Adding “follow me” social media icons to your email signature is a quick and efficient way to promote your website. Integrating social media and email together can do several things for your marketing efforts:
• Spread the reach of your website’s content.
Not only do people receiving your email have easy access to your website and social media accounts by including the linkable icons in your emails, but any sharing those subscribers do will reach people that they know that may not even know you exist. This will help increase your website’s traffic in no time. You may even gain new subscribers after they visit your website.
• Social media links add a different way for you to connect to your existing readers.
By extending your reach to a variety of social media platforms, you give each of your loyal readers a way to access you and your website in the ways in which they prefer. After all, email is great, but that is not the only way to engage people.
• Provide an easy way for readers to “bookmark” you.
When someone reads your email and checks out your website, they may have good intentions of bookmarking your site later but might forget. This is especially true if they reach your website on the go. By providing an easy way to follow you, besides traditional bookmarking of your website’s URL, email readers can easily access your website through many other means at a later time.
Today I will show you a clever (and quick) way for linking your social media accounts to your Gmail email signature so that anyone that reads an email you send will easily be able to follow you.
1. Go to Iconfinder and search for the icons you wish to include in your email signature. Set the size slider to 0-32px and search for the social media icon you wish to download first (i.e. “Facebook”).
2. Click on the icon set that is suitable for your email signature style. An icon details page will open and the rest of the icons available for use that match the set will be located below. Click on the PNG links to download the icons you wish to use. They will be saved to your computer for later.
*Note – it is best if you choose the icon size 32 x 32 or 48 x 48 so that once uploaded into your email signature the images will not appear too small or too large.
3. Go to Imgbox to upload the images. Click “Select Files” and find the first icon saved on your computer. From the Content Type dropdown choose “Family Safe Content” and leave the rest of the settings as they are. Click “Start upload”.
*Note – When the file is uploaded, click “Full Size” and copy the URL to the image that ends in .png or .gif ONLY. This will save you from any inserting problems you may encounter once in your Gmail account.
4. Sign into your Gmail account and click on the settings link. Once the setting screen appears, scroll down until you reach your signature settings.
5. Click the image button (located right above the text area, next to the hyperlink button). Paste the URL from Imgbox into the text field. Remember, the URL you paste should end in .png or .gif. If it doesn’t, go back to Imgbox where you saved the URL and click “Full Size” to get the correct link. Then click Select. The image is now inserted into your Gmail signature.
6. You must now make the inserted image linkable. Start by clicking on the image as though it is a piece of text. Click the link button in the menu and paste the URL to the social media account you are linking to (i.e. your Facebook account). Click Select to close the window. Your image is now linked to your social media account in your email signature. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Save Changes”.
7. Repeat the above steps for each social media account you wish to include in your email signature.
8. As an added style tip customize your signature to include your name, title, contact info (i.e address or phone number), links to your actual website, etc. This way people receiving your email will see who you are, what you represent, and how to contact you besides via email, all in a professional light.
Final Thoughts
Linking your “follow me” social media accounts to your Gmail account signature can be done in as little as 5 minutes. This quick tip adds a sense of professionalism to your emails, gives loyal readers an easy way to connect in other ways, and gives new email recipients encouragement to connect with you, hassle free. If you are serious about content marketing, integrating your social media accounts into a customized email signature should definitely be a priority.
Have you tried integrating your social media accounts into your email signature? Did you notice a jump in web traffic, follows, or likes? I would love to hear all about it in the comments below.
Image Courtesy of Freepik
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