Email outreach is an integral part of a sales or marketing strategy. However, in just 2022 alone, over 333.2 billion emails were sent out and received daily. It’s definitely tough to stand out and get your prospects to open your emails. This is why marketers tirelessly experiment with their subject lines, content, CTA, and many more, just to improve the success of their email outreach. But did you know that your email signature can have a positive effect on your outreach as well?
This guide will help you in creating an effective email signature that you can use for your email outreach. Let’s dive in to find out more.
What Is An Email Signature?
An email signature is a block of text that is inserted at the end of your emails. It contains your contact details and other necessary information. A strong and well-designed email signature can help you create a good first impression on your prospects, help you build a professional identity, and help you market yourself or your company.
What Should You Include In Your Email Signature?
Your email signature should contain these key elements:
- Your Name – Make sure to include your full name so your prospect can easily identify you.
- Your Job Title – It’s also important for your prospect to know if they are coordinating with the correct department so make sure to list your job title or position.
- Your Company – Add your company name or logo. Aside from easy identification, it will also help in branding you or your company. A graphic in the form of your company logo can also add a visual element and color to your otherwise text-heavy signature.
- Website – Adding a link to your website will help your prospect that is looking for more details or information about your company.
- Your Contact Details – Include your phone number and email address in your signature so your prospect can know how to contact you.
Then there are some additional information that you can consider adding if it sounds relevant to you or your company:
- A professional headshot – Emails can feel robotic and cold at times, so using a photo can add a “human” element to your messages. A photo will also put a face to your name, which makes it easier for your prospects to build a relationship with you.
- Social media profile links – If you use social media to connect and communicate with your prospects, then it’s a good idea to include this in your signature. Otherwise, you can keep this off to not clutter your signature.
- Freebies or special offers – If your company is offering a discount or a free trial version for your products, you can attach the link to it to your email signature. You can also link a new whitepaper, blog article, webinar, or other helpful and relevant content that your prospect might use and appreciate. This might just be the “plus points” that you need for a prospect to connect with you.
Depending on your email platform, you can enter their settings to create your signature from scratch. There are also tons of email signature makers available online, where you can customize a premade template and just add it to your email.
What Are The Benefits Of An Email Signature?
Email signature has many benefits, including the following:
- It creates a professional impression – Having a proper email signature adds a layer of credibility and professionalism to you. Having all the important information in your signature can also make it easy for your prospect to verify you, which makes you more trustworthy.
- It boosts brand awareness – By having your company logo and using your brand colors in your signature, it helps your prospect to get to know your company or brand.
- It provides an opportunity to promote your products or service– As mentioned above, if you add a link to your special offers or to your content, it gives you a chance to subtly generate interest in your brand and let others know about your products.
- It adds a personal touch – Adding your photo and adding design elements gives your email personality compared to the hundreds of other emails your prospect might receive, which gives you a better chance of your email getting replies.
- It shows you make an effort – Imagine receiving an email with just a simple name sign-off versus someone with an email signature. Which one would you likely respond to? Taking the time to create a signature and compiling all the important information shows that you are someone that makes an effort and shows that you are serious about wanting to connect with your prospects.
- It can be a source of data – Analytics is an important part to succeeding in email marketing, and your signature is included in that as well. You can track the links in your signature, to get a clearer idea of what your prospects are looking for when they receive your emails. Are they clicking on your website? Or to your Facebook page? It’s important to know these details so you can improve your future outreach.
What Are Some Best Practices For Email Signatures?
These are some things to keep in mind when creating your email signature:
- Keep it short and concise – While providing the information is the point of your signature, it doesn’t mean that you should create a whole novel in it. Only include the important details. Your prospect should be able to get info with a quick glance, not through scrolling through paragraphs in your signature.
- Keep it simple – Don’t use overly flashy pictures, fonts, or colors. It can be distracting and might make you look unprofessional.
- But don’t make it boring – Keeping it simple doesn’t mean boring and dull. You can still include colors or some design elements like a border or divider. The key is to keep it tasteful and professional, while still displaying some personality.
- Make sure it’s in line with your branding – Use your company’s brand colors, font, or images to make sure that you are easily identifiable as a part of your company. It also helps in making sure your company’s branding is consistent across all platforms.
- Keep it updated – Your email signature should be regularly updated with the correct information. Check if the phone number you added is still correct, if you redesigned your company logo you should also update it to the correct one, etc.
To Summarize
An email signature might seem like a tiny or basic thing compared to other email outreach strategies, but a good marketer considers every aspect that can be used as leverage in improving your emails. Having a strong, concise, and professional-looking email signature might just be the boost that can help you to get a good first impression with your prospects, and in turn, lead to a proper connection and business relationship down the road.
Of course, having an email signature is not the only thing you need. Having an all-in-one cold email software like SmartReach.io can help you out in your email outreach as well. It has a complete set of tools and features to help you, such as email automation, Spam Test reports to check your email deliverability, prospect segmentation, detailed tracking and reporting, and many more.
