Professional email signature banners are an invaluable B2B marketing tool.
They can be included at the end of an email, after your professional email signature, to promote an upcoming event, offer, new product or feature.
The fact that they appear in a personal context means they produce a much higher CTR than banner ads placed on websites. So it’s definitely worth spending time and effort crafting a tip-top email signature banner.
But where to start?
Well, just follow our 10 simple steps and you’ll have a stand-out professional email signature banner, with a sky-high CTR. 🚀
Planning your banner campaign
As with any B2B marketing campaign, a lot of the key groundwork occurs at the planning stage. Without a thorough plan in place, your professional email signature banner will fall flat. So first things first, you’ve got to establish the following:
1) What do you want your banner to promote?
For example, this could be:
- An upcoming event
- A new product feature
- A special offer
2) What action do you want your email banner recipients to take?
For example, this could be:
- Subscribing to your newsletter
- Booking a place at your event
- Requesting a demo
3) What specific goals do you want to achieve through your banner campaign?
For example, this could be:
- 5% increase in event signups
- 10% increase in newsletter registrations
- 15% increase in meetings attended
4) How long will your email signature banner be relevant for?
For example, this could be:
- Until the day of your event
- Until the promotional period ends
- Until you've achieved your goals
For every one of these questions, make sure your answers are as clear, detailed and specific as possible. All of this will help determine the success of your professional email signature banner.
Focus on your target audience
It's crucial that you know your target audience inside out so your professional email signature banner can be created with them in mind.
Consider:
- What is your target audience?
- Which of their pain points does your banner address?
- What tone of voice should you use?
Once you’ve done this, you can ensure your banner resonates with your target audience and solves their pain points.
And to make things easier:
With Mailtastic, you can assign different email signature banners to whichever department is in the most direct contact with your target audience.
That way, you can make sure your professional email signature banner always reaches who you want it to.
5) Include a CTA
A clear call-to-action is a crucial component of your professional email signature banner.
For an effective CTA, you need to think about:
- What the recipient should do (e.g. click, call, book now)
- Why they should do it (e.g. extra information, discount, VIP access)
When designing your banner, bear in mind that you want your recipient’s eye to be drawn to the CTA first and foremost.
So think bold, big, and bright. And of course, it must be clickable.
6) Offer a benefit
Offering a benefit in your professional email signature banner is the best way to encourage your recipients to respond to the aforementioned CTA. The better incentive you give to your recipients, the more likely they are to click.
With that in mind, think about your target audience’s pain points and offer a benefit that would really appeal to them.
For instance, are they more likely to engage with a financial discount, VIP access to an event, or priority booking? Remember to keep your target audience in mind every step of the way.
7) Format your banner correctly
Forget to format at your peril!
Your email signature banner should be big enough to make an impression but not so big that it overwhelms the body of the email.
And it’s worth pointing out, the smaller the file, the faster it can be opened in your recipient’s email. In terms of file formats, it’s best to stick to JPEG, JPG or PNG.
If you want to make your professional email signature banner extra eye-catching, you could consider using GIF animations. But bear in mind that lots of fast-moving images may irritate your recipients. Make sure you only include an animation if there is a reason for it.
With Mailtastic, you can test out different formats to see which one produces the most clicks and impressions. So your professional email signature banner will be formatted in the most effective way, every single time.
8) Choose a striking design
The design of your professional email signature banner is a deciding factor when it comes to CTR. Most of the time, professional email signature banners are displayed horizontally. That being said, don’t be afraid to play around with design in order to make your banner stand out.
When it comes to text, include whatever is necessary, but no more. If you do have a lot of information to get across, add it into the landing page rather than overcrowding your banner.
Your banner should entice the reader enough so that they click on the CTA, and then more detailed information can follow. Make sure that any text you do include is easy to read and not too small. Similarly, any images you include should be relevant to the message of your email signature banner.
Keeping the design of your banner as similar as possible to the design of your landing page will also help ensure a seamless transition for your recipient and further encourage them to complete your CTA. A good rule of thumb here is to stick to your company's colour palette.
Otherwise, think about the mood you want to convey with your email signature banner and which colours evoke it.
9) Link directly to your benefit
This may sound obvious but this gets forgotten time and again.
The link in your email signature banner should lead recipients directly to the page where they can receive the benefit you have advertised. In fact, the faster they can find the offer, the better. Otherwise, they may well get frustrated and give up.
And after all your hard work getting them to this point, that would be a huge shame.
10) Measure your results
This is critical.
Measuring your clicks and impressions tells you how successful your email signature banner campaign is. It lets you know if and when you need to refresh or replace your banner with new content, a new initiative or a new format.
The good news is, with Mailtastic, this couldn’t be easier. The central dashboard enables you to see instantly how well your email signature banner campaign is doing. And you can track and analyse clicks and impressions as your campaign progresses.
BONUS STEP: Keep your banner up-to-date
Seeing as email signature banners advertise an upcoming event or new feature, they won’t be relevant forever. Engagement will drop as time goes on.
So how do you avoid this?
It’s all about relevance. You’ve got to make sure your email signature banner always reflects current company goals and priorities. This means mixing it up every so often to keep it fresh.
A regularly updated professional email signature banner is a great way to keep your email recipients constantly engaged.
And there you have it!
Put these 10 easy steps into practice, and your professional email signature banner game will be on point in no time.
