Email Signature Best Practices: Must Know Tips for Success
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People often talk about how important first impressions are. When it comes to emails, the last impression matters just as much. That’s where email signature best practices come into play. Using free email signature templates makes it easy to ensure you’re covering all the best practices of email signature design.
We’re going to share what you need to know about making an everlasting and solid impression using your email signature and see how an email signature generator can help.
An email signature is the last block of text that you add to close out an email and provide the reader with important information about you.
Email signatures can (and should be) personalized to include business’ branding and your own contact information. Email signatures serve as a digital type of business card, so to speak. Since so much communication now takes place online, it’s a valuable way to leave a mark on your recipients when conversing over email.
If you’re used to signing off email signatures with your name in plain text, you may be wondering how following email signature best practices would change anything.
Think about these benefits of creating an email signature:
Whether you work for yourself or for a business (big or small), email signature design is a professional and memorable way to sign off your communications. The goals and advantages of having an email signature include:
Beyond signing off with your name, contact information, and title, you may want to add a clickable email signature with a banner to reach campaign goals.
For example, if you’ve just launched a new product or published a blog post, you can use your email signature as a way to drive your audience to explore the product page or read the blog. This can be done by adding a banner to the end of your email signature.
While you potentially have more freedom to design a personal email signature as you please, there are guidelines for an email signature for businesses worthwhile to follow.
The main characteristics for an email signature meant for business use will be that it covers only the most important contact information, including:
It should be laid out using the brand’s color palette and easy-to-read typography that isn’t overly distracting. A business email signature is a way to showcase your professionalism.
Like email signatures for business, marketing email signatures can also be used to provide an everlasting impression (and potentially even conversions). Since email signatures in this scenario are used for marketing purposes, they are less stringent when it comes to email signature best practices and grant a little more room for flexibility.
Depending on the email marketing campaign, you can adjust the email signature to aesthetically fall in line. Using an email signature generator like Publicate makes it simple to customize email signatures on the fly and as needed with a drag-and-drop editor.
Email signature design depends on what you include in your email signature. You have options to lay out your signature vertically or horizontally. The best way to figure out the most fitting design is to first consider what you’ll add to your signature.
Here is the type of information that is recommended to add:
After all, it’s a signature so it’s all about who you are!
Items like your job title and department are a useful way to introduce or remind your audience who you are.
While readers have your email address, it’s useful to add your phone number if they want to get in touch.
If you have social media that is professionally-based, it could be useful to add icons so that readers can connect with you across different channels.
If you’re looking to drive your readers to reach a campaign goal (i.e. read a blog, request a demo), you can add that call-to-action into your email signature design.
As we alluded to, email signatures are like a digital business card. So, just like you have to figure out how to design your business card, you get the same creative freedom with your email signature.
Email signature design can be minimal or more. With a signature builder like Publicate, you can choose from free email signature templates, so you can remove the guesswork and get down to business straight away.
If you have a corporate identity, then in most cases, everyone within the business will be advised to use the same email design template. If you have the option to create your own, you can add GIFS, animated multimedia, banners, or whatever else you wish.
Once you’re ready to design your own email signature, keep in mind these email signature best practices:
It’s always recommended to include your business’ logo as part of your email signature. This not only helps to boost brand awareness, but it adds a level of professionalism to your signature.
Depending on your line of work, a headshot can be a useful addition to your email signature. Photos are best intended when you are in a client-facing industry, such as real estate.
Keep the size of your email signature in mind when designing. A rule of thumb is for your email signature to be 300-600 pixels wide and 150-200 pixels wide. Make sure that you optimize your images so that they don’t slow down the load speed of your emails.
If you decide you do want to include social media icons in your signature, keep them small and simple. It’s always aesthetically pleasing to use icons that are in the same style (i.e. circle-shaped). If you’re not consistently updating social media or it’s not professionally-based, it’s better to keep them out of your signature.
You have the option to add a legal disclaimer into your email signature, such as to protect the confidentiality of your communications. If you’re sending out a mass newsletter, it’s always recommended to include an unsubscribe option at the end of your communications to comply with CAN-SPAM laws.
Should you wish to drive your audience to convert to your latest content, customer reviews, a promo page, or anything else, then you can add a marketing banner at the bottom of your signature.
To separate the logically different sections of your email signature, it’s useful to use dividing lines. Alternatively, you can use different font sizes, colors (try limit to two), or font weights (i.e. bold).
Make sure that you choose a font that is easy to read and supported by email clients (safe web-based fonts are the way to go). Some good fonts include: Arial, Verdana, and Helvetica, to name a few.
Remember that people read emails across different screen sizes, like tablets and mobile devices. As such, it’s incredibly important to make sure that your email signature fits all sizes and is mobile-friendly. For this reason, you don’t want your font size to be too small. And, if you’re adding call-to-actions, make sure they are big enough to click with a finger (for those on a mobile device).
Last but not least, whatever design you choose to move forward with, be sure to preview it and test it out before you start sending it on a large scale. The good thing is, if you use Publicate’s email signature generator, all the best practices are built into the templates, so everything you need is taken care of without having to think twice.
Creating your own email signature doesn’t have to be overwhelming. While you may think you need to start from scratch and create it within your email service provider, that can create hassle.
Instead, you can use an email signature builder like Publicate’s and get started using a template. For any type of email signature you can imagine, you can use the drag-and-drop visual editor to customize and export your own email signature into your preferred mail provider.
It’s as easy as that!
Consider these email signature best practices as your sign to create your very own signature today! Email signatures are a great way to leave a memorable and professional impression on your email readers, be it through a personal email or an email newsletter.
Want to try out Publicate’s email signature tool for yourself? Get started here.
