In the otherwise dull and plain text world of emails, email signatures are a powerful way to stand out and connect with your audience. Email signatures are one of the many facets of a strong brand and are all too easily overlooked. But here’s the thing, if you’re overlooking your emails, you can bet your audience is too. Because you know as well as we do that despite GDPR, inboxes all over the UK are still overflowing with emails.

So that begs the question, how can you make the most of your email signature?

9 ways to connect, engage and drive traffic with email signatures

Once you’ve covered the basics of your email signature – like adding in your name, position and a link to your website and logo – there are a couple clever ways you can kick things up a notch. Here’s nine ideas to get your clogs turning:

 

1. Get social

Social has a real humanising element for businesses, so enabling the recipient of your email to take a peek at your platforms with just a click of a button can be really powerful. The person corresponding with you via email is also far more likely to follow you on social than any ol’ website visitor. And once you’ve got them following you, you’re going to be able to connect with them on a far more personal and meaningful level.

2. Feeds your email

Despite the bad pun, we’re not talking about food. We’re talking about RSS feeds – and not just any RSS feed. Did you know you can add your latest blog posts titles, tweets from twitter, Instagram photos and Pinterest posts right into your signature? We’ll you can! While very cool, we suggest sticking with just one RSS feed and using icons for your other platforms. If you’re interested in adding this to your signature, websites like WiseStamp make this really simple.

 

3. Drive sales

Add an offer, advertise a sale, or feature a hot new product as a plain text hyperlink or as a swish banner. Heck you could even make it a GIF – though we don’t really encourage that wholeheartedly. Sadly, email giants like Outlook have yet to catch on to the popularity of animated images.

 

4. Promote an event or your latest content

Got an upcoming webinar or recently published a new guide? Put that in your email signature to help drive sign ups and sales.

 

5. Include an image of yours truly

Nothing makes your emails feel more personal than an image of yourself. And to be honest, if you’re meeting a new prospective client for coffee, that little photo in your signature can help you two find each other in a busy cafe. We’ve all been there – it can get awkward quick!

 

6. Use your brand colours

This one should be a given, and is probably the easiest thing you can do to spice up your email signature. Consider keeping most of the text black or grey, and then using key brand colours on things like your social icons, name, and links.

 

7. Get some sort of reaction

Your email signature can be a great way to do a quick pulse check on your customer service or to conduct a quick survey. Try adding three simple face icons (one happy, neutral and sad) and link to a short feedback form.

 

8. Include a cheeky ‘Sent from Phone’

This one might feel a bit random – especially if you’re not one to respond to emails on your phone – but hear us out. This simple disclaimer can make people feel like you’re super responsive and can also help with credibility. People hate typos and poor grammar in emails, but this little note will make people a whole lot more forgiving and think more highly of your business. It’s been proven and tested, so may be worth adding in if grammar isn’t your forte.  

9. Showcase your awards

As the saying goes: if you’ve got it, flaunt it. Awards add credibility to a business, so if you have badges for your latest accolades, add those into your email signature to help your business stand out.

 

Bonus tip: Track your URLs

By adding in tracking URLs that link to your website, you’ll get a good idea on how well your email signature is working for you. You’ll also be able to organise your Google Analytics traffic a bit better to see where your site visitors are coming from. You can quickly create a tracking URL with Google’s campaign URL builder.

 

 

Whether you code your own email signature, use the functionality within your emailing solution or use a tool like WiseStamp, we do have a quick word of caution before you get started. Don’t go overboard and do all of the above. As tempting as it might be, the last thing you want is for your email signature to look too busy and unprofessional – so for the love of all things minimalist –  keep it simple.

Need help with having a cohesive brand? Get in touch