Email & Forum Signatures
[private].[/private]The signature is that bit of text that you place at the end of your email or your forum post just under your name. This piece of text might be small but it can say a whole lot and it is very important that you use it wisely. You would be wise to also provide your affiliates some witty and well thought out signatures to use on their own emails and forum posts.
No one will know the in’s and out’s of your product better than you. So who better to create a few promotional sigs for your affiliates to plug into their emails and forums posts?
When you write the text for your affiliate, you are once again making their job that much easier.
You might have affiliates who understand the importance of including a signature and you might have those who do not. Simply by providing these signatures for them and suggesting they add them into their emails/forum posts will greatly increase the chances of your affiliates spreading the word about your new site via this method.
First, I want to cover what you are trying to achieve with your signatures and I think it is best to discuss emails and forums separately because each has a slightly different use for the signature.
Emails
Here are a few tips to make sure you know what to include and what not to include:
Back link: Make sure to provide a link to your site with the affiliate’s unique affiliate link embedded within the code. This will ensure the affiliate gets the credit and pretty much should go without saying. You’ll also want to try and avoid using a URL that is a dead giveaway affiliate link. Try using some clickable anchor text instead.
Make it exciting: Include more than just your anchor text linking to your site You don’t want your signature to be boring or it will look just like most of the other signatures out there. It is an ad for your site and you need to take the time to craft it for your affiliates. You CAN include an offer in your affiliate’s signature and then the reader has more of a reason to click on the link. Mere curiosity might be enough to get them there.
One at a time: Even if you have multiple websites tied to one affiliate, be sure to only include one of them in the signature. You don’t want to overwhelm the readers of the affiliate’s email with too many offers at once or it will seem too “pitchy” and they probably won’t click on any of them!
Forums
The reasons for the signature at the end of a forum post are the same as those above, but there is a little more to it. When your affiliate sends an email to customers, the email can be somewhat obvious. It can seem like a sales pitch to some extent.
When an affiliate posts on a forum, the post cannot sound at all like an ad or a sales pitch. When posting on a forum, your affiliates must add value to the forum discussion in the form of information, experience, shared ideas, or a fresh question.
Since the sell isn’t in the post, it has to fall into the signature. Your goal is to create the signature text that subtly extends an offer to forum readers and include the link to your website (with the affiliate’s link embedded in it).
Again, make the signature interesting and make the offer sound appealing. This will make it more enticing.
Of course, the more you can make the offer relate to the forum discussion, the better! After all, a forum is a highly targeted audience if your affiliate is joining the right ones, or better yet, if your affiliate is already a well known member on a forum related to your product. These people are all interested in your niche and are more likely to be open to offers of products and services in that niche.
Just think about the cat grooming example once more. If your affiliate is a member on a forum for cat owners, this could go a long way to opening up a discussion about grooming cats of various types or any other number of topics. These will act as natural lead-ins to your affiliate’s offers and a well written forum signature ad could really hook up a few effortless sales for you and your affiliate.
Again, if you can create signatures that your affiliates can simply copy and paste, you will be setting the stage for super sales. Making it easy for them is the key. Otherwise, the result might be:
Remember, you are helping your affiliates because you want them to be successful for not only their own sake, but yours too. When you make it easy for your affiliates to succeed, everybody wins!
