A Guide to Email Signature Etiquette

Make a good impression with these email signature dos and don’ts.

Make a good impression with this guide to email signature etiquette.

The average office worker sends and receives about 128 emails per day. That’s a lot of chances to make a positive impression on your business contacts! One way to put your best foot forward is with a simple and professional email signature. Keep reading for our dos and don’ts guide to email signature etiquette:

Your contact information

  • Do: Make critical contact information the bulk of your email signature like the example below. Be sure to include your name, title, company name, company website, and phone number. Be leery of including your personal cell phone number if you don’t want email recipients to use it.

Rose Molz | President | (608) 310-7420 | RMolz@ezop.com
Connect: EZ Office Products | EZ Custom Stamps | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | Yelp

  • Don’t: Treat your signature like an autobiography, jamming every interesting fact about your business, a collection of inspiring quotes, or multiple links into it. Instead, keep it simple and convey only the information most relevant to the people who receive your messages.

Links

  • Do: Make links clickable. If you add your business website and social media accounts in your email signature, link to their respective sources. Another smart idea is to make these links trackable by using UTM codes to help you learn who is clicking on your links, how frequently, and what they do once they reach the link’s destination.
  • Don’t: Overwhelm your email signature with too many links like the example below. Keep the linking to a minimum to ensure the most important information takes center stage.

Image credit: Digital Uncovered

Color

  • Do: Keep your color scheme clean. Adding a bit of color that complements your corporate brand standards can be an aesthetically pleasing way to help your email signature shine.
  • Don’t: Use colors that aren’t harmonious with your brand standards. It’s best to stick to a complementary color palette. Check out the Adobe color wheel tool to see which hues complement your logo the best or refer to your corporate brand standards for your company’s guidelines.

Logos and Graphics

  • Do: Incorporate visuals tactfully. Images can trigger memories and emotions faster than words, and can be a useful element to include in an email signature when done correctly. If you want to add your photo or business logo to your signature, be sure it’s simple and not too overpowering, like this example:

Image credit: Email Signature Rescue

  • Don’t: Overwhelm email recipients with multiple graphics or use ones that appear too large. A good rule of thumb is to have the graphics appear no larger than the text elements in your email signature.

Email clients and device compatibility

  • Do: Optimize your email signature compatibility on different email clients (i.e., Gmail and Outlook) and various devices including mobile and tablets. This email signature etiquette tip accounts for the fact that over half of email opens occur on mobile devices, and the market is split on which email client people use. Be mindful to ensure your fonts and any imagery will scale down on smaller screens and appear correctly regardless of the email client.
  • Don’t: Design your email signature only for desktop or a specific email client. If your signature appears wonky to your recipients because you’re using Apple Mail and they’re using Outlook, it can take a toll on your professional reputation.

Learn how to optimize your email signature in Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo! and more in this brief 6-minute read.

These email signature etiquette tips can ensure your emails make a lasting positive impression. For more articles on office tips and productivity, keep reading our blog.

If you’re not yet an EZ Office Products customer, call our local customer concierge to set up your business account at (608) 310-4300 today and learn how we can help you stay productive at work.