2021 Best Email Signature Practice

Document Overview

Your email signature matters. Not only does it give your contacts the information they need to get in touch with you, but it also says something about who you are as an individual or school brand.

That’s why the design, layout, and content of your signature needs careful attention. To help you out with this task, we’ve put together email signature best practices to get you started.

There is a need to create two email signatures.

You read that right - two signatures. Nowadays one email signature isn’t enough. It’s becoming increasingly common to have one signature for your outgoing emails, and another one for replying or forwarding emails as part of a ongoing conversation.

Instructions

Step 1

Your first one, your outgoing email signature, should include all your contact details, banners, logos, and other relevant information.

Example of a detailed email signature.

Step 2

Provide just enough contact information to be relevant.

It’s fair to say that people generally don’t have time to read lengthy emails, and the same goes for email signatures. You need to provide the relevant information as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Try to include your basic information:

Your first name and last name
Salutation if relevant
Job title and/or department
Company
Phone number

You can also include your company’s website, mailing address (although a Google Maps link saves on space), and social media profiles, but remember you do not need to include your email address as it is already there at the top of the email.

Step 3

Add an image.

In the corporate setting the suggestion is an image of a face but for the school context this could be your school logo!

Keep your branded imagery relatively small (ideally below 50KB) and left-align it so as to grab your recipient’s attention first.

Step 4

Think about adding a Call-to-Action to boost engagement.

We all know how powerful calls-to-action can be. That’s why email signatures are most effective when they provide your recipients something to do when they receive an email from you. Even better if you can begin to tie in your email signature with your broader marketing goals.

A link to your school website? The Compass portal for parents?

Step 5

Providel links to your Social Media services.

Your email signature can also work towards your social marketing goals.

If your school has a solid presence on social media, and your accounts are up-to-date and well-managed, then linking to them on your email signature will help you to further build your following.

Step 6

Ask for feedback.

Online reputation is everything, and a big part of building your reputation comes from your customers leaving you positive reviews. Why not use your email signature to ask for feedback by providing a link to your review page? You can use this as a call to action.

Step 7

As you engage in conversations via email, by hitting Reply or Forward, you don’t need to keep including all these details. Instead, a less distracting, simpler signature should suffice, providing just the basic contact information.

Step 8

Double check everything!

Once you have mocked up your email signature, you need to do a few things before you hit “save” and send your first email.

For starters, make sure the logos are very small and it isn’t imposing.

Secondly, make sure you go through all your hyperlinks and calls-to-action to double check that they point to the correct destination URL.

And finally, send yourself an email from your account and see what it looks like from a recipient’s point of view.

Is the content balanced?
Is there enough white space?
Are your details correct?

Once you feel confident that everything looks good, you’re ready to send your first email with your new signature!

Credit for content in this guide goes to Email Signature: Best Practices for 2021 (rightinbox.com) for writing this article.

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