Wayne Hedlund

Tag: Tactical Tips

  • Tactical Tip: Email Signature

    You would be very frustrated if someone left you a voice-mail and failed to tell you who they were or how to get hold of them. Example: “Hi pastor! This is Joe. I was wondering if you could give me a call about what we were talking about last Sunday. I have some ideas on that. Thanks! Bye.” OK. So I talked to someone named Joe about something last Sunday and he wants me to call him back. Hmm. I don’t remember that. Now what?

    The email signature is the digital version of the voice-mail signature. It’s your chance to let the world know exactly who you are and how they can get hold of you. It’s your business card.

    I am often amazed how few pastors and leaders leave a meaningful, relevant signature at the bottom of every email they send. Especially when it usually takes 5 minutes or less to set up! In the past month alone I have received emails from 3 pastors I totally respect and love working with, but who don’t have a helpful email signature. With two of them I had to do a Google search to find their website (and it took a while to find one of them) when a link at the bottom of the email would have sufficed.

    So today’s Tactical Tip is simply this . . . create a simple email signature at the bottom of all of your emails.

    Suggestions on a very basic email signature:
    The internet is full of suggestions on what a signature should look like. Ultimately, you want to give people the information they will need to contact you. Beyond that, you can personalize it all you want – but within reason.

    • Some people suggest starting with two dashes, like this >>   – –
    • Start with your first and last name (and title if appropriate).
    • Include your position if there are multiple people on-staff.
    • Include your church or organization name.
    • Include your church website. Some people suggest you actually type out the web address as well as create the link (in case someone isn’t able to click on the link, but wants to copy/paste or type the address in themselves.)
    • Include your phone number(s) of choice. This can be your personal cell number, home number, or office number. Whichever number you are most comfortable with the whole world knowing.
    • Optional: you may also opt to include the church or organization’s address. If it’s on your website this may not be necessary. It’s up to you.
    • Finally, you may want to include an inspirational, funny, or thought provoking quote.
    • NOTE: Many experts suggest that you keep your email signature to about five lines. Anything beyond that and it may look like you’re really lonely or just trying to write a book. Check out this site to view four common mistakes on email signatures.

    Example Signature:
    I rarely change my signature, but review it at least a couple of times a year. Here is my signature as of today’s date:

    —

    Pastor Wayne Hedlund, Executive Pastor
    Elim Gospel Church
    1679 Dalton Road
    Lima, NY 14485
    (585) 624-5560

    Check out my blog at www.tranformingleader.org.

    How to Setup Your Signature:
    Now, I can’t exactly give you instructions since everyone has different email carriers. I have included links below to some helpful articles for the more popular email carriers. For the rest of you, I suspect the following will get you where you want to go: Open www.google.com and type the name of your email provider and the words “email signature”.