Email Signature Tips: How to Create Great Email Signatures

1. Email Signature Length

First, determine a length. The generally accepted number of lines for a corporate email signature range from four to seven. It's important to avoid having an email signature run halfway down the page. Clients may not appreciate sifting through 15 lines to find a phone number or business title.

2. Email Signature Essentials

The essentials are the sender's name, job title, company name, company URL, contact information – usually phone numbers and email address. Be sure to differentiate when using multiple phone numbers with the preferred one listed first. Include your company logo in your email signature - it is great for branding purposes and will help recipients 'visualize' your company. Don't forget to include a closing statement, such as Sincerely or Kind Regards.

3. Easy to Read Format

Consolidating all the information into four to seven lines can prove a challenge. Use of colons or pipes is generally acceptable. For example, jsmithconsulting.com | jsmith@jsmithconsulting.com or jsmithconsulting.com : jsmith@jsmithconsulting.com. What it comes down to is deciding what information a prospective client needs to know if he or she wants to get back in touch. Don't use a signature that is completely made up of an image. This means the recipient will not be able to copy and paste from your signature.

4. Use Moderation

Avoid contrasting colors, hard-to-read fonts, overly large or small text size and silly graphics. Dancing babies and bouncing smiley faces may not lend a company much credibility in business dealings. Remember not all fonts can be read on all clients.

5. Keep the Email Signature Professional

A common mistake is to add a favorite quote for the last line. While this is perfectly acceptable for personal messages with friends, quotations should be left off company signatures.

6. Include Links to Social Media

As social networking became more prevalent and eventually grew to important business tools, however, directing a recipient to Facebook and LinkedIn profiles or Twitter accounts has become popular. But be sure to only use profiles and accounts for the company. Forget links to personal profiles. No business recipient cares what you and your friends did over the weekend, nor should you want them to know.

7. Add Timely or Seasonal Messages

Is your company organizing an event or do you have any seasonal business? Use your email signature to communicate this. After all it is free advertising space.

8. For EU Companies: Make sure you add the required information

According to EU law, companies must include at least the following information in their signatures: company registration number, registered company address, VAT number if applicable.

9. Include a shorter signature on replies and forwards

It is good practice to include a longer signature on your first email, for instance including your job title, full address, EU required information if any and company logo and/or promotional message. Any subsequent signatures could just include the essentials such as name, company, phone, email address and website URL for instance.

10. Proofread for spelling and punctuation errors

Last but not least: proofread your email signature for spelling and grammatical errors. Check that links to websites, bio’s and vCards are correct.

Wondering how you can centrally configure email signatures for all your employees? Take a look at the different Policy Patrol email signature solutions.