How many emails do you send out each week? An effective email signature burnishes your image, and will increase the number of referrals, new clients and returning clients that you receive. A signature is appended to the end of an e-mail message and should contain your name and contact details.
What should every therapist’s email signature include?
At the bottom of every email from you, your email contacts should see what they need to reach out to you again.
Your name, website, email, and practice telephone number.
Are you available to text, WhatsApp, or Facetime? Do you have special holiday hours coming up? The details that you choose to include in your email signature are designed to ease the way for potential clients to get in touch without overwhelming them with an onslaught of details.
Here are tips to help you get the maximum benefit from the emails that you send.
Include your signature in each outgoing email
Automate! GMail, Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo Mail and most email programs can be configured to automatically append an email signature with each new message.
Separate the signature from the body of your email
Use a visual cue (such as “–” ) to mark where the body of your email message ends and where the signature begins.
Link to your website
This is a great opportunity to get clients to your site to learn about the range of services that you offer and to propel them forward towards booking an appointment.
Include contact details for your private practice
Open your door and make the reader of the email feel welcome to reach out to you. Provide complete contact details, including:
- Full name and title (such as PhD, or “Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist”)
- Phone number with area code (provide a country code if you anticipate international calls)
- Email address or link to a contact form on your web site
- Your web site
- Your physical address will lend credibility to your email and help avoid being tagged as spam.
- What sets you apart? Accessible hours? Your ability to text? Design your signature to answer to your client’s needs.
Is my email signature too long?
Don’t make the most important details fight for your reader’s attention. Keep your email signature short to reduce overwhelm and make contacting you easy and simple. We recommend restricting your signature to a visual cue plus no more than 3 to 4 lines. For example:
——–
Dr. J. Doe, Licensed Psychologist
Tel. 612-100-2000, drj@drjdoe.com, www.drjdoe.com
100 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105
Clinical Instructor, Macalester College
Links to social media profiles? Maybe not!
Even if you have an active social media presence, it’s usually not a good idea to direct your clients to Facebook or LinkedIn. Social media sites are designed to engage, distract and swallow up the time and attention of your correspondent. Send them to your website – and keep them focused on making an appointment with you or sending a referral to you.
Should you include images in your email signature?
An image – a logo or your professional portrait – can help focus a reader’s attention on your signature. However, by default, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and most email programs block images in an email message. Make sure your signature is attractive both with and without displaying the image you choose.
Your brand, your vision, your message
If your practice has a distinctively unique and appealing message (such as, “Results-Oriented Therapy” or “Holistic Therapy”), include the message under your email signature. If this message is included in the tagline for your site — the message will be reinforced when your correspondent gets to your site.
If you have training that is unique? Are you the only clinical psychologist in your zip code? This is the space to toot your own horn.
If you use GMail – how to create signatures
- Open Gmail.
- Click the
gear in the top right. - Select Settings.
- Scroll down to the “Signature” section and enter your new signature text in the box. You can format your text using the buttons directly above the text box.
- Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
Need help?
We are here for all of your practice needs. Call now to get help with all the small details that make your private practice thrive, or just send us a message through the contact form and press Send.