A professional email signature is a necessary addition to your marketing arsenal.
It concludes every piece of email correspondence you send out and tells the recipient everything they need to know about you and your business.
Due to the vast number of emails we send every day, the professional email signature is a golden opportunity to promote your brand to every one of your email contacts.
But there are a number of pitfalls you need to avoid.
An email signature that is overcrowded, messy, or poorly designed won’t give your readers a positive lasting impression of you or your brand.
In fact, quite the opposite.
So how do you create a professional email signature that will reflect well on you and your company?
Read on to find out 👇
Key components of a professional email signature | Optional extras to make your professional email signature stand out | Top tips for professional email signature success
3 key components of a professional email signature
Firstly, let’s look at the three essential elements of a professional email signature.
To really make them stand out, consider using hierarchy in your design to direct your readers’ eyes to these three elements first.
Your name
A professional email signature needs to include your first and last name.
If you’d like to remove ambiguity, especially when emailing a new contact, you could also add in your preferred pronouns.
Job title/company
Another key feature of a professional email signature is your professional affiliation, i.e. your job title and company. You might want to add in your department too if this is relevant.
These details will give your recipient some context about you and your experience, as well as giving your email credibility.
Contact information
It’s also necessary to include a secondary point of contact in your email signature. This might be your direct phone line, for example.
Just be aware of adding anything you don’t want to be easily accessible, such as your home phone number or address. And don’t forget to add the international prefix to your phone number if your company has international reach.
4 optional extras to make your email signature stand out
The following four points are optional additions to your professional email signature.
They will transform your signature into a memorable and stylish sign-off.
Social media icons
Including links to your social media profiles in your email signature is an excellent way to reinforce your personal brand.
It also drives traffic to your social channels.
Clickable social media icons are preferable to text links, for two reasons:
- A reader is 80% more likely to engage with the content if it includes a colourful graphic
- Icons save space in your design and look more visually appealing
But be selective about which icons you include.
A maximum of 5-6 is optimal, even if you are active on numerous social channels.
Make sure whichever profiles you do include are updated regularly with relevant content.
Call to action (CTA)
A clickable CTA below your contact details drives traffic to your business' content, offers, events, and more.
As you can see above, Mailtastic used them to promote internal vacancies, but the possibilities with email signature marketing are endless.
You can measure ROI in email signature marketing platforms, which display real-time analytics like campaign click-through rates, allowing you to test and alter messaging accordingly.
Image
The inclusion of an image helps to make your professional email signature stand out amidst text-heavy emails.
There are two options here.
You can either add a personal headshot, which allows readers to put a face to your name. This must be a professional photo taken with good lighting.
Otherwise, you could include your brand logo.
This is a great way to reinforce brand awareness, especially if you use your corporate colours throughout your signature.
Disclaimers
It's worth researching the specific regulations in place in your industry, as you might need to include a disclaimer or confidentiality notice in your professional email signature.
And keep up-to-date with any changes to industry guidelines on this so that you can make amendments if required.
3 top tips for professional email signature success
These final top tips will ensure your email signature always hits the right note 👇
Keep the design simple
A simple design is most effective when it comes to your email signature. Stick to only 1 or 2 colours and fonts to keep the aesthetic cohesive and streamlined.
Be aware of alignment and don’t exceed 600 pixels in width to ensure it renders correctly.
Test on a range of screen sizes and email clients
As well as being informative, stylish and sleek, your professional email signature must also be versatile.
46% of all email opens take place on a mobile device, so it is essential that your signature renders well on a range of screen sizes.
This means it needs to be legible on a small screen.
It's also important that all clickable icons and banners are large enough and sufficiently spaced for them to be tapped with a finger or thumb.
You should also test your professional email signature on several email clients to ensure they all display your signature correctly.
Use a company-wide template
A company-wide template for your professional email signatures will ensure consistency throughout your workplace.
These templates can also be personalised depending on whether your signature forms part of an initial email, or a reply within an email chain.
A more concise signature might be more appropriate for a reply.
This tailor-made approach will show that you have put time and effort into your professional email signature, and you will make a positive lasting impression on your recipients.
Hopefully, this has been a helpful guide for creating the perfect professional email signature which markets you successfully to all your email contacts. Sign up for our free trial and get started today!
