Operating exclusively in the email media and marketing space, we have literally viewed thousands of email signatures to find the best tips for email signatures. Many clients approach us when they have exhausted all other options to successfully create and manage their email signatures.
Herewith some Tips for email signatures
1. Never underestimate the value of everyday business email
We’re talking about the one-to-one or one-to-few email that you and your staff send daily. Time spent communicating with clients, prospects, consumers, suppliers etc.
Email is without a doubt the most trusted business communication channel, with more than 80% of all business communication taking place via email. Email is consensual, personal and acutely targeted.
2. Make use of signature management software
Designing and coding plays only a small part in ensuring the correct rendering of signatures and other email media components. There are literally hundreds of different email programs in use worldwide, each handling email in different ways.
The use of proven signature management software that intelligently delivers to your recipients will make your task that much easier. New versions of email clients are continuously introduced and staying abreast of these changes takes many hours of development and testing to ensure consistent rendering.
3. Get your IT guys involved, but to a limit
It’s great to get IT involved, but we’ve found that once you have successfully implemented a signature management software system, it’s best if Marketing is left to control and manage signature and campaign content.
4. Consistency is key
Consistency is a key component of any strong brand. An important aspect of this is how your email signature is presented, regardless of your computing device.
Email signatures are an opportunity for your brand to gain some of that much sought-after share-of-mind. Ensure all people within your organisation are using a standardised email signature that is centrally controlled.
Did you know? People that your company communicates with will make connections between emails from different members of your organization because of the consistent email signatures.
5. Target email signature campaign content to recipients
We’re big believers that email signatures should be used to serve marketing campaigns, in addition to enforcing brands. However, you should take the same approach you do with any marketing campaign – consider your audience.
It’s not just about product leads and sales – every group in the company can leverage signatures to create more qualified engagement with their respective audiences.
6. Do not use an image only signature
DO use an HTML signature. Don’t create your email signature as a single image. Updating it is a pain, the image will either appear blurry/pixelated unless uploaded as high resolution which in turn could trigger your email being spam (especially in an email chain where the signature is appended multiple times).
HTML will supply the flexibility to create great looking signatures, in a format that can be applied just about anywhere, given the right signature software management software.
7. E-signing for email is vastly different to designing for web or print
Designing for email is different to most other types of media. We find that a high proportion of design teams that we assist have limited knowledge of email specific design.
If you don’t have a designer on staff – let us help you. Your signature is too important to get it “almost right”. We’re happy to help.
8.Create balance between text and image size in your email signature
We have seen signatures with a clear disproportion between graphics and text/content. Make sure that you have a properly designed email signature which looks professional while considering the sizes of logos and promotional banners so that they fit the overall design.
Even today we very often come across logo designs that were clearly not created with small format digital use in mind.
9. Use web-safe fonts
The advent of web fonts now means you can use all manner of typefaces on your websites. Unfortunately, this doesn’t extend to email signatures as many of the major email clients don’t support the @font-face rule. Therefore, you can only use web-safe fonts, such as the all-too-familiar: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, Trebuchet, Courier, Lucida, Times New Roman and Georgia.
10. Include a call-to-action (CTA)
A good call to action should be persuasive and compelling. It’s also necessary to give readers a reason why they should complete your call to action. To that end, make sure that the content that’s directly related to the button or link is sufficiently explanatory and clearly shows the benefit of taking the action.
11. Measure your success
Integrate analytics into your email signature clicks and statistics. This goes along with measuring your positive outcomes. If you are using an analytics package, definitely integrate it with your email signature management solution.
12. Don’t put it off until tomorrow
The ROI of quality traffic, conversions, and ultimately revenue that an effective email signature can provide is immediate. Just get it done!
So why wait? Let us help you get your email signature updated today.
