If you’ve ever received an email from someone, you’ve seen an email signature. It’s the last lines of text at the end of a message reminding you of the sender and includes their contact information, maybe a fun quote, and a website link.
It’s common practice in the digital space and most users expect to see it. It helps humanize the sender and, depending on the creativity of the signature, will give you another element to remember them by. It also allows the sender to promote their social media accounts, product, or website in the hopes of securing your business.
You may know that an email signature is an important piece of the digital marketing puzzle, but you still may not know why or how to add it to your emails. This article will walk you through:
- What is an Email Signature and Why Should You Have One?
- Email Signature Best Practices
- Email Signature Creation Resources
- Adding an Email Signature
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What is an Email Signature and Why Should You Have One?
Similar to signing off a written letter, an email signature is a signature added to the bottom of the email you compose and send. It provides your contact information and, per recent best practices, allows you to promote your website and/or business to the recipient. For example, a typical email signature may look like this:
John Q. Smith
Vice President of Marketing
757-555-1234
Example.com
In addition to the above example, an email signature can also contain an image, social media links, a link to a website or specific product, and more.
So why should you have an email signature? Adding an email signature to the bottom of your correspondence allows you to automatically include branded content and additional contact information to your emails without having to manually add it in every time you send a new email.
A branded email signature allows you to promote your business and encourage engagement from the recipient. It’s another digital marketing element that if done correctly, can help you increase your reach and your online business goals. Below we’ll outline email signature best practices you can utilize for implementing a strong email signature.
Email Signature Best Practices
When adding an email signature, you want to make sure that you’re adhering to best practices to ensure you gain the benefit of implementing the signature in the first place. Why add an email signature if you aren’t going to do it correctly? Here are some email signature best practices to consider when you’re adding an email signature to your email client:
Less is More
Your email signature should be short, sweet, and to the point. Having a long email signature will overwhelm the recipient and lower your engagement rate. Make sure your email signature is only 3-4 lines of text and limit the number of links added to the signature. Also, do not add your email address to your email signature. It’s redundant and takes up precious real estate. The recipient will see your email in the “from” field.
Add Relevant Social Media
If you have relevant social media accounts, consider linking them in the email signature for another route of engagement for the recipient. However, only add relevant social media accounts to keep the recipient focused on your end goal, which is securing their business. If you link personal accounts or different business accounts, you may distract them and lose their business.
Add a Call to Action (CTA)
Similar to a website, add an action item, or call to action (CTA), in your email signature to nudge the recipient towards the action you want them to take. The CTA will hopefully draw them further into your sales funnel and/or secure their business. Your CTA could be a link to download an ebook, schedule a demo, register for an event, etc.
Add an Image
If you can, consider adding an image to your email signature, preferably an image of yourself or your logo. Adding an image gives the signature a personal touch and is an extra design element that could help the recipient remember your business in the future. Not sure how to add an image? No problem! Below are a few resources to help you create a custom email signature.
Email Signature Creation Resources
If you want to forgo the basic text-based email signature for something a bit more dynamic, you’re in luck. Here are a few email signature generators that allow you to add an email, RSS feed and more.
WiseStamp
WiseStamp is a free email signature generator that allows you to easily add images, social feeds, branded promotions and more. Though most templates are reserved for paying Pro customers, you can still create a memorable, dynamic email signature with a free template that will help your digital marketing efforts.
Newoldstamp
Similar to WiseStamp, Newoldstamp is a free email signature generator that allows you to create beautiful email signatures quickly. They also have a Pro tier that unlocks all of their templates, however, free users can access one more template with Newoldstamp than with WiseStamp (mentioned above).
htmlsig
If you want a dynamic email signature that is still minimalistic, then htmlsig is the free email signature generator for you. With one template to choose from and little customization to configure, free users can create a custom email signature with no fuss quickly.
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Adding an Email Signature
Once your custom email signature is created, it’s time to add it to your email client. Below are tutorials to assist you with adding email signatures to the most popular email clients:
With your email signature created and added to your mail client, it’s time for you to continue building your brand and web presence. Learn more about email marketing and how to further utilize email for your online business goals.
