Even if you don’t pay much attention to the way people sign their emails, this still doesn’t mean that no one else does. While email signatures aren’t the most critical part of an email, they could still play an important role and make a positive impression. Therefore, it’s always better when you work to make your email signature good.
Nowadays, it’s easy to create a professional email signature with the help of online signature builders. They are straightforward and intuitive to use, offering a variety of templates suitable for different occasions. However, which one of these templates should you pick? Which one could help you achieve your goals and make the right impression? This always depends on the occasion.
Types of email signatures
Depending on the situation, you can pick one of the following types of signatures:
formal: for the recipients you don’t know well, for those with a higher position in a company, for your clients if your brand sticks to a formal and serious tone;
friendly: for the recipients you do know well, for your clients if you prefer a less formal approach.
Also, email signatures could be:
less detailed: for instance, for emails sent from a personal account or within a company;
more detailed: when you need to look professional and want to offer some additional information that could be useful to the recipients.
Different types of signatures could help you achieve different goals. Here’s how this can look like.
Email signatures for different occasions
1. Give basic information.
The primary goal of an email signature is to offer contact information to the recipients. Sure, it’s always better to stick to the basic contacts rather than overload the subscribers with data. However, the definition of ‘basic’ could vary a lot these days.
In most cases, a name, a phone number, and a website address would be enough. But you can also add social media icons to help subscribers find you on social media. It’s better to list only those social media that are most important for your business. So, we recommend including up to 5 icons. More would look weird.
2. Make emails more personalized.
Personalization matters. It could help you build the audience’s trust, encourage them to open your emails more often, purchase your products or services, and so on.
Adding a photo to your email signature doesn’t take much time yet helps instantly make the emails more personalized. This is especially important when you aim for informal and friendly communication with your audience.
3. Promote your latest work.
Email signature builders let you add links to anything, so why don’t you make the most out of it? Such links and banners are a simple and unobtrusive way to promote your latest work to anyone who might be interested in it.
Take a look at how it’s implemented in a writer’s signature.
This is also a great way to show your latest blog posts to the audience.
4. Use call-to-action buttons.
CTAs work. In fact, emails with a single CTA increased clicks 371% and sales 1617%. If you find this impressive, you can try using them to boost your business as well.
How to fit a CTA in your email signature? It’s very easy if you are a blogger or want to drive the recipients’ attention to your website or social media, just like in the example below.
You can also use a CTA to drive the audience’s attention to your latest offer.
Or to your services in general.
5. Show your portfolio.
This works great for current or recent students.
And for freelancers or independent workers as well.
The main advantage of adding a portfolio link to your email signature is that it won’t look too obvious. When a portfolio link is a part of a signature, it shows that you’re open to new opportunities yet doesn’t scream that you’re looking for a job. Such a signature could help you find new clients and projects without spending some extra time on a job search.
As you can see, email signatures can be as simple or as informative as you want them to be. They could also do more than merely offer contact information to your subscribers. We hope that our examples will inspire you to create signatures that help you reach your goals and fit the occasion.
