How do you create a simple yet eye-catching email signature? What are some dos and don’ts to avoid when designing your email signature? Which budget-friendly platforms can you use to design your own email signature?

In this podcast episode, Sam Carvalho offers some tips for creating a great email signature.

Podcast Sponsor: Therapy Notes

Is managing your practice stressing you out? Try TherapyNotes! It makes notes, billing, scheduling, and telehealth a whole lot easier.

Check it out and you will quickly see why TherapyNotes is the highest-rated EHR on TrustPilot with over 1000 verified customer reviews and an average customer rating of 4.9/5 stars.

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If you are coming from another EHR, they make the transition really easy. TherapyNotes will import your clients’ demographic data free of charge during your trial so you can get going right away.

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Aim for simplicity

Your signature does not have to be flashy to be effective. Simplicity can better capture someone’s appreciation and attention. Here are a few dos and don’ts:

• Do keep it short: use no more than 3-4 lines of text. Include name, title, website, contact, location.
• Do be careful with contact information.
• Do use color.
• Do include an image: your logo or a simple professional headshot can add authority and build trust.
• Do use hierarchy to direct the eye: Use scale, color, and font weights to visually signal to your email recipients which elements of your signature should be read first.
• Do optimize for mobile: send yourself a test email and check that your signature looks good on mobile too.

A quick tip on this around the design of your email signature is to align your graphic, type, and icons logically and simply to bring order and harmony to your design. (Sam Carvalho)

• Don’t include your email address.
• Don’t add every platform: prioritize your most important or prominent social media handles.
• Don’t promote a personal agenda with a work email signature.
• Don’t go font-crazy or use animated gifs: use a maximum of two fonts max. Avoid flashy or blinking objects.

Match the color scheme and typeface to your company’s branding. Try to not use more than 2 or 3 colors, and use the color to draw attention to what you want people to focus on in your email signature design. (Sam Carvalho)

Use budget-friendly platforms

There are signature generators available that you can use to help you design your email signature on a budget.

They can help you to create a dazzling signature, but a drawback of using them is that most will require you to populate the email address field whether you like it or not.

They also include a bit of their own marketing, such as ‘get your own free email signature here’, with a link to their product. So, you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons before deciding to go this route. (Sam Carvalho)

If you decide to use a generator, try:

• HubSpot
• Exclaimer
• WiseStamp

Consider the direction that you are sending your recipients in

The goal is to make it easy for your contact to interact with your signature, and not to slam them with a wall of links and social icons.

Ask yourself: what do I want my contact to do when they see my signature? It might be simply to recognize your name, title, and company. Or it might be:

• Connecting with you on LinkedIn
• Visiting your website
• Reading your blog
• Checking out your YouTube channel
• Registering for an event or webinar
• Responding to a specific call-to-action

No matter how you use your signature, keep it clear and concise to make the best closing statement.

Useful links mentioned in this episode:

• Use promo code ‘JOE’ to get three free months to try out TherapyNotes, no strings attached
• Check out the Practice of the Practice branding services

Check out these additional resources:

[SAM CARVALHO]
Welcome to the Marketing a Practice podcast with me, Sam Carvalho where you’ll discover everything you need to know about marketing and branding your business. To find out more about how I can help you brand new business visit www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design.

Hi, thanks so much for joining me today on the Marketing a Practice podcast. Today, I’m going to be talking through how you can go about designing a great email signature. So historically we relied on business cards or letterheads to showcase our professional or personal brands, but now, as you know, your email signature has to deliver that. So email signatures have become super important in kind of just making you stand out from the crowd and also ensuring that you are representing your business in a professional way.

The average worker sends out about 40 business emails each day. That’s 200 emails in a typical work week and a whopping 10,400 per year. Therefore, each email is an opportunity to share a little information that helps build recognition and trust. When you have a good signature, you can promote yourself, your services, your company, or all of the above. Something that’s important to note is that your signature doesn’t need to be flashy to be effective. In fact, the best email signatures are often simple. So I’ve put together a bit of a dos and don’ts list around creating a great email signature.

Here we go; do keep it short. Use no more than three to four lines of text. I usually only include the name, title, website, contact and location of the person or the business. Don’t throw in the kitchen sink. So prioritize rather than try and include every social media or website link. Even if you are active on a number of social media channels only include the ones either where you are most active or the ones that your ideal client uses the most or just kind of the ones that you feel are most important. It looks too much if you try and include like 10 social media icons. It makes the email signature look too busy, and it’s also a bit overwhelming for the person receiving it and it’s just a bit unnecessary.

Do include an image. So do include your logo or a simple professional headshot. This can add authority and build trust. So a tip on this just around the design of your email signature is to align your graphic type and icons in a logical and simple way to bring order and harmony to your design. So if you are designing it yourself then that’s kind of just a nice tip to make sure that you end up with a great looking email signature, is just to align everything and make it harmonious. Don’t include your email address. Although this seems like a no brainer, there are lots of people who add the email addresses to their signature unnecessarily. Obviously this is redundant because they already know your email address because they’ve received an email from you.

Do be careful with contact information. Just bear in mind what information your email signature contains, and you don’t necessarily want everyone your email to have your mobile number, for example. So just keep that in mind. Don’t promote a personal agenda with a work email signature. So while you might be proud of your cat’s Instagram, it’s not related to your professional life and so it doesn’t belong in your professional signature.

Do use color. Match the color scheme and type face to your company’s branding and try not use more than two or three colors. Use color to draw attention to what you want people to focus on in your email signature design. Don’t go font crazy or use animated gifs. Again, use maximum two fonts and please no flashy or Blinky things. That’s definitely going to annoy the person on the receiving end.

Do use hierarchy to direct the eye. As with all elements of design hierarchy is so important and especially with an email signature. Use scale color and font weights to visually signal to your email recipients, which elements of your signature should be read first. Again, this is, if you are designing it yourself. And do optimize for mobile. Be sure to send yourself a test email and check that your signature look good on mobile too.
[THERAPY NOTES]
Is managing your practice stressing you out? Try Therapy Notes. It makes notes, billing, scheduling, and tele-health a whole lot easier. Check it out and you will quickly see why it’s the highest rated EHR on Trustpilot with over a thousand verified customer views and an average customer rating of 4.9 out of five stars. You’ll notice the difference from the first day you sign up for a trial. They offer live phone support seven days a week so when you have questions, you can quickly reach out to someone who can help. You are never wasting your time looking for answers.

If you’re coming from another EHR, they make the transition really easy. Therapy Notes will import your clients’ demographic data free of charge during your trial so you can get going right away. Use the promo code [JOE] to get three months to try out Therapy Notes, totally free, no strings attached. Remember telehealth is included with every subscription free. Make 2022 the best year with Therapy Notes.
[SAM CARVALHO]
If you’re on a budget and you can’t afford to have someone design your email signature right now, you can try using a signature generator. Signature generators let you create a dazzling signature with a few clicks and key strokes. A drawback to using them though, is that most will require you to populate the email address field whether you like it or not and as we mentioned in our dos and don’ts list, it’s not great to include your emails in your email signature. They also include a bit of their own marketing, such as get your own free email signature here with a link to their product. So you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons before deciding to go this route but if you do decide to try a generator, there’s three that you can look into. Number one is HubSpot. HubSpot offers a signature creator that lets you play with loud and colors and add an image and you’ll also be able to include social media links, certifications, and a call to action.

The second one is Exclaimer. This signature creator allows you to include a logo, banner, social media links, and even accompany disclaimer. Also as a bonus, if you share Exclaimer on your social channels, they’ll remove the branding from your signature. And number three is WiseStamp. WiseStamp puts a lot of signature generating power at your fingertips. You can do anything from requesting support for charity to showing off your latest YouTube video. Use this wisely though. Keep our dos and don’ts list in mind because you don’t want to go overboard by creating two complex signature. So those are some generators that you can try if you are wanting to do this yourself. If you’re on the run, on the move while listening to this, then we will have those in the show notes for this episode if you want to go check that out.

Some email signature examples. Again, if you are planning on doing it yourself is to go the plain and simple route. You could simply include your name, title, company, and contact info, or you could showcase your social feed. So you could do, you could include the above info but then also include some of your top social media links. Again, keep it minimal. Or you could promote a newsletter. After all, every newsletter subscriber is a potential lead or contact. So consider adding a newsletter subscription link to your signature. Those are just some ideas on types of email signatures that you can create. There are other ways to leverage your email signature in a way that doesn’t go against the dos and don’ts we mentioned in the beginning. So don’t be afraid to get a little creative, but be sure to use one or two angles that will do the most for your business.

The goal is to make it easy for your contact to interact with your signature, not to slam them with a wall of lengths and social icons. So ask yourself, what do I want my contact to do when he or she sees my signature? It might simply be to recognize your name, title, and company, or it might be connecting with you on LinkedIn, visiting your website, reading your blog, checking out your YouTube channel, registering for an event or webinar or responding to a specific call to action. Those again are some more ideas on how you can leverage your email signature, but again, keep it minimal and to the point.

I would say if you are going to make use of one of these ideas, then only make use of one of them not more than one. No matter how you use your signature, keep it clear and concise to make the best closing statement. So that’s it for today, guys. I hope that you got some value out of this episode and as always, if you need help designing your email signature, feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to help you. And I will see you in the next episode.

Thanks again to Therapy Notes for sponsoring this episode. Remember to use the primary code, [JOE], that’s J-O-E to get three free months to try out Therapy Notes for free, no strings attached.

Thanks for listening to the Marketing a Practice podcast. If you need help with branding your business, whether it be a new logo, rebrand, or you simply want some print flyer designed head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design.

Finally, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on iTunes if you like what you’ve heard. Talk to you soon.

Marketing a Practice podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice podcast network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Beta Male Revolution, Empowered and Unapologetic, Imperfect Thriving, or Faith in Practice, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.

This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.