A large part of working with others professionally is setting a good first impression and leaving with a lasting one. However, we can only get so much across these days in our often impersonal, digitally-driven world. So many people do business without ever meeting the person on the other end of the computer. These types of interactions aren’t going to disappear anytime soon, nor should they have to. Instead, as a business owner it should be your duty to leave a lasting impression in every online interaction with a professional email signature.
A well-written email signature can say a lot about a person or business without taking up too much space. It’s basically a digital business card. It provides a way for you to be contacted and also for you to share other important pieces of information like your business website. Below, we’re going to give you some top tips on how to write great email signatures to leave lasting impressions.
What is an email signature?
An email signature, sometimes referred to as a digital signature or signature block is a piece of text that is added to the end of an email. It contains contact information and sometimes other pieces of relevant content pertaining to a person's or brand’s online presence - such as graphics showing portraits or a logo.
Some countries have regulations that require businesses to add a proper email signature containing specific pieces of information for all company-related emails.
Email signatures: Importance and benefits
Even if you live somewhere that doesn’t require an email signature for business-related communications, it’s a very good idea to create one in order to place at the end of your emails for a couple of reasons:
Shows professionalism and willingness to communicate further
Great resource for branding and recognition
Free promotional tool for your business, website, or other CTA
Sometimes serves as the last impression between you and the recipient
The perfect place to add social media icons so others can follow you or your brand
9 tips on how to write professional email signatures:
While it may sound like you simply need to write a couple of things about yourself or your business and slap it to the end of every email, there are some practices that will help you along the way. Below, we’ll give you some tips to consider while you’re creating your own email signature.
Keep it simple:
There’s nothing wrong with staying minimal with your email signature, foregoing a photo or a logo. An effective email signature can be simple as long as it’s approachable and provides the essentials. If you are going to go the minimalist route, just make sure that the information you do place in your digital signature has the most impact. An example of a great, minimalist email signature example is below, showing only the name prominently displayed in bold, along with the job title and two contact methods.
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Don’t write a book:
Following along with the previous tip, remember that sometimes less is more. Don’t write too much information. If you have a lot of things you want to share, you can keep it all somewhere else, like your website. Then, insert a link to this information in your email signature. Adding a large block of text in general to an email signature will have the recipient’s eyes glazing over in no time.
Use color to accent, not showcase:
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with adding some color to your email signature. In fact, it’s encouraged. However, it’s important to note that the use of color can be used to both your advantage and disadvantage. It can show personality, or to highlight the most important pieces of information you want to share. However, with all of your text in one uniform color, no single element will stand out amongst the rest.
Stay in the (font) family:
While your favorite font combo of Comic Sans and Times New Roman works for your personal computer notes, believe us when we say no one else wants to see them, especially when it comes to your business. The fonts you choose should be legible and similar to one another. If you’re looking to differentiate your fonts, you can use different weights of the same font family to stay consistent and avoid any visual messiness.
Whether it’s your website or your professional email signature, we have just the article if you want to know how to choose the best fonts.
Use social media icons:
While adding links to your social media profiles in your email signature is 100% optional, if you are going to do it, opt for using icons instead of text links. It should be a bit obvious as to why, but adding 2-4 separate text links to the end of your email signature will look cluttered. This also adds unnecessary bulkiness to your overall signature. Using small social media icons that have individual links allows you to avoid this.
Having your social media linked in your email signature is a good practice in general for marketing. If someone follows you on social media based off of clicking a link from your email signature, it’s a sign that you’re strengthening your relationship with that person.
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Add graphics:
The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” can be aptly used here. Whether it’s your own photo or your business logo, a graphic will draw the eyes of a recipient to it and you’ll have a better chance of them actually reading your signature text.
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Be mobile-minded:
Just like websites, it’s important to expect your email signature to be viewed and interacted with on a mobile device. This may require you to adjust the structure or design of your signature so it doesn’t have any alignment issues, given that the screens on mobile devices have a shorter width than that of a computer screen.
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Place the most important info first:
Just because you’ve worked hard on your email signature doesn’t mean it’s going to be an effective one. We live in an age where ads are everywhere. So much so that we tend to tune them out without realizing it. Not only that, readers also tend to move on quickly after they’ve gotten the information that they want.
This means it’s super important to get your message across as quickly as possible, which includes prioritizing your most crucial pieces of information at the top of your signature. It will more than likely be your name/title, but it could also be your business name. Follow this with something like your website address or contact number. However you decide to order the information is up to you. It’s all about what you want the reader to know most.
Have your signature pieces fit together like a puzzle:
After you’ve decided what your digital signature will consist of, you want to look at all the pieces and make sure they look like they belong together. This is not just in terms of alignment, but also that the information presented isn’t too dense or imbalanced. If it feels cramped, consider rearranging the placement of things for a bit more freedom.
Get inspired by email signature generators and creation tools
We can give you tips until we’re blue in the face, but you may need to get your hands digitally dirty before you get a good idea for creating your own. Here are just a few sites you can check out to create yours for free.
Mail Signatures - This is a free, no frills, and straightforward generator for those who want a simple email signature.
Design Hill - This digital signature generator offers some advanced controls, but also come with a few hoops to jump through to get a free email signature.
MySignature - A very easy to use generator to help you create professional email signatures. It will come with a small, “Create your own signature” ad at the bottom unless you pay to remove it.
Wisestamp - One of the more robust options available, Wisestamp requires you to create an account to receive your free signature. The paid option offers an assortment of additional features.
So whether you want to play around with free options or pay up to make sure you have everything you need for your professional email signature, you’re not stuck without options.
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