In this post I’m going to show you how to design an effective email signature that will help you grow your business.
Email signatures are perceived to be of low value. When you send an email, people not only read the words, but they can learn more about you and your company through your email signature.
The added value that you can get for your business is huge. And here is why, no matter in which business you are involved.
- If somebody wants to find you and you are not in their phone directory, the email signature is the second place he will look for. Your contacts details MUST be there.
- Depending the business you are running or working for, you can define specific redirect people to connect with you in other social networks.
- You might also provide through your signature, your most valuable piece of content.
- Your can drive traffic to your website.
- You must show COHERENCE with your brand ALSO in your email signature.
This is why the good design of an email signature is essential for a successful business.
In order to design an effective email signature here are some key concepts you must know.
1.KEEP IT SIMPLE
Your email signature must have the basic contact information. Dont overload it. The most important information’s to include are:
- Name.
- Position.
- Company name or logo.
- Your phone number.
Logo credit: Freepik.com
2. ADD ONLYÂ ONE “CALL TO ACTION”
The most common mistakes on email signatures is that they don’t have any call to action. Depending on your business you might be able to design different call to actions. But only add ONE.Â
- Social Media. If you / your company are active on social media, you can add the icons for people to engage & follow you on social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook), etc.
- Your website. Only add a direct link to your website if you intend to drive traffic. But instead of putting the address, its better to include your most popular, article or post. This link can be updated every week / month depending on how often you publish new articles.
- Content. Another strategy to drive traffic is to promote specific content. If you have a ToolGuide or a free online course, you can link directly to a Sign-Up form.
- Product. You can directly promote a product by putting a link to your product sales page.
Logo credit: Freepik.com
3. RESPECT THE FUNDAMENTALS OF DESIGN
Hierarchy. The most important element of your email signature is your name. So it must pop up directly. Respect the hirarchy of the different elements that compose your signature to “guide” the person who is reading it from the most important information to the final information you want him to retain. You can check my post about Emphasis here.
Alignment. All the elements of your signature must be algined, the pictures & texts. Be careful if you include call to actions to also have them aligned.Â
4. BE CONSISTENT with your BRAND DESIGN
Email signatures are part of your brand design. If you ever ask for a Brand Design, verify that the design is included. It’s important that the design of your email signatures is consistent with other designs has your business card, letterhead, etc. This means that you must use the same color palette, the same typographie, etc.Â
5. GRAPHIC ELEMENTS & SIZE
You can include your picture in your email signature but the image must be of small size (<50Kb). Heavy images will make the email to take longer to load. If your original logo was in high quality & you are reducing it for the email signature, be careful if you image is a vector or a raster image. Remember that raster images are not good to shrink. You can check the difference in this article.Â
Ilustration credit: Freepik.com
6. RESPECT THE STANDARD SIZE
Today is very common to send emails from your PC or from your smartphones & tables. The person who receive your email might also be able to read it on different supports. When you design a signature you have 2 alternatives. Design one email signature for your desktop application & one for your smartphone OR design a responsive email signature. This means that the signature will adapt according to the screen size where your email is being read. Of course the complexity of both options is not the same.Â
If you want to design a signature in “static” mode:
- For desktop users, the size of a signature should be around 600 px wide.
- For mobiles users, the size of a signature is around 300px wide.Â
Do you need help on your signature design? Contact me or leave a comment below, I’ll be happy to help you!Â
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