In the digitized world we live in, each of us sends and receives many emails on a daily basis. It will have happened to all of them to stop at the signature of a particularly captivating email or, on the contrary, too redundant.
A perfect email signature should contain the sender’s contact information that is most useful and important to the recipient of the email.
Setting up an email signature professionally is helpful to the reader and can set you apart from the competition.
In this article, we’ll try to give you concrete tips on how to create the perfect email signature, while also providing signature templates and examples to make a great impression on your recipient.
We will start by explaining what an email signature is and what functions it has. We’ll then move on to the actual analysis, showing you what’s best to include in an email signature and giving you a comprehensive list of points to add to set up a winning email signature.
Regardless of whether it’s a corporate email signature or for personal use, you’ll find examples of both and understand what information is needed and what isn’t.
Table of Contents
What is an email signature and what functions does it have?
An email signature contains the contact information you enter at the end of the text to allow the recipient to contact you.
The question is not whether you need an email signature, needless to say, you have one, but what is the best email signature example for your needs?
In fact, if leaving your information for a possible recontact is likely to be useful, it’s less trivial to understand how to set up an email signature that contains the necessary and readily available information to forward your email or call you without too much. a lot of effort.
How to create a perfect email signature?
How do you sign an email? How you should configure your email signature depends on the recipient. The first critical distinction to make is between a corporate email signature, to be used in a professional capacity only, and a personal email signature, to communicate with friends and family. In general, if you also want to professionally manage your personal email and want to understand what to write in your signature, the advice is to keep it simple, concise, useful, and relevant.
Here is a list of essential and useful information to create a signature template for your personal email, which you use in everyday life outside of work.
Personal Email Signature Example: What to Write?
The right closing formula: how to close an email
A perfect email signature necessarily contains a closing, which varies depending on the context and the recipient. For example, sending an email addressed to a friend by writing “yours sincerely” could be misunderstood.
Name and surname
It’s pretty obvious, just write your first and last name, perhaps highlighting them in bold, so the recipient understands who is really writing to you. It’s obvious, but don’t underestimate its importance. Have you ever received an email where your name was misspelled? Here, in fact, a great way to prevent this problem from happening again is to make the interlocutor read how you write your name by setting up a perfect email signature.
Phone number
It’s always good to write your phone number in the inbox signature, in case the recipient wants to be called in response to the email. The number should be easy to find and easy to use.
Keep your email signature simple
When signing an email, simplicity pays off, know that. Adding a splash of color could give the design a nice boost, without overpowering it, which would help your email signature stand out from the body of the text.
Follow a hierarchy to guide the recipient
A well-structured hierarchy is a good way to indicate the most valuable information, so that it guides the recipient to the most important one, helping them find what they are looking for faster.
Make your email signature design mobile friendly
Nowadays, many people check their email from their smartphones, so it is essential to make sure that you create an email signature that has a regular design. The goal is always the same: to allow the recipient who reads the content of the email to communicate with you easily. There are plenty of free tools that can help you preview what your online email signature would look like on a mobile device.
How to write a professional email signature?
You may be wondering what to put in a professional email signature. Look at it this way: your business email signature is there to help you promote your image and brand. In addition to your name and phone number, you should also add your job title and why not your company logo. It wouldn’t hurt to link the company website to your signature either, it’s all up to you and what you want people to associate with your name.
If you’re also thinking of adding the email address to the signature, know that there are two schools of thought on this. Some find this superfluous and redundant, while others find it useful, especially if someone forwards your email. We prefer the latter and therefore recommend that you also include your email address in your signature.
Immediately. We’ve compiled a list of things to put in your business email signature. Remember that you should be the one to judge what is important to you and your brand, writing in your signature the information that you consider valuable, without exaggerating so as not to overwhelm the recipients.
Example of a business or professional email signature: what to write
Title or qualification
In addition to writing your first and last name, you should also include your title, as it makes it easier for the recipient to understand your role within the company and your experience. It would be better if you also wrote your company name or the name of the company you work for, it is a good way to gain credibility since the recipient will most likely associate you with that company in future communications. You can also add a logo and a link to the company website to facilitate the recipient’s access.
Phone number
To create a perfect professional email signature, you should also enter your phone number, fax number, or other means of communication, to allow the recipient to communicate with you in the best possible way.
If you have contacts or clients abroad, you must also include the international prefix. Finally, if you want to impress your contacts, you can link your phone number so that the recipient simply clicks on the number to initiate the call.
Social profile link icons
Social networks have taken an important role in our society. Like email or phone numbers, social contacts have become essential in interpersonal relationships, including those of a professional nature. To do this, you should also set up links to your social profiles in your business email signature, making sure, of course, that your social media presence is aligned with your brand and contains useful content.
Social media icons are definitely a nice addition to your email signature because it makes it easy for the recipient to verify your social presence with a single click. They can also help you gain a following, further increasing your chances of promoting your brand. But make sure your content is up to date, it’s a crucial detail.
A call to action
If used sparingly, a call to action can be very beneficial. Examples of calls to action might be a link to join a free webinar hosted by you or your company, or a link to download a helpful PDF for your recipient. It all depends on the type of work you do and what aspects of the brand you represent you would like to promote. Clearly careful not to overdo it and not make the firm seem too self-referential and self-indulgent. The goal is not to add unnecessary information, but to make the email signature full of important information that you won’t forget.
A disclaimer
A disclaimer is a vital addition to a good business or professional email signature, especially when working for financial, legal, or insurance companies; and it is even more so today with the GDPR. The content of your email may contain private or confidential information that is not known to anyone other than the recipient. Therefore, it is important to protect such information in the unfortunate event that it appears in someone else’s inbox. An example of a disclaimer in a professional email signature would be this:
Pronouns
Pronouns are important in writing a perfect email signature. The use of pronouns is a sign of inclusion. Suppose you are transgender, non-binary, or cissexual, using the correct pronouns is a good way to show your email recipient which ones to use in future communications with you. The use of pronouns reduces communication problems, normalizes gender discussions, and removes any ambiguity.
Now that you have a clear idea of ​​how to write a good business, professional, or generic email signature, you’ll need an email domain to use it.
Other Reads:
5 Principles of Email Marketing
Why Businesses Should Do Email Marketing in 2022?
10 Mistakes To Avoid In Your Email Marketing Campaign
10 tips for guaranteed email marketing success
