As an administrative professional, you must always communicate with internal and external stakeholders in a professional manner. Using professional email sign-offs is just one way to maintain your professionalism when using email to communicate. The right email signature gives you added credibility, but the wrong signature could make people doubt your professionalism and commitment to the job. Use these email signature ideas to create a signature that helps you demonstrate your professionalism in the workplace.
When you create professional email sign-offs, you must remember that not everyone uses the same Internet browser or email management program. As a result, it is best to use plain text when composing an email signature. Avoid fancy fonts, unusual font colors, and HTML formatting. Larissa Ham of “The Age” says you should also avoid using emoticons, as they are not suited for professional use. Because your signature is similar to a letterhead, you should also consider including your job title when writing email sign-offs.
If you are applying for a new administrative job, all of your email sign-offs should include your name, email address, and telephone number. Nancy Anderson says you should also include the URL of your LinkedIn page and the link to your professional blog or website. You should create several different versions of your email sign-offs so that you can use whichever version is most appropriate each time you send an email. For example, you might want to use the longer version of your signature when sending an email to a new contact. Once that person replies to your message, you can switch to the shorter version of your signature.
Although much of the advice surrounding the creation of email sign-offs focuses on what you should do, there are also some things you should not do. You should not attach a message that says “checked for viruses” at the end of every email message, as this sort of message takes up valuable space. You should also avoid sending vCards with every message, as not everyone uses them to manage their contact information. Avoid using more than four lines for your email sign-offs, as many of your contacts will not have the time to read nine or ten lines of text after every message. Use colons to separate the text on each line so that you can limit your email sign-offs to three or four lines each.
When creating email sign-offs, always include relevant information and skip fancy formatting and unprofessional emoticons. If possible, limit your signature to no more than four lines of text. If you use these email signature ideas, you will be able to create email sign-offs that help you demonstrate your professionalism to executives, customers, and other contacts. Conducting yourself as an administrative professional can make it easier to qualify for raises and career advancement opportunities.
Nancy Anderson is the communities and article Editor for Beyond.com. Nancy has 10 years experience in the online job search business with Beyond. Nancy’s team produces dozens of articles every month for top internet sites. Follow Nancy and the Beyond team on https://twitter.com/BeyondJobs.
