This post comes to us from BrokerageU:

Saving the perfect email signature will limit the amount that you have to spend typing when you bring an email to a close. For your leads and clients, it can make an easy way for them to locate your contact information and website. However, when used incorrectly, an email signature can be quite a disaster.

You want to be as concise as possible. Don't scare off your recipient at the very end of a wonderful email because you included a signature equally as long as the original email itself.

What should be included?

Add who you are, where you work, and how someone can contact you. Short, and to the point. Ideally, you can showcase all of that in about four lines or less. The key here is simplicity. Adding paragraphs of bulky info may help the reader get to know you the first time you communicate with them by email, but if you correspond frequently it is likely to get very redundant.

Here's one good example:

—–
John Smith, Realtor®
Premier Brokerage of California
(123) 456-7890 | [email protected]
Search for Homes: www.myhomesearch.com

Of course, 'simple' doesn't have to be boring. Feel free to add a personal touch or some creativity to your email, but be careful not to get carried away.

Check with your broker and your MLS to see if any disclaimer, disclosure, or other additional information is required. Once you find out, only add the extra text if it's mandatory that you do so. Lots of agents want to include much more than the basics listed above, but before you do this, there are a few key points to consider.

Website Links

Make your link into a call to action that will take the visitor exactly where they want to go. 'Search for homes', 'Download free market reports', 'What's my home worth?', 'Community blog articles.' Depending on the strongest information that your site can offer, link your reader to that page directly.

Social

Are you adding a link to your personal social profile? Or is it a business page? If it's a professional page on which you are an active user and update the page consistently, then by all means add the link.

Images

Adding images, graphics, and logos will increase the overall email file size dramatically. There are also many email clients who block images or load them as attachments by default, so your reader may not be seeing exactly what you think they are. Remember that your contact info cannot be copied from an image, nor is your website link itself clickable from an image. Plain text emails have a higher proven open rate and are far less likely to end up in the dreaded spam folder.

If you need to add an image in as your whole email signature, use html and make sure that you include the 'alternate text' which will be displayed if the image is blocked for any reason. All you would need to do is upload your desired image to your website's media folder so that it is hosted online and can be located via a link. Next, switch to the html editor of your email signature and add something like this--of course replacing the link and your name with real information.

Sample HTML

General Extra Text

Keep your signature brief and relevant. Famous quotes, jokes, and other unrelated information are most likely not necessary. If you're tempted to add your full testimonial text in as well, consider adding a link to read your testimonials page on your website instead.

To drive home the point of a simple, yet informative signature, we'll give you some examples of what not to do. I'm sure you'll get the idea after seeing #3.

Too long:

Too short:

WAY too much going on:

Do you have an iPhone?

Learn how to change that unnecessary (and quite frankly irritating) 'Sent from my iPhone' message now!

1. Click 'Settings' on your home screen
2. Click 'Mail, Contacts, Calendars'
3. Click 'Signature'
4. Decide if this new signature will apply to 'All Accounts' or one specific account
5. Delete the default and add your signature

To view the original article, visit the BrokerageU blog.