It’s important to end on a good note – even in marketing. If you’ve participated in a performance before, you’ve probably heard this same advice. The last song or dance is what the audience will remember. It’s what they’ll mention to their friends, and it’s how you can get people coming back.
That’s not to say that the content of your email – or show – doesn’t matter. It most certainly does. However, the end of your email, most often the signature, is a great way to leave a final impression on the reader.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know to set up an email signature that promotes conversion while remaining concise.
Table of contents
What is an Email Signature?
An email signature is a personalized block of content that sits at the end of an email. Typically, your email signature will contain details like your name, company info, job title, and contact info.
Most professionals use email signatures as an end to their email. If you work at a large organization, an email signature will most likely already be designed for you. If you work at a smaller organization, it may be something you need to create for yourself.
What To Include in Your Email Signature?
Every email signature is different, but most of them include the same important information. Here’s what we recommend you add to your email signature:
1. First and Last Name
Of course, the first thing you need in an email signature is your name. Your reader needs to know who your email is coming from and, not to mention, putting your name on something inspires you to put more effort into your emails.
Typically, your name will be the first line of text in your signature; however, there are no hard rules for where you can put it. Your signature, your way.
2. Company Info
The second thing you’ll notice on most email signatures is company information. Your company information can be anything you’d like. Typically this is your job title, your organization’s name, your department, or your industry.
While the main focus of an email signature is to share your information with a reader, providing your company information is a great way to give more context to your reader. Additionally, being affiliated with a well-known organization can also boost your credibility and make your message more impactful.
3. Contact Information
It’s always better to provide more means of contact information than less. This could include your phone number, fax number, or any other preferred method of contact. Ideally, you want to make yourself as accessible as possible to your leads – so nobody falls through the cracks.
If you don’t want to share your phone number in your email signature, this could also be an opportunity to promote your website as an alternative way to reach you.
4. Social Profile Icons
You can reinforce your personal brand by including links to your social media in your email signature. Your ability to do this will depend on the email signature that you use.
Compared to links, social media icons are a lot more recognizable. For the reader, it’s also a lot easier to know what you’re clicking on. A study from NeoMam Studios2 found that social icons increase a person’s willingness to read the rest of the content by 80%.
We recommend limiting the number of social media icons to five or six. Instead of including a ton of links, focus on the accounts that are the most valuable to your audience. Additioanlly, if you’re sharing your social links, you should be active on the platforms.
5. Include a Call to Action
If you’re a salesperson, your email signature should most definitely include a call to action (CTA). The most effective CTAs are concise, up-to-date, non-intrusive, and in line with your email tone. You want to make it feel like part of the conversation, not a sales pitch.
We’ve written an entire article just about writing a killer CTA. You can find that here.
6. Booking Links
Another great idea if you’re in sales or a customer-facing role is to include your booking links. Of course, this only works if you use an appointment-setting tool like Calendly.
Adding your booking links is a great way to skip the “can you resend a link to your calendar emails.” It’s also a fantastic way to book meetings just by sending enough emails!
7. Privacy Information
While not necessary, it always looks good to customers to take security seriously. With email marketing in mind, there are a few regulations that you can to highlight your dedication to privacy. Specifically, industries, such as legal, financial, and insurance often have regulations in place when it comes to email communication.
If you work in one of the industries mentioned above, you may want to include a privacy statement in your email. Here’s an example we drafted for you:
“The content of this email is confidential and intended for the recipient specified in the message only. It is strictly forbidden to share any part of this message with any third party without the written consent of the sender. If you received this message by mistake, please reply to this message and follow with its deletion so that we can ensure such a mistake does not occur in the future.”
8. A Professional Photo
Adding an image to your email signature can be a nice touch of personalization and professionalism. If you’re sending a cold message, your recipient gets to know who the message is coming from.
If you’d rather stay anonymous throughout your email campaign, we recommend including the company logo for some branding.
9. Preferred Pronouns
Including your preferred pronouns in your email signature can be helpful if you’re talking to people you’ve never met before. It’s not a requirement but, it does free your messages from any ambiguity.
We also recommend that you add your pronouns to your LinkedIn page – especially if you’re prospecting. Find out how to do so here.
How To Set Up an Email Signature
Now let’s cover how you can add an email signature to your email account. While this is a generally straightforward process, the nitty-gritty of it can depend on what email search provider (ESP) you’re using. Here’s what that process looks like:
How To Set Up Your Email Signature in Gmail
To set up your email signature in Gmail, follow these simple steps:
- Open Gmail.
- Click on the gear-shaped Settings icon in the top right corner.
- Select “See all settings” from the dropdown menu.
- Scroll down to find the “Signature” section.
- Click on the plus icon to create a new signature.
- In the text box provided, enter your desired signature, or copy and paste the template you are using into the text box.
- Keep in mind that images contribute to the character limit of your email signature. If you encounter an error popup, try resizing your image.
- Once satisfied with your signature, scroll to the bottom of the page and “Save Changes” to save your new signature.
If you’ve followed these steps successfully, congrats! You will now have an email signature attached to all outgoing messages that you send from your account. If you want to tweak when your email signature shows up, you can adjust the settings from the “signature” section of the settings menu.
How To Set Up Your Email Signature in Outlook
To customize your email signature in Outlook, follow these steps:
- Click on the gear icon labeled “Settings” at the top of the page.
- Select “View all Outlook settings”.
- Choose “Mail” followed by “Compose and reply.”
- In the “Email signature” section, type or paste your desired signature and use the formatting options provided to make any desired changes.
If you want your signature to appear automatically at the end of every new email you send, check the box that says, “Automatically include my signature on new messages I compose.” You could also add your signature to replies of your messages you’ve already sent in the same settings menu.
Note: You can only have one email signature per account in Outlook.
Examples of Professional Email Signatures
Throughout our years of prospecting and lead gen, we’ve come across a few fantastic email signatures. Here are some of our favorite real-life email signatures that you can use for inspiration.
Example 1: Classy and Professional
This email signature from Sonia Underwood is simple and straightforward. Included are her means of contact info, job title, as well as two unique links (in this case to her portfolio). Take from this that your email signature doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel – instead, go for something that gets the point across as concisely as possible.
Example 2: The Social Enthusiast
It’s said that the best lead gen is done through social media. If you’re one of those who dedicate time to social media, you’ll benefit heavily from linking to your favorite channels in your email signature. Just keep in mind what’s professional in your industry (as most people don’t want to see your baby pictures on LinkedIn, sorry).
Example 3: In-Person Options
If you run a business that is in-person (ex., real estate), you should include your office or region you cover. That way, if you’re running a campaign, your leads will know if you can help them or not! In Susana’s email signature above you can clearly tell that she’s pushing her real estate business in Olympiades, New Jersey.
Example 4: Corporate Professional
The corporate professional often needs to keep things strictly business-related. Here’s an example from Dr. Amy Cogan, a general practitioner at Grade Care. As you can see here, she’s included a booking link for telehealth, as well as her LinkedIn (to learn about her education) and her Yelp (to see how her practice is reviewed).
Example 5: What’s Popular in Fintech
In the example above, Gregory Fridley uses his company information and contact information to form a concise signature. Even though, it’s short, it still gives a contact everything they’d need to continue a conversation with Gregory outside of email.
4 Tips To Get You Started With Your Email Signature
If our inspiration wasn’t enough, we have a few last tips to help you create a reply-worthy email signature. Here’s what to keep in mind:
1. Consistent Branding is Key
If you work at a company, you want your email signature to be consistent across all job functions. Whether you’re the CEO or a business development representative, you should have the company colors and logo in your signature.
Consistent branding in your email signatures can help establish your company brand. If everyone in the company is using the same signature (just changing their variables), your brand will be easily recognized. To some customers, your business may be viewed as more credible as well.
2. Shorter is Better
You’ve probably seen an email signature that has a personal quote, multiple contact numbers, and various additional info. Often this looks cluttered, messy, and not that professional. To keep everything clear, we recommend keeping your signature short and sweet.
You should include only the essential information, such as your name, job title, company name, phone number, and booking link. Just like the email variables you use in your messaging, a concise signature ensures that the important details stand out.
3. Optimize for Mobile Viewers
More than half of all emails were opened on phones in 2023. That means you need to optimize your email signature for both mobile and desktop users.
Luckily, most of the email signature templates are customized for both phones and computers. If you design your signature yourself, you’ll need to pay extra attention to the font and image sizes that you use on your page.
4. Don’t Forget a Call to Action
No matter what your job title is, you should include a call to action (CTA) in your email signature. We recommend a link for your recipients to book a discovery/demo call; however, the CTA that works best for you ultimately depends on your job function.
Adding a CTA guides the reader into your sales funnel. To make your CTA more effective, try using contrasting colors, larger fonts, or buttons to make it stand out. This will help ensure that your CTA catches the recipient’s attention and encourages them to take action.
Free Email Signature Generators
We don’t blame you if you don’t want to design your own email signature. Instead, use one of the free email signature generators that you can find online. Here are two that we recommend:
MySignature
MySignature is a free email signature generator you can use to keep your brand image consistent. It comes with hundreds of templates titled friendly, professional, modern, elegant, and creative.
To use MySignature, all you need to do is add your personal and contact data, and the software will input your info into the template of your choosing. No matter what option you pick, MySignature connects to Gmail, Outlook, and any other email provider that you have.
We-Connect
You don’t even have to leave our website to make a killer email signature. So, why don’t you relax and stay awhile? We-Connect’s signature generator is simple and effective. Input your name, job info, links, and contact info, as well as customize social links and buttons for your unique needs.
Choose from seven professional templates fit for modern professionals and fresh startups.
Conclusion
An email signature is a must-have if you’re sending emails professionally. It shouldn’t matter if you’re in a sales position or a customer service one; an email signature will increase company branding and professionalism.
After you get started with your email signature, you can easily insert it into We-Connect for your cold outreach campaigns. Try it today for 14 days free.
