Your E-Mail Signature: Casually Promoting Your Private Practice

January 1, 2013

Do you have an e-mail signature?

Have you ever noticed that some people have some identifying information at the bottom of their e-mails?

Very commonly people have their name, professional title or even the standard “Sent from my iPhone.” While adding your name, credentials, title, or a privacy statement fantastic, it’s a GREAT place to casually place a plug for your business, links to your practice site or even your social media links.

What Is an E-Mail Signature?

An e-mail signature is a block of text that automatically appears at the end of an e-mail. Typically, this is a place to share your name, contact information and other information relevent to the author of the message. In the healthcare field, you’ll often find the following information:

Full Name
Credentials
Title
Institution/Practice Affiliated With
Contact Information
Privacy Statement

There is obviously great variability and no “right answer” to what you should or should not include.

Customizing Your Signature

Take a minute to think about what you want potential referral sources to see/know about you.

Think of your signature as another type business card. Just like your real life business card, you never know who is going to see your signature (say if your e-mail gets forwarded).

So, what do what do you want them to know?

Here are the most important things to include:

Who You Are
What You Do / How You Help People
How to Get In Touch With You

Here’s my signature for my gmail account:

In addition to leaving some links, your signature is a place to add some personality or style to show off you and your brand.

Go for the Soft Sell

Although I’m certainly proud of my websites and businesses, sometimes even I feel weird saying, “Check out my website.”

It’s funny- having a website is getting to be so commonplace, but in certain situations it still feels a tad pompous… Having your site and social media links in your signature is a fantastic way to let others know about your site without feeling like a commercial.

Reminds Your Non-Therapy Acquaintances

Another great reason to add a custom signature is because you e-mail with both therapists and regular people. Even now and then I’ll be e-mailing with a family member, friend, etc. who doesn’t know everything that I do professionally. All of a sudden, that additional information might convince them to learn more about me and even share my name with anyone in their life looking for therapy services.

Set Up Your Signature Today!

Just in case you’re not sure how to do it, I’ve listed step-by-step YouTube videos for the top 3 most popular e-mail providers below:

Gmail: http://youtu.be/f4Hk3IIoqic

Hotmail: http://youtu.be/VSo-qqhHU7Y

Yahoo: http://youtu.be/mOXHczAqwTs

If you use a different e-mail service, go to your favorite search engine or YouTube and search for: “your e-mail service + signature” There should be an easy guide for you to follow.

Jena H. Casbon, MS CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and private practice consultant. She started her own speech therapy private practice in 2006. She is the founder of The Independent Clinician and author of The Guide to Private Patients and The Guide to Creating a Web Presence for Your Private Practice. Since 2008, she has helped thousands of clinicians get the flexibility, income and freedom they desire from starting their own private speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy practices.