When talking about marketing channels, we often forget emails that we sent on a daily basis. I don’t mean newsletters or the promotional ones. I mean the usual person-to-person communication via email.
A personal email has a powerful marketing potential. If it has a call to action, it can increase your brand awareness, convert your interlocutor into your client or brand advocate. Your emails can get people on the other end to follow you on social media, subscribe to your blog or buy your products. You can achieve all this with the help of a decent email signature.
Let us talk about the design and examples of great email signatures. Then we’ll take a look at the tools that will help you devise a perfect traffic-generating signature.
Main Design Aspects
In order to be effective, your email signature has to be visually appealing. That’s why you should consider the following design aspects.
Best Colors
Although there is no best or worst color, keep away from the highly contrasting ones. Avoid using fuxia, lemon or neon green, unless it is absolutely necessary (say, if they are a part of your brand identity). Go with your business’ colors and make sure they all look harmonious together.
Fonts
As in the case of colors, consider turning to your brand’s fonts. Ideally, you should pick a sans-serif standard font for two reasons. Firstly, it will make your signature readable; secondly, you will have it almost certainly displayed correctly in major email clients.
What Contact Info to Choose
You might start with a website. If you really want people calling your business, include a phone number. Alternatively, you can list emails of key people whom your recipient can write to get what they need. You absolutely don’t need to provide the email address you are writing from.
Social Media Icons
Which social media icons you include in your signature depends on your goals. If you want to connect with the recipient professionally, provide a link to your LinkedIn profile; if you want people to interact with your brand on Instagram, include a link to your company’s profile there. And so on.
Call to Action in Signature
If you are a true marketer, then a Call to Action is a must. It can be link with a corresponding caption or a banner. Make sure that the CTA text does not promise something that a person cannot get by following the CTA link in your signature.
Test Browsers and Mobile Versions
Before sending your first emails with a brand new signature, test it carefully. You would want it to display properly on all browsers and in all major email clients. Make sure it is mobile-friendly, as most of your recipients are probably checking their emails, especially personal ones, on mobile.
Best Examples
The most effective email signatures are vivid but compact at the same time. They are built using harmonizing colors and readable fonts. Traffic-driving signatures have clickable links that work. You can take a look at the best email signature examples online or of others for all occasions. From the simple image-and-contact signatures to the ones with eye-catching banners, there are more than enough examples to choose from.
Things to Avoid in Design
As you can see, despite the variety of email signatures, there are certain guidelines to be followed. Here is a list of absolute DON’Ts when designing an email signature:
- bright and contrasting colors, especially for fonts
- non-standard serif fonts that are not easy to read
- making your entire signature a single image
- using very complex formatting
- embedding large heavy images
- overloading the signature with information
Tools to Use
If you are experienced in HTML (and CSS), then it can be relatively easy for you to design and code your own email signature from scratch.
The only tools you will need are your favorite text editor, image processing software (for making an embeddable logo or supporting image) and a page with color codes.
If, however, coding is not one of your strengths, you can use an online tool and generate a custom signature with its help. You will simply need to pick a template and type in the information which will serve your marketing purposes. Don’t forget to pay attention to the color palette, readability and the overall look of your signature; also make sure you have a CTA. Now—Voila!—you are all set to start gaining leads!
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