Are you giving out blank business cards?

Of course not! So why do so many people send emails with an incomplete─or missing─signature? Your signature is your online business card. Here's your checklist for what to include in your signature:
 Name
 Your company─many include a logo. Just be sure it doesn't take forever to download!
 Company tagline─if you have one
 Your title, if appropriate
 Phone number─and extension, if appropriate
 Fax number─if relevant to your customers or clients
 Mailing address

And, include a link to your company’s website. Most know this by now, but just in case: most software recognizes URLs by the http:// at the front. It's just safer─and easier for the recipient─to include the http://

Here's what my signature includes:

Jan M. McLaughlin, CSP
Your Communication Connection
helping professionals create positive responses
T: 206.328.0080
http://YourCommunicationConnection.com/
Check out our blog: http://www.JanMcLaughlin.blogspot.com/

Of course, mine is in color and has a few different fonts, but you get the idea. Don't waste an opportunity to connect with your customers and clients. Be sure to include your online business card in your emails!

How do you sound?

Most of us don't like to listen to our voice─so we don't. Yet, our voice has a huge impact on those we are hoping to influence whether we're communicating one-to-one, leading a meeting or making a presentation. So, be brave. Listen to your voice. Here's the homework assignment I give participants in my workshops:

1. Listen to your voice mail message
2. Rerecord your message
a. When you’re not smiling
b. And when you are smiling!

And listen to each of them. I assure you, you'll want to save the message you recorded when you were smiling!

Next time you leave a message—and have the option—play it back. That is exactly how you will sound to your customer or client. How do you sound?