You’ve seen them in almost every email that lands in your inbox, and you probably use them in your own emails–email signatures. Also known as email footers, an email signature is the section at the end of an email that includes contact information, legal disclaimers, links to your site or social media platforms, and more.
An email signature is more than just an endnote; it’s a part of your brand and can help build trust with your audience. It’s a way to market your business and who you are; sometimes, it’s your final chance to leave a lasting impression. A great way to think of your email signature is like a little business card.
We’re sharing three things every email signature needs and some things you should avoid to ensure the best footer for your emails.
1 - Keep it Simple
A clean and simple email signature design will ensure you deliver your message clearly and effectively. Less is more! Use only two or three colours and stick to a single web-friendly font. Don’t overuse fancy fonts and avoid using fonts that not everyone can access. Web-friendly fonts include Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, Georgia, Trebuchet MS, Impact, and Times New Roman. They are typically installed on most systems, ensuring they appear consistently across devices.
Utilize a visual hierarchy to prioritize your information. The most important elements should be placed at the top of your email signature, typically with a larger font and bolded for more impact. This would be the place to put your name, position, and a way to contact you. Links to social media platforms should always be placed at the very bottom.
When linking to social media, including only relevant links and tailoring them to your audience is essential. For example, if your clients are mainly on Instagram, it would make sense for you to add a link to your Instagram page. However, if your audience is mostly professionals, you might only include your LinkedIn or no social links at all. Adding a set of professional-looking buttons that match the rest of your signature and hyperlinking them is easier than having multiple links on your email signature and keeps the design clean.
Don’t forget to keep your signature current. Review it every few months to make sure all the information on it is still relevant and correct.
2 - Add a Call To Action
Your email signature is excellent for adding a Call To Action (CTA). A CTA is an opportunity to further engage your audience by prompting them to take action. Examples of a CTA include: “book a call”, “learn more”, “leave a review”, “grab a freebie”; these are opportunities to invite your audience to learn more about your business, get in touch with you, or simply peruse your website.
You should also link the logo in your signature to your website to boost brand awareness and drive more traffic to your site. Another good practice is to make your website link visible. Remember that your email signature is like a little business card, a way to show your audience where to learn more about your business and what you do.
3 - Maintain Consistency
In larger organizations with multiple employees, there should be an email signature format that everyone adheres to. Though it may be tempting to let your employees create their own signature, maintaining consistency will ensure you’re all promoting the same message of the business and your brand.
Even for solopreneurs, your email signature should be consistent with your brand. For example, if your brand colours are blue and red, you shouldn’t use pink in your signature.
Consistency will further promote your brand and build trust with your audience. When there is a standard in place, they’ll know who they’re speaking to and will not be confused about whether they’ve reached the right person.
What to Avoid
Now that you have some ideas for a great email signature, here are some things you should try to avoid.
- Cluttering your signature. Adding too many colours, too much text, or fonts that aren’t web-friendly will only overwhelm your reader; keep your design clean and simple with only the most important and relevant information.
- Not making your signature mobile-friendly. Keeping the width of your signature to 450px and the overall file size under 100KB will ensure it looks great across all devices and loads properly.
Should You Use Images?
One of the biggest mistakes to avoid regarding your email signature is improperly using graphics and images. Images can be great for promoting your brand and who you are; however, there are some crucial things to remember when incorporating them into your signature. In fact, you might be better off not including them at all.
Make sure any images or graphics you use are high quality. Photos should have a neutral background and clearly convey the image (a headshot is better than a full-body shot in this case). Keep them small, 50px - 100px is the optimal sizing for photos and graphics.
Remember to include ALT text in your images for screen readers or in the event that an email provider hides the images to reduce download size. (This is another reason you may choose not to include images at all.)
Finally, images hosted on untrusted domains may not be delivered to your recipient’s inbox. You must use a reputable host for any images in your signature, such as your own server, Google Photos, or Amazon S3.
If you’re not entirely sure that you can get the highest quality photo and host it on a trusted server, you’re probably better off not including any in your signature.
Make It Your Own
In summary, an email signature is a great and simple way to promote your brand and business while fostering trust with your clients. Don’t hesitate to test various email signatures to determine which works best for your business. Tracking the links you include will enable you to measure which ones receive the most clicks, ensuring your email signature effectively markets your brand as you intend!
If you would like to learn more about improving your email signature, feel free to send us a message. We’d love to help!
