An email signature is very important to use, it is like giving someone a business card each time you send an email. It needs to look professional and show all your relevant details.
This guide gives you the best practices to follow when creating email signatures.
A good practice is to have two versions of your email signature. The first signature should be used when sending out new emails and include all your contact details, logos etc.The second signature should be much simpler when replying to emails or forwarding on and include just your basic contact details.
An email signature should contact the following details:
- First and second name
- Job Title
- The name of the Business
- Company Website
- Phone number
- Social media links
- Disclaimer
- Banner (if needed)
You do have an option to animate your signature but a poorly optimized animation can cause spam filters to stop the email, or it can cause the email to load for a long time. Don’t add a linked image to your email signature as this can trigger spam filters. Keep it simple so you notice the logo but don’t get distracted by it. Make sure the last frame and the first frame are the same. Some mobile email clients don’t support HTML email signatures, which means they won’t be able to handle any kind of image.
If you would like an image added it is best to embed this in your email signature and not attach it. The full email signature dimension (or email signature size in pixels) should be no more than 800 pixels in width and between 90 and 150 pixels in height, with a maximum quality resolution of 100 dpi. When using an image a JPEG should be used for a personal photo and a PNG should be used for brand logos. The image should be compressed which will help reduce your email signature size and your recipients should be able to download your email faster and access your image at the right resolution. This online software will help with this: https://squoosh.app/
Using a banner in your email signature can be a great way to advertise a brand or product which is often placed below your contact details. A banner should be no bigger than 700 pixels so the format size can be fitted in an email. As previously mentioned when adding images in, a JPEG or PNG would be best to add as it would give you the best quality for your banner. However banners can take up a lot of space so you should only use them when necessary.
Finally a good practice to do, is to send an email to yourself so you can check you have made no mistakes and your signature is displayed correctly. Also check this on a mobile device that your signature is fully optimized and is clear to read. If your emails do not reach your recipients after adding a new signature you would have likely exceeded the allowed spam score. To resolve this try shorting any links you have in your signature and try to use embedded images instead of using linked images. These steps can help you avoid a recipient's spam filter stopping your email being received.
