Turn the End of Every Corporate Email Into a Valuable New Beginning

Offering personalized marketing is more complicated than it used to be. Consumers are more aware of how their data is being used. Regulations like GDPR prohibit businesses from unsolicited marketing. Third-party cookies have limited usage. Targeting and personalization are now under threat as data privacy concerns take center stage.

Media spending is also escalating, especially as we need to get highly targeted in our marketing efforts. Email marketing campaigns to specific lists only deliver limited effectiveness, with at best 20 percent open rates. And finally, there is a potential recession and global downturn right around the corner.

So how as marketing professionals are we to respond to all this? The answer is simple. You use a channel that you already have at your disposal. One that is highly targeted, reaches a wide audience, and is cost-effective. One you probably don’t even consider to be a marketing channel or at least one you have not optimized for such a purpose; corporate email.

Email is low cost, well-understood, and typically 100% of the people in your organization are already using it. Therefore, it has a unique power to communicate, and you can use it as a platform - a low-cost and straightforward deployment mechanism – not just for the message you want to send but a host of other things too.

The role of email in the current business landscape

No other communication tool, except perhaps the telephone, is as universal as email. After all, virtually everyone in the business world uses it. Everyone sends emails. Everyone reads emails. You’re almost guaranteed the ability to communicate with organizations via email.

The most accurate daily averages for office workers are around 121 business emails received and about 40 sent. Multiply those figures by the number of employees in a company, and you start to see the sheer volume of emails flying around out there. This is why you should see corporate emails as a critical piece of real estate for customer communications.

Consider the open rates for a second. You’re looking at between 90-100% when compared to email marketing. After all, when people exchange business emails with one another, they are often opened and very likely read. And what appears under a standard corporate email? A professional email signature.

A new communications channel

Of course, there’s a clear and logical reason for using email signatures. People want to know who they’re talking to over corporate email. It makes sense to include your name, job title, and phone number in every email you send. It’s the electronic equivalent of a business card for the 21st century.

But as you have already claimed this real estate, and it can’t be contested, why not go further than just providing your contact information. In fact, email signatures are an excellent way to broaden your social reach, promote your latest content, maintain brand consistency across all your email communications, and showcase and extend the reach of your key marketing communications activities.

How much does your company spend on advertising and screen real estate via other digital advertising channels? Marketers know how difficult it is to reduce marketing costs while increasing leads. So why not exploit the 40 opportunities per person per day you already have for free?

The value of email signatures arises from volume, trust, relevance, and targeting. As recipients read a corporate email, they are more likely to pay attention to any surrounding information. If something is displayed on your work email continuously, it guarantees an audience – and a large one. That means your signature will be seen repeatedly and frequently.

When a business email is known to be legitimate, and from a trusted sender, it will most likely be read. An email signature appended to a message already delivering valuable content provides your company with the perfect avenue to increase your brand exposure and provide free advertising. The marketing message is not forced on a recipient as with other channels. This makes them more likely to engage with it. And that’s why email signatures have the maximum effect in the business context of ongoing work relationships between single contact points. You’re influencing interactions subtly without disrupting the main content of the email.

Another advantage of email signatures is that the content can be targeted and modified for different audiences, giving recipients a message they’ll care more about. For example, potential buyers could see an introductory offer, while customers could be invited to a virtual event. By personalizing the message, it becomes more relevant and hopefully more attractive to your audience.

And finally, email signatures are incredibly cost-effective, and they get delivered where, many times, marketing emails get blocked.

Taking control of the email signature channel

However, you can’t get the full benefits of this untapped marketing channel if you can’t control it. Too many variables and issues can occur, both technically and managerially. Getting this centralized control is why companies increasingly choose third-party email signature management solutions.

By securing the ability to manage employees’ email signatures centrally, you guarantee everyone always has a consistent, professional email signature on all emails they send. That’s across any device used to send email. So, your signature will look the same on a mobile device as on a desktop. This ensures brand consistency and compliance on all corporate emails.

With central control, you can use this low-cost digital channel as a quick, easy, and affordable way to roll out a more compelling brand and marketing experience.

Final thoughts

Corporate email has fast become an essential piece of real estate for customer communications at a time when there have been considerable changes to the modern workspace. But how can you combine your marketing efforts to derive additional value from all of the corporate emails your organization is sending?

The stalking horse here is your email signature. After all, they’re targeted, valued, trusted, and high-volume. By employing effective email signatures on all your outgoing corporate emails, you’ll see increased marketing campaign engagement is much easier, mainly when it can be obtained at the click of a button.

And the best way to do this is through centralized email signature management. By implementing and controlling email signatures effectively, you can deploy consistent branding and marketing messages with incredible speed and scale, all without ever losing control.