Six Steps that Will Improve Your Image

If you are a new notary public or a new notary business owner,  the six steps listed below can help to set up the right public image for your notary career.  These steps aren’t new discoveries , but they can be easily overlooked while you are trying to learn how to handle your new duties as a notary professional.  

Step 1 – Brand your  notary business with a professional email address.

Now that you are a notary professional, don’t hang on to your Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL address.  Consider setting up an email address that projects the right image. This step entails purchasing a domain and adding email service to it.  Google is one place to do this.   It will cost you less than $13.00 per month to have a website and branded email address. 

Even if you don’t set up a website immediately, the upgrade to your notary business’s email address will be beneficial to your new professional brand.

Step 2 – Have a professional head shot taken.

If you want to be successful as a notary professional, project the image.  We mentioned this in the article on developing your notary marketing kit, but it can’t be stressed enough.  A current portrait taken by a professional will project confidence and it will also give you an edge over those who are still using that engagement portrait from 1999 , their tailgate and beer pictures from last fall, or the picture of their birthday cake that looked like a fish.

Step 3 – Update your social media profile.

Now that you have the right picture, make sure you separate your casual-and-fun-me social media profile from the new-professional-you brand.  Clients may look on Facebook to see what the notary looks like.  They want to know who they are about to do business with.  Let them see someone who looks competent rather than a cartoon strip joke with curse words.  

You may also add a notary business page to your Facebook profile.  A Google search shows there are hundreds of free articles online to give you tips on using a Facebook business page.

Step 4 – Set up your outgoing notary business voice mail message.

Nothing is more off-putting than for a business phone to have no message or just the name of the person receiving the call.  Callers are unsure if they have reached the right number.  Here are a couple to try.

Hello! This is Will Brinker, Owner of Brinker’s Notary & Professional Services.  I am either on the phone or away from my desk briefly.  Leave a message for me or text me.  I check my voice mail and text messages several times an hour.  If you prefer, you may email me at [insert professional email address here].  Thank you.

Or, this one…

Hello! You have reached the voice mail of Notary Tom Jones. Please leave your name and number and a quick explanation of how I can help you.  Your call is important to me.  I check my voice mail and text messages hourly.  Thanks.  

Step 5 – Establish your email signature.

Set up your business email to produce a professional signature at the end of each email.  For instance:

Best regards,

Notary Name

Name of Notary Business

Mobile Notary Professional

000-000-0000

Professional Email Address

 “The notary’s slogan could go here if there is one!”

Step 6 – Buy business cards for your notary business.

Business cards are great marketing tools, even in 2019!  If you already have business cards, perhaps an updated version that includes the guidelines suggested below will be beneficial. 

For a mobile notary business, purchase simple business cards that display your name, your phone number, email address, and website (if you have it set up).  Of course, you will want to add that you are a mobile notary professional, online remote notary (if you are commissioned as one), perhaps a slogan, and other pertinent information.  Once you have the cards, give them out daily. 

Let’s talk a moment about whether “loan signing agent” should be mentioned on your card.  If you intend to do face-to-face marketing with title companies, contemplate having two sets of cards.  The term “signing agent” will confuse your local audience.  They understand “mobile notary” but not “signing agent.”  Putting too much on the cards will make  your business cards hard to read.  So, one way to be communicate about your notary business is to have two sets of cards–one for your mobile notary business and one for your signing agent work.  If you are a commissioned remote online notary for your state, you could add that to either or both of the cards.

Knowing the right way to discuss your profession is critical.  Mobile notary cards don’t need much more information other than the fact that you are a mobile notary and how to contact you.  However, before you use terms on your cards like “certified notary public” or “legal notary public,” research the term to make sure it is meaningful and that it exists!  Call the notary public administrator for your state.  Ask that office if the term is appropriate.  Consider these tips — 

• Notaries aren’t certified as notaries public.  Notaries receive a notary public commission.  (Licenses are given in a couple of states.)
• “Legal notary public” means that you are a notary public.  The word “legal” isn’t necessary.

Simplicity is the best way.

Hiring parties will see through the extra adjectives and assume you are very new and inexperienced. 

As a signing agent, you would be absolutely right to use the term “certified notary signing agent.”  The word “certified” applies to being a signing agent.  As you likely know, notaries may further their notary public roles by taking various certification courses to become certified in loan signings or even other types of specialized areas.  But, at this time, state and federal agencies neither recognize those privately offered loan signing certifications nor require them.  Your signing agent hiring parties (not the government) seek notaries with credentials as specified in the American Land Title’s standards for third-party vendors. 

Always put yourself in the shoes of your hiring parties or targeted customers.

None of these items were ancient secrets or profound advice, but they are essential steps for notary business owners and they can be overlooked easily.  For instance, we never call ourselves, so we can forget  how our outgoing voice mail messages sound to others.  We seldom need to find our own phone numbers, so looking for them on the bottom of an email can escape our thought processes when email recipients DO look for contact information there.  Putting yourself in your customer’s shoes will help you find even more ways to be easily located and hired for notary work. 

If you have insights or questions about this article, please reach out in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!