K.I.S.S is an acronym that business communicators from both creative and strategic fields understand as: Keep It Simple, Stupid. It implies that no matter what’s being communicated, message are most effective when delivered in its simplest form. The example that often accompanies the acronym is the tennis ball theory. Throw someone eight tennis balls and he/she will most likely catch none of them. Throw a person one tennis ball and he/she should get it. The same goes for messages and how business professionals communicate with one another. Make the message over complicated and no one will understand it; keep it simple stupid and the responsibility is the receiver’s.
As far as building your email’s stationary and signature, this principle could not be more relevant. Your professional webmail will be your business’s primary form of communication and, therefore, it must encompass the K.I.S.S principle in order to be interpreted accurately by others.
Email stationery and signatures have the power to be simple and well branded, but they can also come out looking tacky and convoluted. It is your job to keep the presentation of your emails just as coherent as the emails themselves. Although it may be tempting for you to make your letter head stationery as colorful and noticeable as possible, just think to yourself, everyone still remembers grandma’s couch for all the wrong reasons. What if that’s how others think about your brand – as the dated, trying too hard, over-zealous email template person who wants my business. Not good. Not good at all.
What you do want in email stationery is simplicity; there should be a connection between your website, your business card and the email stationery you decide to go with. Grab key, identifiable colors, keep your font consistent across all platforms and incorporate your logo. Beyond that and you’re playing in the world of too many tennis balls. The template shouldn’t leave people overwhelmed or confused, it should leave them satisfied, and even impressed.
Your signature on your email should be no different. Think, what is necessary and what over-complicates things? Your name is definitely important, as well your phone number, web link, title, and of course your business. Obviously you can add more if you wish, but ask yourself if its necessary. At the end of the day, can you saying the same thing with less content?
In cases where you do feel like more is better, perhaps include multiple versions of your signature that you can interchange between, depending whom you’re communicating with. A colleague needs to know very little other than who he or she is talking to, but a prospective or existing customer might want to hear about a limited promotion or a social-networking link with which they can follow you and your brand. The benefit to webmail is that it does have the capacity to be a customizable message; just don’t interpret customizable as anything and everything goes.
At mail2web.com we offer a variety of professional webmail services with the business communicator in mind. With host website and email services mail2web.com allows for coherence in your brand from your website to your email because it’s all hosted on one simple platform. mail2web.com offers all the tools to help keep your message simple:
- Web mail services that allow you to check your POP or IMAP email from anywhere in the world.
- Sync all your communication; from email to contacts and upcoming events to your smartphone.
- Get an outsourced account for your domain and brand through our email exchange program.
- Use the endless communication tools at your disposal like forums and blogs from our web hosting services.
Going to one place for your email and web hosting needs is the first step to communicating your brand in one clear voice. mail2web.com provides your professional service an avenue to create a professional look. It’s your job to take these tools and use them as a benefit to your brand, opening new opportunities for your business along the way. Just remember to keep it simple, stupid.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
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Fresh. I like where you are coming from.
Great post, very usefull. thank you.
I definitely agree that simplicity is of the utmost importance.
Some signatures I have seen recently have been entirely too in depth, and I’m even guilty of having put too much information in my signature at one point as well.
I’ve since trimmed it down and found that it looks a lot better and is more appealing to those who see it as well.
Hey very fine blog!!
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Loved the inforation but leanr to spell
Stationery = paper
Stationary = not moving
Ps hope you saw the irony in my reply
I can never keep “stationary” and “stationery” straight. I can never remember how to spell “grafitti/graffiti” either. Anyway, I agree that simplicity’s key to email. No one will spend time on something that’s hard to read.
So, to sum up: two important things in life are keeping things simple, and spelling!