you choose.

So, what is email signature marketing and how can you use your email signature to generate new business? Essentially, email signature marketing is a way to turn your individual business email into a marketing and lead generation machine. Sounds great, right? Here are 5 practical ways salespeople can use their email signature to generate new business:

#1 – Pair Your Work Calendar and Email Signature

Responsiveness is one of the most important characteristics of a good salesperson. So why not make it as easy as possible for people to get in touch? Whether that’s sharing your best contact information when on the road, your travel schedule or office hours, or an automated way to schedule a meeting — pairing your email signature with your work calendar makes it easy for prospects to reach you for questions, concerns, and to get you the PO.

#2 – Promote Online and Live Events

Email signatures are a perfect place to promote your company’s online and live events. You easily can include links to registration, discounted tickets, or other snazzy graphics to get people interested. These events also can be used to help existing customers better understand your product with links to training or how-to videos. Make sure to keep the information current and remove past events.

#3 – Educate and Inform

Research shows that most prospects already know the direction they’re heading before they ever speak to a sales rep. This thought underscores the importance of a solid sales strategy that includes getting in on the decision-making process early – and helping them along the way. You can use your email signature to educate a prospect on your market conditions or pain points and why your company can help. You can do this via links to webinars, videos, ebooks, and whitepapers. It’s important to make sure your language is accurate and personalized. This personalization can significantly impact conversions as well as enable you to capture valuable customer data for future marketing campaigns.

#4 – Let Your Customers Do the Talking

According to Marketing Charts, in the B2B setting, events help generate the most leads, while case studies help convert and accelerate the most leads. Linking to a case study or customer review can be a great way to build credibility with potential customers. After all, they know your product and what it’s like working with your team. Statistics on online reviews show that 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review. When emailing prospects, your email signature is a great place to include a CTA to your product’s reviews. Your signature could include a sharp review quote, show an overall rating based on reviews, or simply link to your reviews.
#5 – Provide General Company Updates

Email signatures are an excellent place to make brief company announcements or to share industry news. If your company is launching a new product, include a message with a link to a dedicated landing page for more information. Offer demos or free trials to get the product in their hands. You can track and manage traffic from these messages and see immediate ROI. Your company email signatures can be an untapped resource for promoting company news and offer a personalized way to share important information.

While adding these elements to your email signature can have a significant impact on your close rates, it’s also just as easy to do it wrong. For example, when we say you should make it easy for prospects and customers to get in touch, that does not mean listing every possible phone, email, and social profile you’ve created (and no, they do not need to see the social profile you haven’t updated in three months). It’s valuable real estate, so use it wisely.

What’s stopping you?

Email signatures offer a seamless way to promote your brand, communicate your value, and gain valuable insight into your sales opportunities (including whether or not you’re talking to the right people or sharing appropriate messages). Making small changes to your email signature can dramatically impact your conversion rate. If your company has a corporate email management tool in place, all of these steps can be automated and customized with a few clicks – and integrated directly with your sales enablement and marketing automation tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Marketo. But even if your company does not have a tool in place, as a sales leader, you can implement these practical steps manually and start off the new year ready to close more business.

Bobby serves as co-founder and VP of Sales for Opensense, a leading enterprise email signature marketing and management platform. He joined the company in 2013 as SenderGen, where he led sales and marketing prior to its rebrand to Opensense in 2018. Prior to SenderGen, Bobby was sales lead at Intralinks (NYSE: IL), where he was responsible for sales to the largest firms in the financial services industry, as well as selling directly into the C-Suite at firms within the Fortune 1000. Bobby has a passion for evangelizing cutting-edge technology solutions that disrupt “the old way of doing things.”

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