Best Email Signature Examples

Email Signatures: What Are They Needed For?

It’s important to append a signature to your emails, be it mass or one-to-one communication. Signatures help recipients verify your message’s authenticity and be assured they are communicating with a human, not a nondescript AI bot. They will add a personal touch to the most dull business correspondence. This article will explain the most vital email signature elements and offer tips for creating a perfect email signature.

The Importance of An Email Signature

An email signature identifies who you are, either as a person or as a representative of an organization. It also allows you to connect with your email recipients, for example, invite them to follow your social media page or visit your website.

The signature is something your recipient can look at to confirm that the message comes from you. Without it, they might question the sender’s identity and ignore the message. Indeed, there are some email signature templates, but it’s important to customize yours to look unique.

The Important Elements Of Email Signatures

Personal Information

The first thing to include is personal information through which the recipient can identify you. Include your own name and that of any brand you represent. If you represent an organization, write your title, e.g., CEO, Chief Marketing Officer, etc. Don’t use vague or misleading titles that the recipient will find difficult to understand.

Contact Information

Include contact information so that recipients can reach out to you if they have any complaints or inquiries. You can include a phone number, a street address or another email address. Be sure to include a link to your social media page or a contact form on your website.

Include only contact information that you want people to use. For instance, if you don’t welcome contacting you by phone, it’s of no use including a phone number and then ignoring customers’ calls.

Job Role or Department (Optional)

As we hinted earlier, if you represent an organization, you can include your formal role at the organization and your specific department. For example, as the head of IT for a multinational company, you can state, “Executive Vice President, IT Department, [Company Name].

The idea is to convey your position to the recipient, enabling them to confirm your identity.

Company Physical Address

You can include your organization’s street address in the email signature. This element is doubly important if you represent a brick-and-mortar retail operation. The physical address helps the recipient easily verify your identity.

In lieu of writing the address itself, you can place a Google Maps link that would help the recipient easily locate your office.

Disclaimers and Other Legal Requirements

The email signature is a good place to add any disclaimers according to your organization’s legal practices. Such disclaimers are required by law in some industries and should be added to email signatures if necessary.

For example, you can include a personal opinion disclaimer noting that the content in the message is your personal opinion and not that of the organization. In certain cases, you may need a confidentiality disclaimer stating that the message is only for the intended recipient and should not be shown to third parties.

A Call-To-Action (CTA)

You can add a call-to-action button in your email signature, encouraging recipients to take a suggested action, such as visiting your site, signing up for an event, etc. The email signature represents a good opportunity to recruit an audience.

Social Media Icons

You can add icons with links to your social media page, encouraging email recipients to follow and connect with you.

Responsive Design

Your email signature should have a responsive design. Most emails are now read on mobile phones, so ensure the elements are optimized to appear on mobile displays. They should fit well on mobile screens, without any element overlapping another. Otherwise, your email signature will annoy the recipient, and they may disregard the message.

Logos or Headshots (Optional)

You can include a headshot to help recipients recognize your identity. You can also include your company’s logo to help increase brand awareness.

Email Signature Examples

Place A Headshot

You can include a high-quality photo to bring your email signature to life. Recipients will likely appreciate the personal touch added to your email and will be more likely to react.

Ensure you smile in the headshot to look welcoming. Use a clear background that doesn’t distract the viewer, preferably with a single color. Present your image in a square or circle frame that makes it easy for people to distinguish the picture. These details seem trivial but are critical in creating a perfect email signature.

Place A Visual

Apart from headshot, you can place high-quality visuals that represent your brand or organization. These visuals subtly improve brand awareness. The more people notice them, the more familiar they become with your brand.

Ensure any visual is of high quality, preferably with a bright color that makes it easy to notice. You can place images and videos advertising your brand, helping boost awareness with your email signatures.

Display A Product

You can use email signatures to showcase your products to recipients. This example best suits e-commerce businesses that sell products on their websites. Signatures for email allow you to showcase some of your products and potentially get more sales.

Display a Portfolio

If you’re a service provider, you can showcase a portfolio of previous works you’ve rendered for other clients. This is yet another way to advertise your services using email signatures. You can add links to your most popular works, the ones clients commended most.

Ensure to place a link that leads to your website where recipients can place an order.

Link To Your Social Media Pages

You can include a link to your various social media accounts. This type of email signature is very popular; you have likely seen it in the emails you receive.

Place well-designed icons with links to your pages on social media platforms. Email signatures present an opportunity to boost your social media following and brand appeal.

Use Color

You should always remember the importance of color in your email signatures. Colors catch viewers’ attention, and you can use them to market your brand. Use the colors that people associate with your brand. For instance, if you have a yellow logo, yellow should be the primary color in your email signature. You can add one or two complementary colors, but yellow should be the focus.

While colors are good, avoid overusing them as your email might look childish and annoy recipients.

Mobile Optimization

Nearly 60% of online traffic comes from mobile phones. This figure indicates that recipients are more likely to read your email on a mobile device than not. Thus, it’s crucial to optimize your email signature to fit mobile displays.

• Use logos that look well on mobile displays.
• Ensure the text isn’t too small or too big.
• Check if links and icons are properly spaced and don’t overlap with each other.

Include a Handwritten Sign-Off

You can add a personal touch to your email signature by including a handwritten signature. It gives recipients the feeling that you personally wrote an email to them, and they’ll be more likely to respond. A handwritten sign-off looks like a professional email signature; it’s essential, especially in business-to-business communications.

Call-To-Action (CTA) Button

You can use your email signature to encourage email recipients to take a specific action. For example, you can nudge your recipients to “Book a consultation,” “Subscribe to my newsletter,” “Sign up on my website,” etc. Your call-to-action button should contain a clear message the recipient can easily understand.

Data Privacy and Legal Disclaimers

Don’t forget to add any data privacy or legal disclaimers you’re obligated to add because of your business operations. Examples of such disclaimers include:

• Error and Omissions Disclaimer: Telling the recipient that you won’t be personally liable for any damages resulting from errors in your information.
• Fair Use Disclaimer: Stating that you've included certain copyrighted material in your email under the Fair Use Act.
• Investment Disclaimer: Clarifying that you’re not a registered investment advisor and what you say should not be considered investment advice.
• Confidentiality Disclaimer: Telling the recipient that what they see is only for their intended use and should not be shared with anyone else.

Different industries have different standard disclaimers. Take care to include everything you should, to avoid possible legal consequences.

Tips and Techniques For A Perfect Email Signature

• Keep your email signature simple. Include only information that’s relevant to your recipient and avoid everything irrelevant. Email signatures have limited space, so make the most of it.
• Strike a healthy balance between content and design. There’s no need to get the perfect design for an email the recipient can hardly read. Add spaces between digital elements to make your email easy to follow. Throw in some color to make it visually appealing, but not too much.
• Mobile optimization. We’ve emphasized this point multiple times. Ensure your email’s content is optimized to appear correctly on mobile displays, or your email might be useless. Your text and visuals should be legible enough on small screens. Leave space between social media icons so that they are easy to tap. Content blocks shouldn’t overlap with each other.
• Make your links trackable to easily monitor whether people click on them after reading your emails. Based on this data, you can further optimize your links to get more clicks.
• Include an international prefix in your phone number. This tip seems trivial, but many people forget to include such prefixes, and customers in other countries find it difficult to contact them. Don’t be that person.

Conclusion

Signatures make your emails look trustworthy by showing the recipients who exactly they’re communicating with, and they can easily verify your identity. Signatures allow you to convey vital information to email recipients, such as contact information, physical address, job position, etc. They also allow you to advertise to users, encouraging them to follow your suggested actions.

We have explained email signatures, their importance, and the tips and techniques to create a perfect one. We also provided examples of good email signatures you can follow.

Above all, the most important thing about sending emails is your email service provider (ESP). No matter how well-adjusted your email signature is, the recipient may not get the message if you choose an unreliable ESP. Fortunately, UniOne is a reliable, secure, and affordable provider at your service. We guarantee high deliverability rates with superb sending speeds.

Frequently Asked Questions About Email Signatures

How many lines make an ideal email signature?

Email signatures are best kept brief and concise. You should limit them to 3 to 4 lines at most, mentioning only essential information that the recipient needs to know, such as your full name, corporate role, and contact information.

Should my name be bolded in an email signature?

It's a good practice to bold important text within an email signature. It allows you to highlight vital details such as your name and the company's name, as people’s attention is naturally drawn to bolded text. Alternatively, you can highlight text by italicizing.

What color should I include in my email signature?

You can choose any color related to your brand and organization's website. Use bright colors, but not overly bright ones, or calm and elegant colors to convey your message. Avoid too many color combinations because they look flashy and can distract readers.

Should I include disclaimers or legal notices in my email signature?

Some industries require standard disclaimers to be included for legal reasons. For example, people who share advice online usually add an errors and omissions disclaimer, letting the reader know they won’t be personally liable for any damage resulting from an error they might make.

If you operate in a relevant industry, you can include disclaimers in your email signature.

Should I include full contact details in my email signature?

It’s not necessary to include all your contact details in an email signature. You can provide just your name, email address, and/or phone number for people to contact you.

What should be avoided in an email signature?

Avoid including any unnecessary information that doesn’t add value or context to your email, such as:

• Motivational quotes
• Religious or political symbols
• Irrelevant certifications
• Too many contact details