Specialists in Internet Web Sites Since 1995
Online Marketing for Book and Publishing Web
Sites:
Step 7, Signature File
© 2001 Virginia Lawrence, Ph.D.
Although there are many ways to market a Web site, creating the signature
file is the last of the seven marketing basics we have been discussing since
December. After we have built a Web site, whether the site is an informational
site or a direct sales site for our books, we want to be sure that every
communication from our office gives our Web site address and a short summary of
our business.
Our letterhead and cards will, of course, include the Web site URL
(address.) The e-mails we send should also include that information, and it's
easy to set up a signature file to be automatically appended to every e-mail.
Signature File Contents
A signature file should include a tag line for the business, plus contact
information. Here's one of the signature files I use:
Virginia Lawrence, Ph.D. mailto:virginia@cognitext.com
CogniText: Information Architecture, Print and Web
http://www.cognitext.com 818-886-4281
Small Publishers, Artists, and Writers Network
http://www.spawn.org
We want to make it easy for our e-mail recipients to e-mail us and to visit
our Web site, so we format our e-mail address and our URL carefully. Note that
the e-mail address virginia@cognitext.com is written as
mailto:virginia@cognitext.com in the signature file. Adding the mailto: tag
makes the e-mail address clickable in most e-mail programs. Similarly, writing
the full URL, http://www.spawn.org, makes that URL into a clickable link
leading directly to the Web site.
Creating a Signature in Outlook Express
From the Tools menu, select Options, then select the
Signatures tab. Click the New button, and you will be prompted to
enter the text for your new signature.
Creating a Signature in Eudora
From the Tools menu, select Signatures. You will see a screen
displaying existing signatures. Right click to bring up the right-click menu,
and choose the New option. Enter a name for your new signature, then
enter the information to be included in the signature. Eudora lets you have
several signatures so that for any e-mail, you just choose the appropriate
signature for the recipient.
Just as our letterhead and cards represent us to the world, so do our
e-mails. Every e-mail should have a signature file to bring people directly to
our Web site.
~ Virginia Lawrence, Ph.D. is an Information
Architect who publishes both in print and online. Contact her at
virginia@cognitext.com.
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