Your email signature, not unlike your social media profile blurb, is a brief, but perfect, opportunity to grab your audience’s attention. Used correctly, your e-mail signature could drive traffic to your website, LinkedIn, Twitter Accounts, Blog and more!
I really enjoyed this Forbes video featuring Forbes staff reporter Kathryn Dill – skip over to 1:18 for the specific segment on sign-offs that count:
If you work for a company that has a policy on e-mail signatures, it’s a no-brainer to adhere to whatever your work allows or has set out for you.
I’ve worked at companies before that have about 10 mini-graphics in the email footer. This is a pretty big no-no because it tends to make emails heavier than they need to be and the graphics send over as attachments in forwards, which makes it harder to find your desired graphics. Plus, who loves downloading 10 attachments to their mobile phones (using needless data) only to find that one of the 10 attachments were useful?
While your work/corporate e-mail may not be in your hands, when it comes to your personal email you are in control! How is your personal brand is representing you in your personal e-mail?
As for myself, I really like to keep things clean, simple and professional. You won’t find any inspirational quotes, funky fonts and a rainbow of colors in my e-mail signature. Instead, you will find a simple, readable font, with links to places I want drive individuals to. The components of my e-mail signature include:
I. Sign-Off
My Sign-Off, “Best,” can easily be substituted for:
- Yours truly,
- Warmly,
- Thankfully,
- Sincerely,
Take a look at this Forbes article that lists
II. Who I Am & What I Do
My Name – This one is obvious, but double check for missing accents, capitalizations, middle initials (if you use it) and level of formality.
Those in my super inner circles call me by one of my childhood nicknames, Kális (pronunciation) but I’m obviously not going to include that in my standard email signature, even if it is my personal email!
Related Tip: The lessons on being a little more formal when setting up your signature more that applies to setting up your email account to begin with. If you’re using your personal e-mail to network, try to get as close to what your real name is when securing an e-mail address.
Examples for “John Paul Smith”:
- John.Smith@
- JSmith@
- JohnSmith@
- John@
- JPSmith@
- John.P.Smith@
- JohnPaulSmith@
The last thing you want to present to someone who is interested in building a potential personal or professional relationship with you is to give them a bad impression when they see that your email is hotdiggdog425@yahoo.com. (Here’s a great Mashable article that about getting that e-mail address that you want.)
What I Do – This comes down to what makes you, well… you. What do you want people to know about you? If you have your goals and personal brand well defined, this should be easy for you. If you don’t, try to think about what impression you would like the person receiving your e-mail to have after corresponding with you.
I have worn many hats during my professional career, so it was difficult for me to define what it was I was going to put in such a limited space. I boiled it down to “Marketing Communications, PR and Social Media Consultant” and set it up as a hyperlink leading to my LinkedIn page.
Tip | Try using a trackable bit.ly hyperlink on any link you use in your email signature. This way you can see which links are causing further action and what isn’t, so that you can tweak accordingly.
III. How to Get in Touch
I’m going to give you the most sincere piece of advice: whatever contact information you share should be contact information people can actually reach you at. Do you have answering phone calls from unknown answers? Put “Text” instead of phone. Would you prefer people don’t have your contact information, but just your social media links? Just share those.
- Website
- Cell number
- E-mail address
- Social Media Links
IV. Formatting
When it comes to design, I still prefer a minimalistic approach. Here are some wonderful examples from the design pros at DesignSchool.Canva.com.
Tip | I have yet to design an updated personal logo, so I’ve maintained a text signature that has worked just fine. For branding consistency between your website, resume, business cards and yes, email signature, you might consider getting a professional logo designed. If you would like to get a logo designed for you on the cheap, I highly recommend you try Fiverr. The design jobs are sourced from designers from all over the world that offer their work on the cheap. If you don’t like it, the most you’ll be set back is $5-$10.
Karla Larraga 
Leave a Reply