Annie McNutt

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When McDonald’s lifted the once-ironclad 10:30 a.m. cut-off for tardy breakfast-goers, customers hit the chain in droves. They were lured by the simple novelty of being able to chow down on an Egg McMuffin any time they want.

The idea is so simple! The chain is using an avenue they already own, but in a new way – and it’s working! In Q4 of 2015, the fast-food joint saw same store sales jump by 5.7% and pushed growth into territory the global company hadn’t seen in more than four years.

So what if we thought about employee email like McDonald’s thinks about breakfast?

You already send a ton of business emails every day. It’s a channel you own – you dictate the message and the recipient. But are you using the channel to its fullest potential? Here are five things your custom email signature can learn from the all-day breakfast menu.

1. Beat the crowd

McDonald’s snags most of their revenue during the lunch and dinner hours – hamburgers are just more expensive than hotcakes. Breakfast has, traditionally, been something of an afterthought for the entire fast food industry. But it’s taken on an enormous importance as of late. First-meal sales have jumped by almost 5 percent year-over-year for the fast food behemoth from 2007-2012, where the traditional marque meals, lunch and dinner, have remained flat according to The Motley Fool.

To sustain growth in the overly-crowded fast-casual restaurant sphere (where the money-spenders are looking to go), McDonald’s execs realized it was going to be near impossible to find new ways boost sales during the typical peak hours with the same marketing and advertising initiatives they’ve relied on in the past. Instead, the Golden Arches poured a huge effort into expanding the potential of a hit they already had grips on.

Now look at your custom email signature. Often an afterthought, it has this enormous potential to break through the overly-noisy marketing industry by opening a new, owned distribution channel. No longer can you just buy more advertising and expect to see more results.