Posted On 09 Jan 2020

Even with the massive expansion of social media and different ways of communicating, email is still a vital part of any digital marketing campaign. What people see on your emails reflects the image of your business, and so you should think really hard about what your email signature says about you.
There are a number of common mistakes with email signatures that you should strive to avoid:

1. Not adding value: You might want to promote your products, services, ideas… and email signatures are an excellent way of doing this. However, if you make it too promotional you can look desperate and pushy. Keep it subtle and simple, and make sure that it’s appropriate for the message – if you’re telling your customers that prices are going up, for example, trying to push a product on them at the same time probably won’t go down well.
2. Don’t boast: A lot of people think that recipients will be impressed by a long list of qualifications, awards won, personal photographs, etc. They’re not, all of these scored over 40% on a survey of people’s pet peeves with email signatures. Just give people what they need to know: if all they need to know is your name, that’s all you should give them.
3. Be consistent: Make sure that everyone in your company knows the company policy about email signatures. They don’t have to be identical, but they should all stick to the same branding guidelines, colors, logos etc. Make sure that when these things are updated, everybody updates, otherwise customers receiving emails from more than one source in your company will be confused and get the impression that you are sloppy.
4. Make sure you do it: A surprisingly large number of companies don’t bother either with email signatures or indeed sending out emails at all. Maybe they are concentrating on the newer forms of social media, but this would be a mistake; not everybody with a Twitter account or Facebook profile checks it regularly, but virtually everybody keeps an eye on their emails.
5. Pick your targets: As with 1., above, make sure that your email signatures are appropriate for the customer you’re trying to engage. Don’t use the same signature for every subject, department, and individual, because that will increase the chances of it being inappropriate or even annoying for the recipient.