Ever think your email signature is ignored or overlooked? Think again. This little slice of digital real estate is getting more and more attention (for better or for worse). When done well, it can be an extension of your company’s brand and serve as a new way to distribute content. But when it misses the mark, it could spur a variety of emotions (laughter, anger, distrust, judgment, etc.) from your audience.
Thumbing through examples of bad email signatures is fun (a lot fun actually). Reading the commentary about funny email signature fails is even more fun. And you can definitely get your pick in the Twittersphere. So we decided to scroll through the many tweets in 2016 about email signatures and share our favorites. As we gathered more and more tweets, a few themes started to form.
The Cause & Effect of Using Comic Sans
Effect: Your email moving to the trash bin
Effect: None (or a no-reply)
Effect: Loss of all credibility amongst your peers
Effect: Automatic disqualification from all future opinions
Effect: Trust issues
Misspelling Your Recipient’s Name
We feel you, Patrick. Trust has to be established before abbreviated names occur.
Bonus points to Kirthi for the perfect GIF reaction in this situation.
The Dreaded Inspirational Quote
Jason is right. It’s Monday…relax people.
Ally authored her own famous quote to show how she really feels about this issue. Well done.
We appreciate your honesty, Abigail.
The trust issues continue…
Valid question, Alexis.
We’re proud of you too, Texas Pro.
We sense some sarcasm here…
Other/Miscellaneous
1994 called. They asked if you could please remove your fax number…
We love Peter’s perspective above, but Craig took it to a whole new level.
We’re sorry, Charlie! We love the idea of central control over the company’s email signature (except when the admin starts playing pranks).
Credentials are important – especially grade school accomplishments.
100% agree. Take the time to remove “Sent from my iphone” from your mobile email signature.
This popular tag line doesn’t always work for certain types of businesses.
If you find out what Vikings like to drink, let us know. We’ll open a tab too…
Shelby-lyn, we hope you’re kidding.
As fellow Cubs fans, we fully appreciate and support this move.
We have never felt more #blessed reading about this funny email signature (and laughing). Now show us the actual picture!
Some people have zero tolerance for long email signatures.
Ever dream of funny email signature typos and wake up in a cold sweat? We do, too.
Attached images are the worst…
Make sure you take the time to build an email signature in your settings. Otherwise some people might get very offended…
This is one of the more outrageous examples we found, but we absolutely love it.
And finally…Margaret sums it up best.
Let’s face it, perfecting your email signature IS hard. Especially for those brand managers or marketing directors who are asked to manage their company’s email signature for 50+ employees.
That’s where Sigstr comes in! Let us know how we can help make your job just a little easier by standardizing company-wide email signatures (and bonus: using it as a new content distribution channel).
There’s no doubting Larry Bird’s pure talent. By adding smarts and most importantly grit, Larry became a legend.
Talent + Smarts + Grit = Legend.
Like every Hoosier, I grew up with a hoop in my driveway. Every day after school I’d play, trying to imitate Larry’s best moves. Of his top 10 plays, some emphasized talent – like the turnaround jumper over Jordan. Others pinpointed his creativity – like his bounce pass to Parish between the defender’s legs, or the time he swished a shot from behind the hoop.
But most of his top 10s, including number one, was a product of Larry’s hustle, heart and grit.
Unfortunately for my basketball career, I’m 5-10 and couldn’t shoot my way out of a paper bag. Hustle + smarts can get you onto the Freshman Team in high school, but that was my zenith without the talent.
Warning: Here’s the part where I make the cliché (but appropriate) analogy from sports to business. To become successful in anything, you’ll need talent and smarts. But you’ll never be legendary without grit.
Larry’s gritty play has made him the unofficial Sigstr mascot (read: role model), and I’m honored that via our customer the Indiana Pacers, Larry Bird uses Sigstr.
Below, I’ve included an excerpt from a recent Larry Bird interview where he talks about his approach to every game. To him, he treated each game as though it were the last. He gave the same effort in game 22 of the regular season as he did in the finals.
At Sigstr, we have another saying emphasizing grit: “If you’re a man (or woman) by night, you’re a man (or woman) by day”. (Credit to Brooksource). Meaning, whatever happened yesterday, should have no impact on your effort today. Prior to a game with the Hawks, it was rumored, Larry stayed out pretty late the prior night. The Hawks thought it could be an advantage. But Larry was a man that day. He scored 60.
We will all make mistakes. When our talent or smarts let us down, it’s effort and determination, our grit, that we always control. With Larry, you knew you were getting his best effort every night.
Legend. Thanks for being an inspiration to me and to the Sigstr crew, Larry!
Legendary excerpt printed by the Indianapolis Star:
Boston Celtics legend and Indiana Pacers President Larry Bird was warned during his second year in the NBA that if he continued doing what he was doing to his body, he wouldn’t be long for the league.
“I remember my second year in the league,” Bird said in a recent Q&A with ESPN’s Baxter Holmes, “we were in the All-Star Game in New Jersey, and Artis Gilmore told me, ‘Man, you’re really a good player, Larry. You’re going to be great. But if you keep playing the way you’re playing, you’re not going to last long.’ I said, ‘I can’t play any other way. That’s the way I play.
“I think it was how hard I was playing. He never worked out. But I knew it. I knew I wasn’t going to last long. I knew I was breaking down. It was just the way it is. I had this desire to win every game and the only way I felt, in my mind, that I could do that was to be in the best condition.
“…my thoughts were always that that night was the most important game in the world. Everybody in the world was watching that one game. And I had to be the best player on the court and win that game that night. That was my mentality, and it stuck with me all the way through my career. But knowing that, I knew that I was going to pay for it in a hard way. That’s probably why, when I retired, after the press conference, I probably felt relief.”
Here at Sigstr, we love our fictional characters and enjoy imagining what their email signatures would look like. That said, we’re back with another post about movie characters and their email signatures. I love Back to the Future – it’s undoubtedly the best film franchise of all time. When I was asked to contribute to Sigstr’s blog, I knew exactly what I wanted to write. I know, for a fact, if these folks were alive in 2016 they’d each have a pretty cool email signature.
Doctor Emmett Brown
Doc, the unsung hero of Hill Valley, just finished up his latest time traveling adventures with his family and was invited to Harvard to talk about some of his research. This cool email signature is oddly eclectic, yet calculated.
Strickland
Strickland is an enigma to the students of Hill Valley High. He’s always acting grumpy and calling students “Slackers.” He also seemingly hasn’t aged a day in the last 30 years. Strickland has a “Nickel’s worth of free advice” for everyone which is why he’s written a guest editorial for the Telegraph. His email signature is clean and dull – just like himself, apart from that painful disclaimer. Are we surprised that Strickland would have one of those off putting and highly unnecessary disclaimers in his email signature?
Biff Tannen
Biff is an all around butt-head. He and his gang call the shots at Hill Valley High School, so getting on their bad side is not the best idea. He’s using his email signature to find some new cronies. Biff doesn’t use correct capitalization or spelling – his writing is… not good (George does all his homework).
George McFly
George McFly has found success in writing Sci-Fi novels including the book everybody’s raving about – A Match Made In Space. This week, he’s stopping by Cafe 80’s for an exclusive book signing. Tickets are going fast – get yours today! George keeps it simple with his cool email signature, touting his acclamation and advertising his mailing list.
“Goldie” Wilson
After working in a diner for several years, Goldie went to night school and worked his butt off to become “The Most Powerful Man In Hill Valley.” He proved everyone wrong by becoming the mayor, and now he’s running for re-election. A vote for Goldie is a vote for honesty, decency and integrity! Goldie has quite a few calls-to-action here, including a personal story and a call-to-arms for volunteers, all in addition to his campaign. Goldie is big on building brand awareness!
Marty McFly
Oh Marty. This slacker, wannabe rockstar and amateur time traveler just can’t seem to catch a break. After bombing out of the Hill Valley Battle of the Bands, Marty is turning to the road as a means to get famous. Marty’s email signature says it all. He wants you – to book The Pinheads at your next party. They’re “pretty darn loud” as Huey Lewis once told him but they’re pretty darn good, too.
Let us know if you think we got their email signatures right and what you would add! Better yet, you could make your own Back to the Future Email Signature or Campaign and send it to us. We’d love to see them!
For more email signature samples (the good and the bad) or tips on how to roll email signatures out to your entire company, request a demo or check out our most recent resource below.
Last Friday, our CEO Dan was featured on Episode 20 of #ThePawdcast. This digital marketing podcast focuses on entrepreneurship, startups, creativity, innovation and more. In an overview of Dan’s episode, the hosts mentioned their favorite part of the show is hearing what makes people tick, what they are most passionate about and why they do what they do.
The show is hosted by Joshua Davidson, the 22-year-old tycoon that heads up ChopDawg, a marketing & design studio that helps entrepreneurs turn their great app ideas into reality. We had the privilege, nay the pleasure, of speaking with Joshua and Captain Eddie Contento (if you watch the episode on YouTube, you’ll understand why this is funny), ChopDawg’s Executive Branding Director.
The recording is a little over an hour, so we compiled a list of our key takeaways for those of you who would prefer a 10-minute read to a 60-minute listen.
Key Takeaways:
1. The best business models are the ones that are “Duh” ideas. If you have a brain blast moment, and when you share your story with people and they give you the “duh, why didn’t anyone think of this before?!” know that you are onto something big.
2. In order to build a business, you have to do three things: sell the product, build the product and support your customer. We hired a kick-ass VP of Sales, VP of Product and VP of Customer Success right away and then built a team around them.
3. How did Sigstr win its first customers? Dan called every marketer that he knew and pitched the idea. He asked if he went out and built the product, would they buy it? For everyone that said yes – when the product had been built he reached back out. He was able to gauge the interest of the ideal audience before making the investment in a solution.
4. A majority of big marketing technology purchases (think ESP or CRM) have a slower implementation process and a longer timeline to see success. Marketers are looking for “quick wins” that are impactful in a meaningful way. Sigstr is a quick win – we come in at a low price point, we can be implemented within minutes and we make a quick impact.
5. Email has, according to some, been dying for decades. But in terms of external communications, nothing has come close to replacing the need for email. Internally, we understand that Slack and HipChat are taking over the form of communication. This allows businesses to really focus on the most critical use of email – your communications with your prospects, customers, partners, investors and other important contacts.
6. At Sigstr, we change our campaigns weekly. We pump out new content constantly. While this is what we do, the rate at which you update your campaigns is dependent upon your content marketing strategy. What is most important to you? What provides the most value to your audience? Once you hone in on that, you can have a better idea as to what Sigstr campaigns you should create and how frequently it needs to be updated.
7. The number one most crucial piece of building a startup from the ground up is hiring the right people. Hire people you trust. Every single Sigstr employee to this point has been found through a referral. When you are an entrepreneur starting out on your own, you try to do everything. But ask for help with hiring – your people are your biggest asset and you want to get that right the first time.
8. Revision:Dan said that his biggest “failure” from his first venture was hiring a contractor because he didn’t know how to manage expectations, what was important to him, and the contractor wasn’t an equity partner. Upon further reflection, Dan wants to share how critically important consultants are at the right stageof a startup. It is important to understand your MVP (minimum viable product), the point in which your product is developed with sufficient enough features to satisfy early adopters, before you take the step to hire a contractor.
If you want to hear more from the guys behind this digital marketing podcast, follow Chop Dawg Studios, Joshua and Eddie on Twitter.
Need another digital marketing podcast to listen to? Here are a few others Sigstr has been featured on this year:
Going on 5 months as a Sales Development Representative (SDR) at Sigstr, not a day goes by that I don’t learn something new. Last week was no exception.
TechPoint, an organization that promotes and accelerates the growth of Indiana’s tech community, gave 17 individuals the opportunity to shadow SDRs (sales development representatives) from 4 tech companies around Indianapolis. Officially, that program is called “Sales Bootcamp”, and it provides an opportunity for these 17 individuals to jump right in and experience the everyday life of a SDR.
A Recap of the Week
Sigstr was lucky enough to be 1 of these 4 tech companies, and hosted the 17 “campers” last week. Since Sigstr currently has 3 full-time SDR’s (including myself), we divided the 17 campers into 3 teams. Each of us served as the team leader for these 3 groups, and overlooked 6 individuals that have never been in sales. We introduced them to the tools we use and best practices when prospecting.
The week kicked off with a crash course on how to operate Sigstr’s 2 main prospecting tools, Datanyze and SalesLoft. They received a better understanding of how to make cold calls, form their own Sigstr sales message, and how to respond to interested prospects via phone and/or email.
This took a lot of trial and error throughout the week, but we were perfectly fine with that. We learn by trial and error everyday, as a SDR team and as a high growth company. Even though the sales pitches weren’t perfect at first, we made a huge amount of progress throughout the week (and even scheduled some demos). The week long bootcamp was for the campers, but it’s safe to say that the Sigstr SDR team may have learned more from this experience.
A Learning Experience for Both Sides
Fresh out of college, I would never expect to oversee 7 individuals that are considering a career in sales. To be honest, as of right now, I’m not even sure sales is for me and my future. I’m continuing to figure it out (which I’ve learned is perfectly okay). As said before, I’m learning something new everyday in order to excel in my position and contribute to Sigstr’s success the best way I can.
At Sigstr, we pride ourselves on being curious and always learning. That mindset helped me with my 7 campers, answering their questions (the same questions I had 5 months ago when I first started) and using what I have learned to help my team.
Last week gave me a sense of where I’m at in sales and how much I have to grow. Not only in my position, but as a person that would like to lead others in the future. It was great to see all of the campers’ progress during their time here at Sigstr. On behalf of the SDR team, and everyone here at Sigstr, we wish the best for all 17 campers. Thanks for working hard and making the week fun. Cheers!
The B2B SaaS industry is no stranger to buzzwords. Every article, tweet, webpage, blog post, webinar, podcast and blab is littered with a litany of in-your-face industry jargon. It is unescapable. We live in a world of newness – new applications, new platforms, new concepts, new solutions for old problems. Along with all of the new technology, comes a new set of words that, when used appropriately, can help you sound more knowledgeable on your topic. With this ever-evolving climate, it is difficult to stay up to date on all the latest buzzwords. As a tech company focusing on email signature management, Sigstr is an offender in the buzzword game.
Here is a list of our most frequently used buzzwords, heard in and around the Sigstr office, and their meanings:
1. “Bandwidth”
Use:“I don’t have the bandwidth to get that done this week.”
What it means:Bandwidth is associated with your workload. Saying “I don’t have the bandwidth” is a nicer way of saying “I am too busy”.
2. “Tee up”
Use:“I would like to tee up a discussion with ‘x’ on how Sigstr can help streamline brand consistency in their employee email signatures.”
What it means:Plan, organize or carry out an event. Basically, you are just trying to schedule a conversation to learn more about Sigstr.
3. “Low hanging fruit”
Use:“We need to go after the low hanging fruit before we tackle x project.”
What it means:Tasks or goals that are easily achievable. This can refer to either “easy win” business or simple tasks to complete.
4. “Sync”
Use:“Let’s sync up on this before the end of the week.”
What it means:To coordinate something with someone else to make sure all parties are on the same page and operating on the same level.
5. “We’ll talk offline”
Use:“We’ll talk offline about this later.”
What it means: This one really cracks me up for several reasons. The first being, it sounds silly. Aren’t all in-person conversations technically offline? The term essentially means you want to discuss the topic in a smaller group at a later date. The second being, the antithesis of the phrase alludes to the classic scene in “The Internship” as Vince Vaughn’s character continually refers to being online as “on the line”.
6. “Take your temperature”
Use: “I want to take your temperature on this.”
What it means:This is a softer ask than “gauge your interest” in the sales process. It is frequently used at the end of a call in place of “well what did you think?”
7. “Dig in”
Use:“We’re always happy to dig in and see what we can do to help.”
What it means:To dig in implies to take time to learn more from both parties. The sales representative wants to learn more about the prospective client’s problems, wants and needs, and the prospective client wants to learn more about the sales representatives company/service.
8. “In real-time”
Use: “Once a campaign is activated or email signature is changed, signatures are instantly updated company-wide in real time.”
What it means:This is another one that cracked me up the first time I heard it. “Real-time as opposed to what, fake time?” In real-time is used to reference the instantaneous nature of our signature marketing platform’s updates.
9. “Optimize”
Use:“Signatures and campaigns are optimized across desktop and mobile devices.”
What it means:I hear this word 10 times a day around the office. From the marketing team (guilty as charged), from sales representatives as they are on calls and in reference to copy on the site or in blog posts. To optimize is to make the best of or make the most effective use of ____. We optimize your email signature.
10. “Leverage”
Use: “Leverage Direct Communication”
What it means:This was pulled directly from the top line of our “Product” page on the site. In Giant. Bold. Letters. This is one of the most frequently used words in reference to Sigstr’s value proposition. Leverage is to use some quality or advantage to achieve a desired effect or result.
11. “Streamline”
Use:“…and help you streamline your branding and content distribution via the employee email signature.”
What it means:To streamline is to make an organization or system more efficient and effective by employing faster or simpler working methods. This word is used in multiple contexts. Yesterday, I said I wanted to “streamline the decision making process” in reference to deciding where to go to lunch.
There they are. The first step is acceptance, right? We’re guilty of using each and every one of these, and we aren’t afraid to admit it. However, we know there are more. What is missing from our list? Tweet us your most used buzzwords at @SigstrApp.
And if you want to see more unique aspects of the Sigstr culture and our email signature management app, read these related blog posts:
A picture is worth a thousand words, so the saying goes. While us marketers love a good infographic or chart, the saying holds true in almost every context. In a recent article on JeffBullas.com, author Savannah Louie says “words aren’t enough any more.” And we agree with her! In fact, 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared each day, according to an Aol & Nielsen content sharing study. Wow, that’s a TON of content consumers have access to view. How do they decide what to dig into and what to skip?
As marketers, we need to be increasingly more and more intentional about standing out from the crowd. While words can be incredibly powerful, we need to capture the attention of our followers in new, graphic-centric ways that give us an edge. The article authored by Savannah goes on to say that, “With the increase of photo, video, infographics and screenshots – today’s marketers are discovering the power behind imagery in content marketing.”
Why Images Are King in Content
“Communication coupled with imagery – photographs or video – is easier to process and more entertaining than words on a blank canvas,” says Savannah. Forbes Insight reports that nearly 60% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, if both are available on the same page.
Still skeptical? Check out these interesting stats from an Inc. article:
The average person gets distracted in 8 seconds, though a mere 2.8 seconds is enough to distract some people
People form a first impression in a mere 50 milliseconds
An estimated 84 percent of communications will be visual by 2018
An estimated 79 percent of internet traffic will be video content by 2018
Posts that include images produce 650 percent higher engagement than text-only posts
People are 85 percent more likely to buy a product after viewing a product video
Posts with videos attract 3X more links than text-only posts
“People remember 80% of what they see or do, versus 20% of what they read. Imagery in content marketing is a “must” if marketers want to make a lasting impression on consumers.”
3 Tips to Creating Powerful Visual Content
In Savannah’s article, she points out 3 tips to make content more powerful using visuals:
1. Pick the right type of content
“Stock photos may be an easy way to add a visual element to a blog post, but there are better ways to execute visual marketing,” said Savannah. “Adding an infographic or a short video outlining key points can make content much more meaningful to the consumer.”
“However, if your hands are tied and you’re at a loss for original images, using a relevant stock photo is better than completely foregoing a visual element. Reports show that 40% of people respond better to text coupled with visuals than plain text. Although stock photos may not be ideal or original, these images will garner more attention than no visuals at all.”
2. Make a call-to-action
Savannah also shares that, “Visual marketing can be an asset because of its ability to inspire consumers to take action. Marketers should ensure that they are taking advantage of this capability by including a call-to-action (CTA) with their visual marketing.”
“Not all CTA’s have to be obvious. By drafting creative, stimulating content, consumers will feel compelled to share your work with others. By simply providing a solid piece of imagery, you can inspire your audience to advocate for you without actually having to ask.”
3. Be aware of omnichannel marketing
“You can tweet the best video content with links to landing pages on your website… But if your site is not optimized for mobile, this means nothing to the consumer trying to access your site from their smartphone,” commented Savannah.
“Consumers should be able to access all touch points of your company without a hitch. Encountering an incorrectly linked landing page or receiving conflicting messages across two separate platforms can be a major turnoff for consumers. Ensure that you are producing seamless content with omnichannel marketing to avoid confusing or frustrating customers.”
The Power of Imagery in Employee Email
Want another opportunity for your marketing and content to cut through the noise? Your employees send thousands of emails every single day, each with an opportunity to be visually appealing. Use Sigstr for your html email signatures so company branding is consistent, and employee email becomes an owned channel for marketing and employee communications.
Easily add clickable call-to-action banners to your html email signatures. After initial setup, these banners update automatically across your entire organization anytime a new campaign is activated.
Sigstr’s email signature generator allows your employees to use the power of imagery in html email signatures. For marketers, that means promoting the newest piece of content, an upcoming webinar or important event, or a company initiative in a visually compelling way that’s displayed with every single employee email sent.
Need Some “Sigspiration”? (see what we did there?)
Check out a few of our favorite examples below.
Ready to start including compelling imagery through your employees’ html email signatures? Request a free demo today.
Want more information first? Check out our latest helpful resources:
Employee email signatures – something that is usually viewed as a pain to facilitate rather than an opportunity. Sigstr helps organizations leverage employee email as an owned channel for Marketing and employee communications. This is why Sigstr exists – we show Marketers the hidden potential of employee email (and the simple but powerful effects of centrally managed email signatures).
We love telling this story, the story of “why Sigstr”. The best way to tell this story is in a 60-second video, and we’re proud to be releasing that new video this week.
Be sure to check it out below, and scroll further down for the video brief!
Tone:
Modern, friendly, professional, and clean.
Script:
Sending an email, it’s a small task with enormous potential. In fact, the average employee sends 10,000 emails every year, and each of those emails has the power to grow relationships, inspire action, and leave a lasting brand impression. As your company expands, so do the opportunities to tell your story, opportunities to build something great. Sigstr was founded on this belief. We offer simple, centralized control of employee email signatures, ensuring an on-brand close with every sent email. And, interactive banners customized for specific Campaigns and individual departments. Unlock an entirely new Marketing channel. With Sigstr, every employee in your organization leverages and promotes the incredible content you pour your heart into. Request a free demo today – and magnify the incredible potential of employee email with Sigstr.
Goal:
This video should explain why consistent email signatures can benefit organizations of all sizes. It is a brief overview of the Sigstr email signature platform and illustrates the hidden potential of employee email and how it can be used as an owned channel for Marketing and employee communications. It also portrays the simple but powerful effects of centrally managed employee email signatures.
Target Audience:
Marketers, owners of a company’s brand, and IT managers.
TechPoint, an Indianapolis-based group that is dedicated to promoting and accelerating the growth of our local tech community, has released the 2nd Annual Tech 25 Class to recognize the movers and shakers of the Indianapolis tech world.
“The Tech 25 is a prestigious selection of twenty-five individuals who are critical and exceptional performers helping to grow our community’s tech and tech-enabled companies, but who — not being the CEO or other top executives — don’t get celebrated publicly as often as they deserve.”
We are extremely proud to announce that our VP of Customer Success, Dave Duke, has been recognized as a member of this prestigious group. If you have ever had the pleasure of meeting Dave Duke, you understand why this recognition is not only very well earned, but it’s about dang time. We got a laugh out of this tweet from Zylo CEO, Eric Christopher:
If you have not met Dave, here is a brief look into why he is so deserving of this award:
Dave’s title says it all: Customer Success. If you make your customers more successful, your business will thrive. Dave’s unwavering dedication to the success of others has in turn fueled his own extraordinary professional success. Greg Kraios, who previously worked with Dave at ExactTarget and is currently the Founder and CEO of 250ok, gave this glowing review:
“Dave was an Account Manager who focused on our SMB clients during my tenure at ExactTarget. Although this entailed him having to be responsible for a high volume of clients, he was able to give each one his personal attention and care. His passion for their success was unparalleled. In addition to being a tremendous asset to the company, Dave is a great guy to have around. Always smiling, happy and positive.”
Dave spent over a decade at ExactTarget/Salesforce ensuring the success of customers before joining Sigstr as one of our first hires. At ExactTarget, Dave grew from an Account Manager to a Director of Customer Success, and along the way, he learned what it takes to scale Customer Success for one of the world’s premier marketing technology companies.
Dave has brought that knowledge to Sigstr. But more importantly, he is a catalyst behind the energy, empathy, and curiosity that has fueled Sigstr’s growth. Dave’s passion for the success of others overflows into the workplace. If you spend time with Dave, you come away happy you did so. He wants to know what’s most important to you and then works to help you move that forward. He fuels the creative fire for marketing. Every week, Dave makes time to sit down with his team to make sure they are happy. Not to make sure they are on track for their metrics, or they are being productive, just to make sure they are happy.
Sigstr is unbelievably lucky to have Dave Duke and we are so proud that he is receiving this recognition. No one is more deserving.
Congrats, Dave!
(Dave is also a key author on our blog – check out some of his posts below)
Dr. Seuss once wrote, “A person is a person, no matter how small.” At Sigstr, we believe that a win is a win, no matter how small. Every win deserves to be celebrated. Some wins merit leaving the office for celebratory Kilroy’s pitchers or Nada margaritas (2 of our favorite go-to watering holes in downtown Indy). Others simply require a Sigstr celebration staple: the walk-up song.
Background & History:
The walk-up song originated in the very beginning, with the original 3 man team of BDRs (business development reps). We have a demo whiteboard in the office that keeps track of how many demos (a meeting with a prospect where we walk them through our email signature app) have been scheduled by each rep. Walking up to the board to record your newest scheduled demo is a celebration in and of itself, but our VP of Product, Sam Smith, upped the ante with the introduction of the concept of a walk-up song (side note: this isn’t the first Sigstr tradition Sam has started, read more about that here).
As each BDR would triumphantly sashay up to the board to add to their demo tally, Sam would play that team members walk-up song. It. Is. Awesome. And this tradition has carried on from when we were a 7 person company all the way to now.
Every member of the sales team has a designated song to be played when they get a win. Sales Development reps get their walk-up songs played when they schedule demos, our AE’s get their songs played when they close deals and our VP of Sales, Kevin Vanes, and CEO, Dan Hanrahan, get their songs played when a partnership opportunity has been agreed upon or they have helped close business. You can see (and make fun of) our sales team’s walk-up songs below.
Celebratory traditions are not limited to the sales team, they exist in every division of Sigstr. The marketing team plays the rap air horn any time we make advancements on the influencer front or a MQL (marketing qualified lead) comes through. If you’re not familiar with the rap air horn, check out this app. Due to an extraordinarily overenthusiastic keeper of the rap air horn (me), we have reached a point that any time we play the horn everyone stops what they are doing and shouts “hot lead, hot lead!”
The product team celebrates new releases and product launches by bringing our DOMO robot to life. Product launches are especially exciting and important to celebrate. Every new launch makes our email signature app better, faster, stronger. The DOMO robot’s dancing can be seen in the GIF to the right.
Like we said, a win is a win, no matter how small. We truly celebrate everything in our own little ways and make sure each team member feels appreciated for their hard work. It is vital to the success of our email signature app and the team. A start-up mentality and sales-driven culture with an office environment that’s exciting and fun to be a part of everyday – we are a 24 man wolf pack and every single one of us is critically important to Sigstr’s success. We celebrate the little wins because everyone’s little wins amount to big wins for Sigstr.
What’s Your Celebratory Tradition?
Do you have unique celebration traditions like we do? We want to hear about them! Tweet us at @SigstrApp and let us know how you celebrate your wolf pack and their accomplishments!
Or better yet, let us know what your walk up song would be!
If you’re a marketer, then surely you’ve heard the statement: “Email is Dead” many times over in the past few years. In fact, just last year an article appearing on Inc Magazine entitled, “Why Email Will Be Obsolete By 2020”, John Brandon made the following statement, “I’m predicting that a new communication channel will replace email by 2020. In fact, there are already signs that business is starting to move away from email as a primary form of digital communication. We have so many alternatives. You can send a text message or a DM on Twitter. You can drop someone a note on Facebook or start a chat.”
Sure, it’s true that the email channel is changing – and that’s a great thing, isn’t it? As the world of technology evolves, so do the options for how we can communicate with our co-workers, families, and friends. We’re sure glad we’re still not mailing letters or picking up the landline phone whenever we need to connect with someone. Calling and sending mail through the postal service certainly has it’s place – just like email does and always will. New channels are being added on a regular basis, and those channels add value in certain areas. Take Slack for instance: the value it adds to internal teams is incredible.
But is that it? Email is dying because other channels are coming on to the scene and adding value, too? Let’s dig in further.
Email Is Alive & Well
If email is dead, then why do we see the volume and opportunity growing with each passing year? According to a recent TechCrunch article entitled, “You Can’t Kill Email”, the channel has never been more alive and well. The article states that,
“Radicati’s most recent Email Statistics Report estimates that by 2019, the number of worldwide email users will exceed 2.9 billion — that’s up 10 percent from 2015. Additionally, the number of business emails sent and received per user per day is also projected to increase, suggesting global email will rise 14 percent over the same period.”
Why is email still growing so fast, even if other prominent communication channels like Slack and Facebook and even Twitter DMs are being added to our list of options? The article states that, “The truth is our use of email is only increasing, because the way we use it is evolving to help us better manage the everyday to-do lists in our work and personal lives. Email is still an integral part of the way we communicate today, and the reasons are many.”
We couldn’t agree more with that statement. None of us communicate via email the way we did when it was first introduced as a channel (and thank goodness!). We can use email as a formal channel, an informal channel, and even a transactional or marketing channel. The uses of email are across the board and will continue to evolve in the future.
Does your team use Slack? Or a project management platform? Ironically, Slack sends an email to you whenever you miss a direct mention. How about Salesforce? Have you noticed that the CRM platform, which tried to eliminate email in the sales process, eventually added Outlook plug-ins to accommodate for email needs?
Take Advantage of Email Volume
If you can’t beat them, join them. Email isn’t going away anytime soon, so how can your organization take advantage of this growing channel and its many benefits?
Consider this statistic:on average, an employee will send approximately 10,000 emails each year, so a company of 100 employees will send 1M emails per year and a company of 500 employees will send 5M emails a year! Can you see how this channel can play an important role in your marketing mix? According to a recent article by OfficeTeam, it may be one of the most overlooked marketing channels.
Sigstr’s email signature generator was created to tap into the enormous marketing opportunity that lives in the email signature layout. The email signature has been getting much more attention over the past year as marketers and companies of all shapes and sizes are beginning to see email signatures as an important marketing asset. The employee email signature is quite possibly the #1 place where your company’s brand is viewed most often – maybe even more than your company website.
Why not use this high powered channel to promote your newsletter, success stories, past projects, events and job fairs, trade shows, and new diverse service or product offerings? In addition to promoting your company’s most important initiatives, use Sigstr Signatures to ensure that every employee’s email signature layout meets brand standards and formatting requirements. Email is a powerful engine for companies of all kinds – use it for your brand’s advantage. And not only that, it’s a channel that can be measured meticulously and improved upon almost immediately.
Here are a few of our favorite email signature layout examples:
Request a demo today to see how Sigstr can help with your company’s email signature layout. Or, click below to access our latest resource:
It’s a question asked frequently by prospects. With so many marketing mediums already at play, it can be difficult to imagine adding another channel to the mix. After all, isn’t leveraging a company website, blog, and countless social profiles enough?
The truth of the matter is that we live in the digital era and new ways of engagement emerge every day. In order to stay relevant, businesses have to embrace a multi-channel marketing strategy to create a cohesive and impactful brand identity. Instead of shying away from new medias, marketers must embrace the opportunity to capture an audience’s attention in innovative ways.
Finding the perfect balance of mediums can be complicated. When evaluating a new channel, like Sigstr and your work email signature, it’s important to understand channel strengths and weaknesses in relation to your overall marketing strategy. There are a variety of factors to consider. Many owned medias like websites and social accounts give you the benefit of control and cost efficiency, but have no guarantees. Paid media such as display ads are easy to scale, but suffer from declining response rates. Earned media is the most credible, but can be hard to control. Marketers are tasked with finding the perfect channel combination to create an effective and memorable audience experience.
Sigstr is unique in the fact that it is an owned channel that is utilized by individual employees during one-to-one interactions. Most owned medias like websites, blogs, and social profiles are promoted from a single source and the audience consumes the content at a single location. Sigstr provides the opportunity to promote content during thousands of individual email interactions with prospects, customers, partners, and important stakeholders. Therefore, every single employee using Sigstr in their work email signature is a brand advocate and promoter of the company’s most important marketing initiatives. The added bonus is that leveraging direct relationships to distribute content establishes a level of trust uncommon in owned media.
So, IS Sigstr a needed marketing component? The answer depends on your goals and objectives. At the end of the day, marketing channels must work together to create a compelling story. Individuals consume content in a variety of ways and it takes repetition for a message to resonate. If you’re not seeing the response you’d like from current marketing efforts, you may need to revamp your channel strategy to include the addition of new medias like Sigstr.
Check out these helpful resources to learn more about Sigstr and how your work email signature can be used to distribute your content:
Events rock. Conferences are the best place to learn from and rub elbows with the best and brightest marketing thought leaders in the business. Finding the right events for your company to attend can be a tall task, as there are hundreds of thousands of conferences put on in the U.S. each year. We love events. Good things happen when we have face-to-face time in front of our most important prospects, showing them tips and tricks with their html email signature template. It’s a big part of our marketing strategy, so we put a lot of time and effort into identifying where we need to be.
Below is a list of the top 16 Digital Marketing events we’ve compiled and put on our radar for the 2016 and 2017 year:
Is there an event we missed that you think should have made our list? Let us know! Tweet us at @SigstrApp and we will update the post accordingly!
And if you need a new creative way to promote an event your team will be exhibiting at, or hosting yourself, here is some inspiration for your html email signature template.
Well, what can I say? I graduated. It’s over. I did it.
I know most of you are saying, “Hey, any idiot could do that.”
“Well, it was tough for me. So back off!” (Billy Madison, anyone?)
There are three things that will be imprinted in my mind in relation to graduating from the greatest college out there (Indiana University – Go Hoosiers!) and starting my career. Surprisingly, it does not include walking across the stage and receiving my diploma.
Taking my last college final (it took me 12 minutes) and the pure nirvana I felt subsequently
The palate-pleasing beer and its name (Nefarious Nectar) I shared with my girlfriend right after that last college final
Receiving a call from Sigstr‘s VP of Sales, Kevin Vanes, with an offer to join the Sigstr team as a Business Development Representative
I interviewed with over ten different companies and received four job offers. This being said not to stroke my ego or toot my own horn, but to point out the amount of opportunities I sorted through to find the perfect one. This was also pretty tough, as I was commuting back and forth to IU’s campus in Bloomington four times a week and working between ten and twenty hours on the weekend at St. Joseph’s Brewery. Adding job interviews into that schedule was difficult to manage. Note to self: breathe, it’s over.
I talked with Kevin for about ten minutes on the phone and promised him that I was ready to learn and ultimately come in and work my little hiney off. I consider myself to have a decent amount of Sales experience for my age after an internship with the Indiana Pacers (side note: a Sigstr customer with some cool email signatures) and a few other “Sales” jobs throughout college. However, at the time, if you asked me to define marketing, buyer personas, or lead nurturing in an intelligent manner, it would result in a prompt answer of “uhhhhh”.
My job title is “Sales” or a “Business Development Representative” depending on who you ask, but really I like to look at it as a hybrid between Sales and Marketing. Drew Kelley (that tall guy pictured above) introduced me to Sigstr, and likes to define us as “smarketers”. See what we did there? My goal everyday is to help Marketers drive brand consistency and unlock an unused Marketing channel through cool email signatures.
Today marks my one-month anniversary here at Sigstr. During that time, I’ve gone through a crash course on Marketing, Sales, tech, how to iron a shirt, and everything else in between to prepare myself and close the knowledge gap. Google searches included (but were not limited to):
“What is demand generation?”
“100 Marketing terms that every Marketer should know”
“What do cool email signatures look like?”
“How to be an adult”
Everyday, I learn something new. Everyday is an opportunity to gain knowledge and get better at my craft.
Sigstr is a team of about twenty of the most hard-working, fun to be around, tech savvy, individuals that I have the opportunity to go shoulder to shoulder with (literally…we’re touching shoulders and need more office space…and its coming). Sigstr is a growing force to be reckoned with – which you can read more about in last week’s press release. Every army needs a general, and I can’t say enough good things about our leader. Dan Hanrahan, Sigstr CEO and Founder, has taught us all to work hard and celebrate our achievements (you can read more about that here).
We’re a scrappy group, helping marketers craft cool email signatures and open up a new digital Marketing channel. When you think about an email signature, you may question how something so simple can have a huge impact on a brand. That’s fair…I get it. But if you think about the average amount of emails one employee sends annually (10,000…yes 10,000), you can start to see the opportunity it presents as a new channel for your digital marketing toolbox.
With that, I’ll finish this post the same way I started it…with a quote. “If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.”
What kind of marketer doesn’t like stats? It’s part of our DNA – we LOVE statistics about marketing in general: programs, channels, and every other stat under the sun that helps us do our jobs better. As marketers, we know that every dollar can (and should) be measured, every lead matters, and every new deal should be accounted for where it was originated. We measure conversion rates and open rates and click-through-rates and displays and… the list could literally go on forever.
But all of that marketing data can be paralyzing. If you try to measure everything, you really measure nothing at all, because it’s impossible to make changes and improve data points if everything is a focus.
So when our team ran across a new article entitled, “110 Digital Marketing Stats” via gShift, a company that’s built around content performance, we got excited. Our team at Sigstr identified our top 13 favorite digital marketing stats from the post, and we added 2 extras as a bonus under “employee email”.
Let’s dig into the stats:
SEO
60% of all organic clicks go to the top 3 organic search results (Hubspot)
Those involved in the B2B buying process are already 57% of the way down the path to a decision before they’ll actually perform an action on your site (Think With Google)
MOBILE
51.7% of emails were opened on Smartphones and 15% were opened on Tablets, with 33.3% opened on desktop/laptop computers according to Movable Ink’s US Consumer Device Preference Report for Q3 2015 (Movable Ink)
Users spent on average 1.8 hours on their smartphones every day and apps account for 89% of their mobile media time (Social Media Today)
CONTENT MARKETING
On average, 75% of ideas are turned into a content asset, published once and never reused or repurposed again (Kapost)
72% of marketers worldwide said relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic (MarketingProfs)
94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn as part of their content strategy. Other popular platforms include Twitter (87%), Facebook (84%), YouTube (74%) and Google+ (62%) (Content Marketing Institute)
INFLUENCER MARKETING
59% of marketers are planning to increase their influencer marketing budgets over the next 12 months (Tomoson)
1 in 3 people come to a brand through a recommendation (Brandon Murphy)
SOCIAL
Buffer reported for its user base, tweets with images received 150% more retweets than tweets without images (Kiss Metrics)
ANALYTICS & REPORTING
27%of B2B marketers say they are effectively tracking content utilization metrics (Aberdeen)
GENERAL MARKETING
33%of marketers were not sure which digital channel makes the biggest positive impact on revenue (MarketingProfs)
Gartner’s 2015-2016 CMO report shows that 98% of marketers believe digital and offline marketing are merging and marketing strategies will need to reflect this (Gartner)
EMPLOYEE EMAIL
In 2015, the number of worldwide email users will be nearly 2.6 billion. By the end of 2019, the number of worldwide email users will increase to over 2.9 billion (Radicati)
In 2015, the number of business emails sent and received per user per day totals 122 emails per day (Radicati)
No matter what kind of marketer you are, your role is rooted in statistics: what’s working, what’s not working, where should you and your team be spending your time and budget? Maybe you weren’t considering it, but employee email could be a necessary addition to your digital marketing mix. The statistics around volume are hard to overlook – so why not take advantage of it?
Try pulling your own numbers for some of the above benchmark statistics and learn what channels and programs work best for your team. And if you’d like to see how examples of the best email signatures and how they can help your Marketing team distribute content (and boost your metrics), we’d love to help!
Sign up for a free demo today to see Sigstr’s best email signatures or click below to access our latest resource:
B2B Growth is a podcast dedicated to helping B2B executives achieve explosive growth. Run by Sweet Fish Media, which executes B2B sales processes on companies’ behalf, the B2B Growth Podcast hits on relevant topics including “Email List Building or Segmentation?”, “Sales Call Horror Stories”, “Account-based Intelligence”, and many more topics important to B2B executives.
Did you know the average employee sends 10,000 emails per year? That’s 28 emails per day, or 28 daily impressions that prospects, customers, and users are having with your brand. Email signature etiquetteis massively important and an easy win to tackle. In this post, we’ll highlight some of Dan’s key points, but be sure to check out the entire podcast to learn more. Let’s hear what Dan has to say:
How is Email Signature Marketing Defined?
According to Dan, “Anything in terms of marketing starts with the audience and reach. The most frequent touchpoint prospects and customers have with a brand is through the email channel. The average employee sends at least 28 emails a day, so an organization of just 100 employees will send about 1M emails to their most important audience. And what does every email include? An email signature.”
Dan explains that there are 2 critical components to email signature etiquette:
An on-brand experience across every employee, which includes traditional information like name, company, and contact information.
A meaningful call-to-action that takes advantage of the white space that’s underutilized to promote your company’s most important initiatives. Marketers can inject content into that area that gives them the ability to update employee email signatures without bugging employees and taking them away from their day-to-day work.
Awesome Customer Stories
SalesLoft: “One of the best use cases for Sigstr has traditionally been event marketing,” explained Dan. “As SalesLoft was preparing for its upcoming annual conference, all employees included a Sigstr Campaign which promoted Rainmaker. The team was already pouring their hearts into the event, so it was easy to integrate Sigstr in the marketing mix.”
Lesson.ly: “The hard part about sales is getting the attention of prospects,” Dan explained. “Often times Lesson.ly doesn’t even meet the customer’s team in-person before they come on board. Lesson.ly has an incredible culture that’s fun, energetic, and pretty unique, but often times their customers don’t get to experience that. The Sigstr Campaign for Lesson.ly includes a fun ‘Meet the Team’ image, which points to a blog post that talks about the Lesson.ly culture and how important that is to their mission. Just a few weeks after launching the Campaign, the sales team already had 3 companies raise their hand for that initial conversation, as tracked via the Sigstr Campaign. From those 3 opportunities alone, the team was able to track $30,000 in new business dollars generated by the campaign.”
How Can the Entire Company Become Marketers?
“At Sigstr, we believe each role across the company has a marketing responsibility,” explained Dan. “Whether you’re on the HR team recruiting for a career fair or on the sales team promoting a new video or case study, everyone is involved. With Sigstr, the marketer can determine which Campaigns should be associated to which groups or departments so employees always have a Sigstr Campaign promoting something they care about.”
What Advice Do You Have For Companies Experimenting?
“Start experimenting now, whether you invest in a tool or not,” recommended Dan. “Why not try standardizing your email signature etiquette and including an image and call-to-action? First and foremost, find out if it works for your company. The best thing you can do is experiment and try out various Campaigns.”
Click herefor the full rundown of the podcast (including the recording).
As a company or organization in the business services realm, you have a unique challenge as you don’t have a physical product. Instead, you have superior services or solutions and you rely heavily on the relationships that your sales and customer success teams build. You have created a successful company on your people and your brand and both of these are very important to you.
We wrote an ebook that covers 7 clever tips to boost your business services brand with an email signature builder, and today we’ll highlight the last tip, #7.
What will make customers or clients select your company versus your competitors? Most choose the service provider that offers the greatest value for their money. In many competitive markets, theres price parity among the principal players. So the best way to win business is not to cut your prices or rates, but instead add products or services that elevate your offer (making it too good to resist). This is called bundling.
Take time to develop a service bundle that you know will appeal to your best prospects. You may need to test various offers until you find a winning combination; then modify your offer periodically to keep your incentives fresh.
Ready for the Clever Tip?
When was the last time you received a well packaged, branded box with useful information and beneficial tools inside? Our point exactly. While online advertising can be effective, many companies have completely forgotten about the time-tested offline methods such as direct mail marketing. Heres why your business services company should give it a try:
According to a study conducted by DMA, when direct mail is sent to an existing customer the response rate is 3.4%. The response rate for email is 0.12%.
This week’s clever tip is brought to you by Sigstr. Ready to get started with the power of an email signature builder? Sign up for Sigstr and start your free 30-day trial today.
TechPoint
Want another opportunity for your marketing and content to cut through the noise? Your employees send thousands of emails every single day, each with an opportunity to be visually appealing. Use Sigstr for your html email signatures so
TechPoint
The product team celebrates new releases and product launches by bringing our DOMO robot to life. Product launches are especially exciting and important to celebrate. Every new launch makes our email signature app better, faster, stronger. The DOMO robot’s dancing can be seen in the GIF to the right.
Well, what can I say? I graduated. It’s over. I did it.
Today marks my one-month anniversary here at Sigstr. During that time, I’ve gone through a crash course on Marketing, Sales, tech, how to iron a shirt, and everything else in between to prepare myself and close the knowledge gap. Google searches included (but were not limited to):
SalesLoft: “One of the best use cases for Sigstr has traditionally been event marketing,” explained Dan. “As 
The Sigstr Campaign for Lesson.ly includes a fun ‘Meet the Team’ image, which points to a blog post that talks about the Lesson.ly culture and how important that is to their mission. Just a few weeks after launching the Campaign, the sales team already had 3 companies raise their hand for that initial conversation, as tracked via the Sigstr Campaign.