Comments on: Is your email signature important?

By: Fred

Fred — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:57:05 +0000

Clive – I think simpler and focused is the way forward. You don’t need all that gumpf, just a mobile and land line, web address and some additional details will do.

By: clive

clive — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:45:20 +0000

Fred,
What conclusion have you arrived at since 2007?
Clive

By: becham

becham — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:00:30 +0000

I want them to see in one instant. THANKS

By: Sammy

Sammy — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:53:28 +0000

Thanks Fred. Light hearted read! Caps lock are my worst and I certainly get irritated when clients use caps locks to get there point across! I have to try very hard to not reply in the same manner.

By: Marketing Machine

Marketing Machine — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:36:23 +0000

I didn’t use to give much thought to this part of my employee “stationery”. Having been exposed to both consulting (small business) and other larger more “professional” enterprise I now believe it is a must.

It must be concise and it must sum up what you do and include a URL as well as a full set of contact details.

Good post.

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:46:20 +0000

Thanks Chris – I spotted that. It’s been changed subsequently. Since this post, I’ve thought quite a bit about the stationery and decided that the functionality of having lots of information far outweighs the aesthetic reason for having too little info. I’ve tweaked it so it looks better, but retained the extra bits like registrations numbers etc. for our international clients. Fred

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:42:01 +0000

Fred,

just on a quick note – your signature is inconsistent in terms of your phone numbers: why use the international format for the Tel.no. +27 (0)86… but not for the mobile phone 082 … and fax…???

-C-

By: Etienne

Etienne — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:59:14 +0000

Legally speaking, the disclaimer at the end of the signature is almost worthless measured against international authority (although not yet tested in SA). A disclaimer should appear as a simple hyperlink at the top of the message where you can see it before you read the email contents. I recently dropped the disclaimer from my work signature after reading an article on it on Buys.co.za.

The last comment is also valid in SA as the Close Corporations Act requires business correspondence to reflect the CC name at least, unless you are keen on attracting personal liability.

In general, I believe in keeping it simple. Good post.

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:34:46 +0000

Bear in mind that in some countries (such as the UK), an email signature is considered ‘Business Stationary’, so is required by law to have various pieces of information in it – Business Registered Address, Company Number, etc.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:28:38 +0000

Hi Alan

Can you define “weak”? This post has got a lot of people thinking about their signatures, and it’s certainly had more comments than many other posts here. Fred was honest enough to upload his own signature as a case study, and openly admits that he is re-thinking what it should contain.

As a matter of interest, which Ideate posts have you enjoyed? We can always try to write more of those.