The following is a guest post provided by our partners at Sigstr. Sigstr is the combination of a cohesive brand signature and an engaging call-to-action campaign in employee email. They help you unlock employee email as an owned marketing channel, providing simple, central control over your entire company’s email signature at the click of the button.
Companies worldwide send and receive more than 200 billion emails every day. Two hundred billion. Emails are, by and large, the most predominant form of communication in the business space. Email connects nonprofit organizations with donors, hospitals with their patients, political candidates with their supporters, every single day.
And sure, as a professional, you’re probably using email to shoot deals and specials out to your customer lists or you’re sending information about your upcoming event, hoping to get a boost in your registrations. You’re already using employee email as a marketing channel, but are you using it to its fullest potential?
Using employee email signatures as an owned marketing channel opens the door to brand awareness, engagement, followers, loyalty, and, most importantly, more leads. Sigstr is a company aimed at just that. We key-in on the untapped marketing resource that is the employee email signature.
Add in the use of forms to your email signature and create a soft (read: not pushy) reminder and consistent call-to-action from your company in all your daily connections. Put your content where the people are. We’ve outlined a few ideas below, but the possibilities are endless.
1. Survey
The best way to know what your customers want is to ask them. Sounds easy enough, right? But have you ever tried to actually get someone to answer your survey? It’s tough. In fact, on average, only 10 percent of recipients respond to surveys. And it’s no wonder – standard procedure is usually lengthy and inconvenient. You create a PDF survey, email it to your customer list, and hope they take the next steps. You might send a few follow-up emails to pump-up engagement, but you’re flirting with the line between being a helpful reminder and becoming a pest.
But what if we told you it doesn’t have to be so hard?
You want them to do something for you, right? So make it easy. Make it take no time and give them gentle reminders in daily conversations. Using the form as a landing page to your email signature will increase your exposure without being pushy, and it’ll yield upped response rates. It’s like you’re saying, “I’m just going to leave this here.” And trusting your already-engaged contact to take action.
2. Recruitment
We’ve helped users run countless recruitment ads in any number of call-to-action email signature campaigns. It makes sense, right? Every email sent is a reminder to your daily contacts that you’re hiring. Sure they might not be the party that will actually apply, but they know people. And, more importantly, they know your brand. They know what you’re about and they’ll be more likely to reference high-quality candidates.
But why stop there? Sure, including the job post in your signature is awesome, but step up your game. Include the actual employment application form on the landing page. Use the form you’ve created (need tips how? >> look around) for the vacancy in your email signature. By doing so, you’re making your opportunity easier to access, and more desirable, for your ideal candidates.
3. Events & Webinars
Events, whether a conference, webinar, or Twitter chat, work to position your brand as an authority in your niche. They help to establish your voice as a thought leader, cutting through the noise of a cluttered industry, expanding your reach – upping community engagement, followers, and leads. But how do you get people to register for your epic event that’s just around the corner?
Make the process easy.
Enter the email signature. By creating a signature with your registration form easily accessible, you’re bringing awareness to the event and allowing your daily connections to sign up on the spot. As you get closer to the event, you can encourage more registrations or change your call-to-action to focus on content about the event theme. After the event, capture data from your attendees with a survey or distribute white papers, blogs, or recorded video via your Sigstr.
4. Award Applications
Does your company give out awards in the community? How about internally? Do you ever struggle accessing quality applicants?
Stop making them hunt you down. Give them access to the award application form in your email signature. Make it easy. (Are you sensing a theme here?) Provide your connections with instant access to the application and return a higher-quality candidate pool.
5. Testimonials
Whether your customers are raving about your stellar customer service or what your product has done for them, their story is one of the most powerful weapons you have in your marketing arsenal. In fact, 67 percent of consumers say their buying decision is influenced by word of mouth and 93 percent of consumers believe word of mouth is the most reliable source of information. Testimonials come across as more genuine – less salesy – and allow your customer to tell their story in their voice to all of your potential customers.
Create a form with easy-to-answer questions and inject it into your employee email signature so your most valuable customers have easy access to spread the word on your product or service.
Testimonials have numerous business uses. Don’t just collect them, use them. After you have a few reviews in your back pocket, put them on website and direct your Sigstr campaign to them. Use your email signature to get the information, then use it to create content and redirect traffic to said content. Increase your exposure and increase your leads.
6. Donations
We get it. Asking for donations is hard. It’s intimidating to ask people to part with their hard-earned cash. But you’ve got to do it.
Instead of trying to convince donors they care about your business or your cause, focus on helping them realize they already do through your messaging. Then give them a platform for donating in your employee email signature. This way you’re avoiding the constant ask, but you’re still giving your daily contacts a consistent mechanism to submit donations.
7. Web-to-Lead
The goal of all marketing is to attract and retain profitable customers to your business, right? You’re shooting to match your products and services with the needs and wants of your community. Pop a form into your email signature and woo them.
For companies who may need to provide a formal quote, use a form that will automatically generate a quote with built-in calculations. Other companies can use a form for data collection to schedule demos, giving those leads a chance to line-out what they’re looking for and address any questions they might have about your product.
Add web-to-lead forms into your Sigstr campaign to bring your product to a qualified, interested audience in your email database. It also automates the process, making it easier on you, easier on your team, and ultimately, easier on your leads.
If you haven’t noticed, we’re all about ease-of-use. Integrating forms with your employee email signature adds a cohesive look and call-to-action across your organization, automates the process of data collection, and provides a secure platform straight to your contact’s inbox.
Have more ideas on how to use forms in your email signature? Let us know in the comments. Or, join the conversation on Twitter, @FormAssembly!
