Email signatures: the what, the why, and the how

Branding is what allows customers to connect with your brand. It can be as bold as a billboard, as simple as your social media content, and as subtle as an email signature design.

As a designer, you want to be able to present yourself as an established professional.

In this article, we will look at what an email signature is and why you need an email signature, no matter if you are using a personal email or a company email.

Then we will talk about five types of email signatures for designers:

• Professional
• Corporate
• Creative email signatures
• Laconic
• Informal

Afterward, we will look at some tips on creating a simple yet effective email signature. We will also show you some email signature examples to see how a good signature differs from a bad signature.

In the end, we will give you a step-by-step guide on how to create your email signature. Ready to transform your email signature? Let’s dive in!

What is an email signature?

An email signature is like a virtual business card. It's a text block containing your name, business contact details, URL, or any personalized quote that will further strengthen your brand.

Automatically inserted at the end of your emails, an email signature doesn't just raise brand awareness. It also adds personality to it so you can create a unique identity.

Why you need an email signature

Without an email signature, your email is just as good as a bag of delectable treats sent anonymously to your potential customers.

If you aren't convinced yet, here are some reasons why an email signature is a need for every business owner.

It establishes your brand as a legitimate company

An email signature creates uniformity. By adding thoughtfulness to your logo, color scheme quotes, and email signature, you can effectively present yourself as an established company worthy of your client's trust and attention.

All of these efforts will not go in vain. Instead, you will reach a broader customer base.

Adds personality to your brand

Your email signature provides insight into your brand. Think of famous food chains like McDonald's or Starbucks. Just one glimpse at their logo, and you already know what their company sells (and what they're for).

The same goes for email signatures, except that it's not a logo. Instead, the color, the font style, and the tone you use in ending your email show your recipient your brand character, creating a brand association.

Strengthens communication links

An email signature is like the “PS Call me here” or the call to action (CTA) part of your email, which plays a critical role in any marketing campaign. Here, you can add links to your business number and allow readers to book a discovery call instantly.

You can also add social media icons for a personal touch and link each of them to your individual social media channels. For example, a go-to-option is adding your LinkedIn icon so people can click on it and get redirected to your profile on LinkedIn.

All these actions will remove communication barriers that can stunt your business growth.

Allows opportunities for personal associations

When you create an email signature, you have the option to add a picture so you can allow your recipients to make personal associations.

This step is quite rare in a virtual setting, where business transactions can be done without putting a face on the product or service providers. By adding a professional photo, you're telling your clients that you are open to communication and accountable for your business.

Types of email signatures for designers

Signing off with a professional-looking, attention-grabbing email signature can help you leave a lasting impression on your recipients. While email signatures vary depending on your brand and your goals, you can find something out there for you that can fit your specific needs and wants, in this case.

1. Professional

Let's start with the basics. Professional email signatures, as the name implies, are used by experts or professionals. Commonly, this type of email signature includes essential details such as the sender's name, position, and contact details.

2. Corporate

In contrast to professional email signatures, corporate ones are sent on behalf of an entire business entity or a team. Therefore, creating a template for individual team members is one of the fail-proof ways to add cohesion to an email marketing campaign.

3. Creative email signatures

Creativity allows you to go limitless when it comes to self- or professional expression, which rings true when using creative email signatures.

If your brand is hip and fun, you can show that off by, for instance, adding a lively, unconventional photo beside your business details. Your email signature, your call.

4. Laconic

Do you prefer a simpler format for your email signature? Then the laconic style is the right email signature format for you. A simpler format does not necessarily mean that you have a bad email signature.

Laconic style can also be a well-designed email signature. So go ahead and embrace a minimalist approach when creating email signatures. When choosing this style, you can stick to the essentials such as your name, signature, job position, and contact details.

5. Informal

Like the creative type, informal email signatures appeal to fun-loving professionals. The difference, however, is the use of different elements that may appear too casual or, to put it bluntly, unprofessional for some recipients.

Informal signatures contain emojis or other images to attract engagement. In some instances, this can be effective, but in most parts, this does not work in a strictly professional setting.

How to sign off with a bang

The key to creating an effective email signature is to keep it simple. Instead of stuffing your recipient with the information they already know. Stick to the essentials and keep your signature clean and understandable.

To do this, you should:

1. Avoid overloading readers with social media buttons

You can use an email signature to link your letter to your official social media content or account. But instead of adding everything there, analyze the movement of your target market.

This move will give you essential insights into the social media platforms where you can effectively grow your brand. For example, is your service more marketable on LinkedIn or Twitter?

Not many people love choosing from too many options. Adding countless links to your email signature is like asking your recipients to browse Netflix's never-ending movie selections. Eventually, they'll get tired of finding the right feel-good ‘movie' and abandon your email.

2. Avoid repeating your email address

Ironically, many businesses still add their email address to their email signature. If you think about it, this information is already in your email header.

So, putting it at the bottom part is already a form of redundancy. It's like saying “Hi! I'm John” twice in a letter.

3. Don’t forget your email signature CTA

Ensure that your email signature is also clickable. If the reader wants to engage with your email signature, make sure they can be directed to the content or complete a specific action.

For example, add a CTA or link to your business email signature.

If you want to create a cool email signature, no matter if it is a personal signature or a formal email signature, try adding cool signature details that can also serve as a signature button.

In addition, you can add a creative logo that is also clickable and redirects people to your company profile or your business page.

4. Use the power of visuals, and don’t go over four lines

It's easy to overdo your email signature by adding your image icon, contact phone, additional images, and so on. For example, overloading your recipients with more contact information can help you get better leads sometimes.

But more often than not, the opposite is true, especially if you apply it to a business setting. Take a look at this example:

As you can see, the bad example, in this case, has overcrowded their email signature with a lot of info and redundant text. A good example, in this case, is using a simple format, sticking to four lines. She has included her name, her job position, mobile phone, and website.

To make her email signature more personal, she has also added her social media channels. Unlike the person on the left who says, “Follow me on Twitter,” she has only added the social media icons without using any call to action since the social media CTA is obvious. She has added the three social media icons to the side so the signature does not look overcrowded.

Another detail that makes the sample email signature on the right a good example is that she has included a profile photo to add another personal touch to her email signature.

How to create an email signature?

Step 1: use an email signature app

Email signatures aren't rocket science. If you need to create a similar email signature, you can search for other signature design templates or even use email signature software to make your email signature look even better.

Newoldstamp

Newoldstamp is a free email signature generator app aiming to help you strengthen your brand by creating email signatures for your employees. It is easy to use, and it allows you to choose from up to 11 free templates. You can also check out their paid services, which are tailored to your specific marketing needs.

emailSignatures

Free email signatures offer you a variety of free templates to choose from. In addition, through their free signature generator, you can ensure cohesion across all your email deliveries.

MySignature

Clean and sleek, MySignature understands your need to sign off professionally and compellingly. Its free templates and signature customization feature enable you to reflect your brand character effectively.

Gimmio

Gimmio makes countless fonts and styling options available for your marketing needs. It also allows you to add banners and social icons that can help you intensify customer engagement.

Step 2: choose a template and input your details

Once you choose a free or paid email signature generator, find a template that directly speaks to your brand.

Standardized email signatures are great, especially when used for company email signatures. Nevertheless, it is always essential to add a personal touch, even if you use an email signature template generator.

A general rule to not forget is to keep it simple. You can perfectly showcase your brand with three or four lines. There is no need to overcrowd it with extra info or extra words that do not add value to your email signature.

Step 3: add your email signature to your email

Creating an email signature with these templates is easy. But if you want to make your entire email delivery system seamless, you should use an email client that unifies your account across all platforms.

If, for instance, you're using an email client app and a web-based email to add fluidity to your email deliveries, you have to create an email signature for both types of applications.

You can attach your email signature by copying the HTML of your chosen template or image. Then, go to your email account settings and paste your email signature.

Key takeaways

If you want to beat your competition, you should find the right balance between optimizing your user experience and streamlining your marketing approach. For example, by creating a professional email signature, you give your potential clients a way to remember you in a good way.

In most cases, it is easy to edit your custom email signatures directly from your email settings and edit the signature box to improve your default signature.

In other cases, especially if you want to add a unique image or design to your customizable email signature, you might need to use email signature software.

An email signature is pretty easy to create with a free or paid generator and add the resulting HTML or image to your email client.

Adding social channels, especially LinkedIn and Twitter profiles, to your email signature will also make your signature more personal and allow people to get to know you or your brand more, going beyond the formality of email etiquette.

This extra step is significant if you also aim to grow your social media audience numbers. Adding your social media channels to your email signature will make it easy for your email contacts to find and follow you or your company on social media.