People consider running their own companies, which is one of the most effective ways of earning a living. That explains why millions of small companies get started every year.

Having several businesses in an industry is advantageous to customers. They can also compare brands to determine the best deal on the market. However, that brings about competition among firms providing similar products or services.

So, how can businesses ensure they remain on top of the competition? One of the best solutions is leveraging the power of advertising or marketing. Thus, you also need to market your business to overcome competition.

Evolution Of Marketing

In the past, marketing was mainly done through traditional media like brochures, flyers, roadshows, magazines, posters, billboards, etc. However, that has changed over time. And today, most business marketing happens online or through digital channels.

Business owners believed that taking marketing efforts online could simplify finding customers. While that’s true, moving marketing online came with some challenges. One of them was to determine how customers could sign online documents. But the good news is that there’s no challenge without a perfect solution. And that led to the birth of electronic signature technology.

An Overview Of Electronic Signature

An electronic signature is a legal way of signing online documents. It shows that a particular person has given consent or approval of the content in a document. In simple terms, electronic signatures serve as a formal authorization or approval for online documents.

With an electronic signature, someone doesn’t have to print documents first. They can use specific software to attach a signature on the documents to authenticate them. In a nutshell, an electronic signature replaces traditional signatures.

There are three major types of electronic signatures:

• Simple Electronic Signature: It’s the most common in businesses. It’s a practice of attaching a generated signature photo or picture to documents. Therefore, a simple electronic signature will require your customers to attach their images to show consent to the content in your documents.
• Advanced Electronic Signature: It requires authentication to become legal. Thus, users must download and install verification software on their computers or smartphones.
• Qualified Advanced Electronic Signature: It works like the advanced electronic signature, only that it comes with a third layer of verification. That involves working with a third-party trust service provider to validate signatures on electronic files.

You might think that moving from physically signing documents to electronic signatures will attract more operating costs. But that isn’t the case. It provides unlimited opportunities to save money. For instance, several signature service providers can allow you to sign documents online free of charge. Make sure you select the right partner.

Benefits Of Electronic Signatures To Marketers

Marketers can benefit from electronic signatures in various ways. Some of these include:

1. Helps Save Time

Marketing is one of the most time-consuming functions of a business. For instance, you’ll be required to spend several hours developing promotional strategies and connecting with customers daily. And if you aren’t careful, you might forget to attend to some tasks. For that reason, it’d be a good idea to find effective ways to save time. That’s where the adoption of electronic signature technology becomes necessary.

Signing documents online eliminates some unnecessary steps. For instance, you won’t need to keep printing documents, signing them, and then scanning them to transmit to customers or take them to the post office. You only need to install a suitable electronic signature automation tool to sign documents online. That allows you to save a lot of time.

2. Helps Reduce Costs

Increased costs can be a great barrier to the growth of your enterprise. That’s true since it reduces your profits. As a result, your company may lack enough retained earnings for future growth. The marketing department is one of the areas that take the biggest budget of most companies. And that becomes even worse for any business that still uses the traditional way of signing documents.

Signing physical documents may attract costs in various ways. First, you must purchase printing paper and ink. Second, you’ll require a printer and a scanner machine. And third, you might be forced to rent a bigger space to store physical documents. And the list goes on and on.

However, with electronic signatures, marketers can reduce costs and save money. There’ll be no need to buy scanning machines or papers or rent a paper storage space. In addition to that, electronic signatures help save money on mailing. A marketer can create documents online, put a signature and send them to the intended customers electronically.

3. Helps Promote Customer Experience

Customer experience plays a critical role in the success of any marketing strategy. A good customer experience leads to the generation of more leads and conversion.

On the other hand, poor customer experience might not be good for your business. It turns away potential customers. It’s, therefore, essential to find ways to promote customer experience.

In traditional signatures, customers must visit your business premises or postal offices to collect and sign documents. That hurts their experience. And most of them might decide not to come and collect your documents. For that reason, you can consider including the electronic signature in your marketing efforts.

Electronic signatures allow customers to approve the content of your documents from the comfort of their homes. As a result, they won’t need to keep moving up and down, collecting and sending documents back to you. That goes a long way in enhancing their experiences.

4. Promotes Document Security

If you want to enhance the security of your documents, you should consider adopting electronic signature technology. It helps eliminate the need to handle physical documents. Note that physical documents are more prone to insecurity than digital files. For instance, it’s easier to forge a signature in physical documents than in digital files.

Besides, physical documents expose business and customer information to non-intended users. That’s true since any passers-by can get access to your documents, especially when left to lie in scanners for long hours. You also need to note that most electronic signature automation tools have encryption features. Therefore, you won’t be worried about cybersecurity threats.

Takeaway

As you’ve read in this article, marketers can benefit from adopting electronic signatures in various ways. However, they must find the best software from a reliable electronic signature service provider.