Professional Email Signatures: The Complete 2019 Guide
Find out how to create an email signature with some of the do’s and don’ts of what to include.
➡️ This guide has been updated and republished. Find the most updated version here.
Email signature is a must-have for every modern worker as it helps create a lasting impression for you and your business — but how you sign-off can be a make or break for your email.
Planning a new email signature and not quite sure where to start?
In this guide on professional email signatures, we covered the basics of do’s and don’ts with detailed examples, design best practices and how you can easily create a professional, beautiful signature that matches your profession and brand in under 2 minutes with Mailbutler’s free signature builder.
The importance of a memorable email sign-off
The simple answer to this: email signatures grasp attention. With the average worker receiving 121 emails a day, what makes yours stand out from your prospect’s inbox is a memorable sign-off.
Your signature helps you communicate your best business offerings, keeps your clients in the loop of company updates — and most importantly, wraps up each conversation with professionalism.
✍️ Treat your email signature like a business card
Your email signature represents you just like a physical business card. The only difference is that it will be presented repeatedly in emails.
Just like the physical cards we hand out with the goal in making a great impression, keep your email signature 1. informative, 2. easy to read and 3. absolutely uncluttered.
Do: Include essential information such as name, organization, your position and at least one contact information (phone with an international prefix, fax, email). You can also include a closing sentence (e.g. Have a great day, Kind regards) before your signature.
Avoid: Unnecessary information such as personal quotes or additional pictures, or too many contact numbers that may confuse your recipients.
✍️ Use your signature to increase conversions
If your business is also active on social media, take advantage of your signature and include them as favicons or links:
Do: Include a few favicons or links to your social media channels that are relevant.
Avoid: Including any social media channels that aren’t up to date even though they are live. Depending on the position or the organization, you might want to avoid including personal links (e.g. LinkedIn profile).
If you have an event to promote, make use of the sign-off space in your email with a promotional banner graphic like the example above.
In this detailed blogpost, we explained how you can make use of email signature marketing to further drive conversions, and how it excels compared to traditional marketing channels and social media.
✍️ Use your signatures to boost brand awareness
Chances are you’re creating a signature not just for yourself but to also represent a business or organization. If the signature is for a business or organization, it’s also important that the style is aligned with your brand identity. Try using the same accent colours as your brand logo like in this example:
(Logo source: Dribbble)
Do: Include one or two accent colors that highlight your information, whilst using an easy-to-read main color.
Avoid: Unless you’re working in a creative field or it’s a personal brand, your email signature should look professional and subtle as it represents not only you but the organization. Try to avoid using too many flashy or bright colors (like this example below):
✍️ Consider your signature’s mobile view and responsiveness
It’s important to consider how people will see your email signature across devices. Emails are often being read on smartphones and tablets, so make sure to check how your signature might appear on a smaller screen or in a portrait view:
This example is a portrait view of the signature that displays perfectly on a smartphone screen. A responsive email signature is crucial, as it’s easier for your recipient to scroll down and access your contact information.
✍️ Create a professional email signature with Mailbutler in less than 2 minutes
The examples above are created with Mailbutler’s signature builder that offers flexible templates with beautiful designs to let you easily customize your information, social links and formalities like closing and disclaimer. They’re also responsive across devices!
Whether a professional-looking signature for business emails or a friendly one for casual letters, we make sure you can create your own unique email signature in no time.
Still need more motivation to get started?
We counted 5 important reasons why you should have your first email signature already set up:
➡️ Read 5 Reasons Why Email Signatures Are a Must-Have for Your Business Communication — Unpacked:
Mailbutler is a powerful productivity extension for Apple Mail and Gmail that helps professionals and teams email smarter to get more meaningful work done. Get started today for free.
