Email signatures are primarily known from personal correspondence. A signature at the end of an email not only has the advantage of providing necessary information such as contact data, but also conveys a personal impression. The recipient gets the feeling of being addressed directly by an employee instead of receiving an impersonal mass mailing.The insertion of an email signature is not only a "nice accessory", but may also be mandatory.
The "Gesetz über elektronische Handelsregister und Genossenschaftsregister sowie das Unternehmensregister" (EHUG), which came into force on 01.01.2007 and is based on the EU Publicity Directive 2003/58/EC, regulates the corresponding requirements. As a rule, a business email that is a "business letter" must contain an email signature. Companies, self-employed persons etc. registered in the commercial register (OHG, KG, GmbH, UG, AG as well as sole proprietors registered in the commercial register) must integrate an email signature.
However, email signatures can also be used sensibly for marketing campaigns. The advantage of email marketing over other forms of direct marketing lies in the higher popularity and lower wastage. Hardly any other advertising medium allows companies to address their customers in such a personalized way. With the help of variables and attributes, not only precise campaign control is possible.
With just a few clicks, you can insert signatures into the HTML templates for newsletters or other mailings. Professional signature management enables you to select the relevant information and images, such as company logos or social media icons and target group-specific marketing banners, as offered by Mailtastic.
Cleverly used, email signatures increase the interaction rate in marketing campaigns and ultimately lead to higher sales. In this article we give you 6 suggestions on how to use signatures effectively in email marketing.
In the daily business process automated mailings after certain actions of the customer (purchase, registration, cancellation) are common practice. The success rate can be increased by the personal impression given to these e-mails by signatures. In the following we present three examples for meaningful application possibilities.
Your customer has purchased a specific product from you, purchased a license for software, or booked a specific service. To ensure that he can make the most of the service he has purchased, an automated email inquiry can be used, for example to remind the customer to activate the software a few days after the purchase or to ask them about their experience with the new product.
But if this email seems too impersonal, the chance of getting a response is certainly less than after a more personal mailing. An email signature gives your customer the feeling that one of your employees is personally inquiring about the success and giving him individual tips.
Another opportunity is to use a banner in the signature to provide customers with additional information, such as related products or services that complement what they have bought. Information for the optimal use of the new acquisition can also be given here.
Customers terminate subscriptions to software, contracts for services or memberships. There are many reasons for this, ranging from dissatisfaction with the price/performance ratio or quality to changing needs and ignorance about optimal use. This is what makes it so valuable for companies to find out what the reasons for a termination were.
If this request for feedback from the recipient is understood as a personal request from employees whose email signatures are used in the mailing, this also opens up the opportunity to receive a personal reply addressed to this employee. If, on the other hand, the email appears to be too automated, the impression may arise that the feedback is not read and taken into account personally anyway.
The personal touch, on the other hand, gives the feeling of being heard and taken seriously, perhaps even of being able to receive a personal reply. Especially for reasons which lie in a lack of understanding for the advantages and possibilities of the cancelled service, this makes it possible to enter into dialogue with the customer and perhaps even win him back.
Valuation platforms are valuable to companies for a variety of reasons. For example, they can play a role in (local) ranking in search engines. Of course, they also help in the acquisition of new customers by reducing reservations about purchases. It is a good practice to ask customers for an evaluation after a certain period of time after the purchase (registration or signing up for a service). If the customer receives this email from an employee he already knows instead of an impersonal, rather anonymous mailing, there is also a greater chance that the request will be complied with. An alternative to this is to ask for an evaluation in another mailing directly after the purchase via a banner in the signature (see new customer activation).
Not only automated mailings, but also one-off campaigns benefit from email signatures. Three conceivable examples:
Sending vouchers to existing customers on special occasions, such as holidays, sales, collection changes or company anniversaries, is a common way to increase the number of purchases. Signatures give you the feeling that you are not one of many recipients who have received a voucher code, but a personal offer from an employee. As in the other examples, it is the combination of the recipient's skilful direct address by name and the signature that gives the email campaign a personal, individual touch.
Surveys are a valuable tool to determine the wishes and suggestions as well as the personal situation of customers and to use them for targeted addressing or the orientation of one's own product or service offering. Email is an important channel to find participants for this survey. The signature helps to give recipients the feeling that an employee is personally interested in the opinion. The motivation to answer the questions can be increased by this.
Here, too, it is possible to send the whole thing via a mailing specially designed for this purpose or to include it in other (handwritten) emails or (automated) mailings as call-to-action in the email signature.
Regularly sent newsletters often appear in a very professional, sometimes elaborate design, which gives the impression of seriousness and professionalism. Such mailings deliberately stand out from personal emails. However, there is also the opposite trend in email marketing: sending newsletters in HTML format, using banners, images and links, but not templates. Here, an e-mail signature is a useful addition, because it underlines the personal impression.
The faceless company newsletter becomes a personal letter from one person to another. Personal identification with the sender can thus be improved and credibility and authenticity increased. In addition, additional current information can be graphically integrated into the signature via banners. Nevertheless, the impression of a personal e-mail is not lost with this practice.
Although email signatures are still mainly known from personal contact between two or more people, they can be used skilfully for email marketing. The application possibilities are versatile. In this article, we hope we have given you some insight and initial suggestions for your own business practice.