Online Marketing Tip : Remember to take advantage of your email signature. A good email signature should have your name, your business name, and website address and include any active social media channels you have.
Don’t forget you can also drive traffic to your blog or to current specials. Just adding a logo and “find us on social media” icons is not enough. Many times, business owners forget to link them to anything, and if you are sending emails to anyone with corporate email addresses and image blocking on, all the email recipient will see is an email with Xs where the graphics are.
Remember to thread your email signature as well, so every email exchanged with a customer is under every email block that is in an email exchange. Otherwise, if a customer wants contact information, they have to scroll down to the very first email received from you.
A good example of an email signature: Jane Doe Widgets. We have a widget for every need. Our storefront is located in the heart of the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee Region.
Visit out our website at www.janedoewidgets.com. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/janedoewidgets. Connect with us on Instagram at www.instagram.com/janedoewidgets 9 Keyser Street, North Sutton, NH 03260 603 555-1212
You can include some additions such as – This month’s special offer! February is for gadget lovers! Get your significant other a gift they will enjoy all year (link to a special offer website page or check out our latest blog post).
Our Blue widgets are in high demand this year and this is why! (Link to blog post.)
How to add an email signature in Gmail: h
(if using Gmail, or using it to check your domain’s email).
To make sure your signature is added to threaded emails: there is a line with a check box directly under the signature box where you add a signature – be sure that it is checked. Insert signature before quoted text in replies and remove the “–“ line that precedes it.
How to add an email signature in Outlook– this also covers how to add your signature to threaded emails. support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-and-add-an-email-signature-in-outlook-for-windows-8ee5d4f4-68fd-464a-a1c1-0e1c80bb27f2
Offline Marketing Tip : Car magnets are an inexpensive way to advertise your business. Plus, unlike car wraps, they are removable! Take advantage of a mobile way to advertise.
People who see your car parked in the grocery store parking lot, for example, might be from out of town, visiting family or locals who are unaware of your business.
Adding a QR code on the magnet allows people to scan it and easily be directed to your website. While you can direct the QR code directly to your website homepage, consider adding a blog post or additional page to your website offering a small discount or incentive for people that want to buy online or come to your location or direct them to your special offers or other landing page.
Just be sure if you are adding a QR code, that is a static QR code and not a dynamic QR code. A dynamic QR code sends users to specific web pages or other online sources, just like any other QR code. What makes them “dynamic” is that the URL encoded in them can be changed on demand, even after printing the code. You cannot change static QR codes in that way.
The downside is that most platforms that offer Dynamic QR codes charge for them on an ongoing monthly basis, and many businesses get lured into using them because of the offer of a free trial, not realizing that if they want to use the QR code past the trial (and maybe it went into print somewhere) they would have to pay for it long term.
One of my favorite free static QR code makes is www.qrcode-monkey.com. QR Code Monkey lets you customize the QR code design to match your brand’s colors and you can add your business logo to it as well.
Contributed by Heather Turner, Certified Small Business Mentor, SCORE Granite Region. score.org/mentors/heather-turner
Workshop Schedule:
Note: all workshops are free, and via Zoom. Register at: score.org/graniteregion/local-workshops
May 2 10 AM
Tips for Getting Out of the Valley of Despair for Business Startups
May 7 10 AM
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program
May 9 10 AM
Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers for Nonprofits
May 14 10 AM
8(a) Business Development Program (General Overview)
May 21 10 AM
Start Up #2 – Do You Think You Need a Business Plan? Let Us Help You Take the Anxiety Out of Creating One
May 23 10 AM
Developing Customer Personas
May 30 10 AM
Developing a website on Wix