Most people don’t put a lot of consideration into their email signature, opting instead for just formulaic elements: name; company and phone number.

However, adopting such an insouciant approach may negatively impact your personal and corporate image. It is possible to rehabilitate the professionalism of your signature by following our tips to crafting the perfect email sign-off.

Your email signature is more important than you might think. It often contains images, logos and links to your company’s website – so in essence it acts as an online business card. Thus, it doesn’t just reflect your personal attributes but it’s also often the first interaction people have with your company. In this respect it acts as an ambassador for both your personal brand and that of your firm.

Therefore, it behoves you to put in the requisite time and effort to make your signature read and look professional. In addition to merely being informative – up to date with current phone numbers (including international dialing codes), address and google map location, a signature must be reflective of your personal and professional brand and image.

We have compiled a list of the 7 essential attributes of exemplary email signatures. Implement these changes to yours to ensure its consistent with your personal and professional brand:

  1. Keep it simple -It’s advisable to opt for a plain, easy to read font. Too many graphics, colours & fonts can lend your signature a spurious air and jeopardise the credibility of the entire email which can result in future mails being labelled as spam. Overuse of graphics will increase the size of your email, increasing the likelihood of it being categorized as spam.
  2. Brevity is key – Recipients need to quickly isolate the pertinent information from your signature so only list vital information such as name, email address and phone number. Avoid listing multiple phone numbers or email addresses since these serve only to complicate matters.
  3. Inform your recipients – Your signature should be viewed as an opportunity to inform recipients of impending promotions, products or events. Seasonal themes can also be incorporated into the signature.
  4. Make sure the logo fits your brand – create a uniformed brand identity by getting all employees to include the company logo in their signature and use the same fonts and layout. Consistency of message is important and presenting a cohesive corporate image reflects well on the company. Be consistent – use brand colours and professional photos.
  5. Break it up – The visual impact of the signature is a primary determinant of its success. We recommend you use dividers to separate text to make it more digestible and minimise the number of lines needed. Take advantage of pipes (|), colons (:) and dividers, all of which condense the number of lines needed to display info.
  6. Optimise for social – include links to social media channels so recipients are encouraged to discover more about the company on other platforms. This is an excellent way to keep recipients up to date with the latest company activities.
  7. Include specific details – List your title/position within the relevant department of the corporate structure so recipients know exactly who they’re communicating with and your emails have more credibility.

We hope you find these tips useful in tailoring your signature so it impresses and allows you to sign-off communications in an impressive, memorable way.

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