With email being one of the principal forms of modern communication, email marketing automation is one of the most useful tools when it comes to catching the attention of your recipient. Appropriate digital communication is as linked with professionalism and brand image as business cards, brochures, and booklets, and a proper email signature can make this communication very beneficial. With hundreds of emails received on a daily basis, a properly-designed and memorable email signature makes your email campaigns stand out from all the rest that bombard your recipient’s inbox.
Reasons Email Signatures Are Important
Professionalism
Creating a clear and memorable email signature contributes to your company’s professional image and shows that your business is well run. Compare an unsolicited email with a simple name-only sign-off and the same email ended with an engaging personalized signature. Which one encourages you more to contact back and continue communication? The better an email signature is, the more professional value it adds to its sender.
Brand Recognition
By supplying an email signature with your company logo, you promote brand awareness among the recipients. Using corporate colors and fonts for a signature is the perfect strategy to make every email campaign recognizable.
Personalization
Recipients want to know that there are real people behind a message, and there is where an email signature comes in. Teamed up with a photo, it makes your email campaigns look more personal and turns an unsolicited email into a friendlier and more trustworthy message.
Promotion
Using your contact details and social media icons make it easier for people to reach you. An email signature is perfect for accumulating all necessary information in one place and showing your recipients you care about their convenience.
Types of Email Signatures
Different in appearance and content, email signatures can be divided into four major categories:
Professional Email Signatures:
Are the most common type of email signatures used by companies and private experts. Typically, they contain a name, position, logo and contact data, and aim to both provide information and stimulate brand recognition.
Corporate Email Signatures:
Are used on behalf of a team, not an individual, for example, by online stores, call centers, real estate agencies, educational centers, etc.
Laconic Email Signatures:
Include only the basic info, such as a sender’s name, job position, and one or two contacts.
Creative Email signatures:
Provide space for creativity. For instance, you may replace a more traditional photo image with a painted portrait, or give it an upgrade using funny animation.
What Makes A Consistent Email Signature
An email signature should be brief and free of unnecessary information. Do not overstore your signature with text or social media profiles, list only the main links instead. An average email signature should not go over 4-7 lines, so try to stick to that length.
When picking things to include into an email signature, keep to these basics:
– Name;
– Position;
– Personal photo or company’s logo;
– Phone number;
– Website URL;
– Social media profiles.
An email signature should be an embodiment of the whole message: clear, concise and informative rather than overloaded and messy.
Signatures for Plain Text Emails
As suggested by the name, a plain text email signature contains only text elements, with no image components. At its most basic, this type of signatures incorporates personal information such as a name, position, phone number, and email address. With no HTML content, it does not require special skills and can be created using the settings of almost every email client. Before incorporating such signatures into your campaigns, give them a test drive to see how the design works for various devices.
Email Signature Generators
Those who want to adopt a more creative approach can use particular software to give your signatures a personalized touch and make them more recognizable. When picking up an email signature generator, make sure it supports as many email clients.
WiseStamp
WiseStamp supports all main players in email servicing, including Gmail, Hotmail, and Outlook. It helps design both individual and corporate signatures and accompany them with dynamic content.
The corporate uniform style templates can only be built using the corporate version of the app, while individual signatures are easily created for free. To launch a signature building, specify the professional industry and start typing your information into the text box. There is no need to put every single detail: your name, position and website will be more than enough. Upload your photo or a company’s logo and enlist major social media links to help people get in touch with you in the most convenient way for them. With many options available, choose a template that fits your taste, and the service will generate a signature. A generated signature will be automatically added to your emails after you paste the created template to your email client’s settings. Note that this service is paid based on each client’s pricing.
eSputnik
eSputnik is an email automation marketing software with a built-in signature template creator that has two options for an email signature design: a 2-column signature and a 3-column signature. The editor is really adaptive and requires no special technical skills.
To create the email design according to your particular needs, you can choose between different options:
- Decide upon versatile adaptive templates.
- Adjust font.
- Pick the color of the text.
- Use drag-and-drop to add content from the images bank.
- Change the design of the images right in the block.
- Add an attractive banner to your newsletter.
- Add a product card or video file.
- Configure size and color of social media icons.
As a bonus, in case you want to apply some creativity and spruce up your email signature, it is possible to add some themed elements to the profile photo. A funny hat or a couple of flowers can turn a standard email signature into a festive sign-off.
Last, But Not Least
A great email signature is not the holy grail of company image building, but it is much more than simply putting a name at the end of a message. It initiates beneficial communication with people who can eventually turn into repeat customers. Designing an engaging signature that reflects the identity of the company can grant instant brand recognition and adds great value to your marketing efforts. After all, “the first impression is the one that counts the most.”
