How to Optimize Your Email Signature for Conversions: 15 Tips

How to Optimize Your Email Signature for Conversions: 15 Tips

written by Houston Golden
Founder & CEO, BAMF Media
January 7th, 2022
Share This

Here’s the problem with email signatures.

They’re such a small part of all your emails that once you’ve created one, it’s easy to forget about it making a new one or optimizing it in the future.

But, they’re not a small part of your email.

They’re present everywhere in every email you send out.

This is why you need to get them right.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to optimize your email signature, the current best practices and what you can do to convert even properly. By the end of this, you’ll be able to turn your email signature into a CTA to bring in more leads!

How to Optimize Your Email Signature

This process might differ from one email client to another, but if you’re using the standard Gmail client, all you have to do is head over to your inbox and click on the gear to the upper-right.

It will open your mail quick settings.

how to optimize your email signature, How to Optimize Your Email Signature for Conversions: 15 Tips

Now you want to click on “See all settings”.

how to optimize your email signature, How to Optimize Your Email Signature for Conversions: 15 Tips

Under “General” you want to scroll down and look for the email signature section.

Click on “Create new” to add the email signatures you want to use.

how to optimize your email signature, How to Optimize Your Email Signature for Conversions: 15 Tips

Almost all email clients will allow you to add pictures and hyperlink them, add text formatting and design your email signature the way you see fit.

1. Name

Add your first and last name, if you go by a nickname – that a lot of the people in the industry know you by – then you can add that in as well.

You can also add your personal pronouns if you want to.

However, even if you send emails with an email signature, make sure you add your name to the end of the actual email as well.

Your email signature acts more like a business card attached to your email.

2. Job Title and Affiliation

Your job title and affiliation are a must because it tells email recipients who you are in the conversation. Usually, your job title and company name will do, but if you’re representing a larger organization, adding in your department makes a lot of sense as well.

If you run things for a larger company, your job title and affiliation also build trust by association which you need if you’re sending correspondence to someone new. And, this is especially true if you’re running lead generation.

Leads will want to know who you are and what you represent in the company.

3. Contact Information

Your contact information should include your number, company phone + extension, and your email address.

As much as possible, you don’t want to add your personal email or phone numbers. You never who might be calling you out of nowhere and you want to maintain your privacy.

There are a lot of stories of inappropriate correspondence because some marketers have opted to stick in their personal emails or numbers.

Keep it strictly business/professional.

Don’t use normal Gmail emails, make sure you’re using a mailbox that has a branded domain.

4. Contact Photo

Some people will choose to add the company logo to their email signature line and that’s perfectly fine.

The only problem with it is that everyone does that.

Adding your own professional headshot helps you stand out from the crowd, and it adds a great deal of personalization to your email.

The thing with email is that they can be a little distant given their formal nature, but adding a photo of yourself helps to make it more relational.

When choosing an email signature photo the same standard rules for LinkedIn.

Find out how you can optimize your LinkedIn profile and cover photo here!

  • Make sure you have a headshot that clearly shows your face.
  • You don’t have to smile, just look good and accomodating.
  • Blur the background or, better yet, get rid of it altogether. Having a background will make things distracting for your reader.
how to optimize your email signature, How to Optimize Your Email Signature for Conversions: 15 Tips
You can use a tool like ClippingMagic or removal.ai
  • Don’t worry about what you’re wearing, wear what you would wear to a meeting (physical or virtual).
  • Put in a nice frame to make sure everything looks good

If you follow these five rules you should be good to go.

5. Secondary Contact Information

The only secondary contact information you should provide is an alternate number that your reader can call.

You don’t want to overload your email signature with two emails, two LinkedIns, etc.

One of each type of contact detail is enough.

You need to keep it as short as possible.

Always add a booking link.

This is critical if you’re running a marketing or customer service position because it acts as a CTA so that your prospects can reach you with a single click.

If you have to choose one link to host on your email signature line – apart from your website – make sure you choose your booking link.

We strongly advise an app such as Calendly to run your appointments through as a lot of prospects are familiar with it and it allows a degree of automation within your calendar.

7. Social Badges

The purpose of social badges on your signature line isn’t mainly for lead generation but rather for additional social proof that the recipient of the message is talking to a real person.

If a recipient shows interest in who you are, having a couple of links to your LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. will help provide the validation that they need so that you can put them ease if ever they want to look you up.

Here’s the thing.

Don’t add every single social account that you have.

Your prospects don’t want to see your Pinterest board, they just want to verify that you’re a real person.

At most we suggest adding your LinkedIn and maybe your Twitter. You don’t need to add Facebook because it makes it easy for them to casually contact you or your personal Instagram account.

If you have business accounts for Facebook and IG then that’s alright to add – only if necessary.

Alternatively, you can add the Instragam, Facebook and Twitter of your company, but always keep the LinkedIn link personal.

Okay, the question now becomes “why use badges?”

Badges make your links look neat and a row of them will save you from having to use multiple lines for social media links.

To add badges, all you have to do is insert a photo of the badge, select it, then add a link.

8. Disclaimers

Some industries will require you to have some sort of text disclaimer, especially if you’re dealing with the transmission of highly personal or secretive information.

Now, the content of your disclaimer will vary depending on your industry, and not all industries will require to have this part in your email signature.

At most, you can add a simple piece of text stating that:

  • The email that the recipient is dealing with is personal and therefore confidential in nature.
  • That they should let the sender know if they sent it to the wrong person
  • And, that they should delete the email if they aren’t the intended recipient.

Again, the wording will vary depending on the specific need of your industry and your internal organization.

how to optimize your email signature, How to Optimize Your Email Signature for Conversions: 15 Tips

9. Additional Text

Some people might opt for a quick CTA or company slogan in their signature line.

Although that’s perfectly fine, you do run into the issue of making your signature text-heavy. If you can include it in the graphic under your profile picture or company logo, then that’s great, but it’s not entirely necessary.

If you look at professional signature lines, they rarely come with additional company one-liners or mottos.

Another reason why you would want to avoid additional text like this is because it might alter the seriousness of your email.

If you’re sending out a critical email that has confidential information, you could “ruin” the mood by adding a company slogan at the bottom, it makes things too casual and derails the overall correspondence that you’re trying to have.

Always think twice about trying to add your company slogan.

10. Email Address Not Mailing Address

Don’t add your address.

This is especially true if you’re running a SaaS company.

It’s completely unnecessary if most of the people you’re talking to won’t have to send you snail mail and if you have your company website on your email signature line, they can always visit your website to find out where you’re located.

Also, another issue with having your mailing address on there is that it’s unnecessary text and makes your signature visually heavy to look at.

If you do run a brick-and-mortar establishment that you want people to visit, you can add a Google map link or a social badge with a link to your coordinates.

Most of the time there is no reason to add your mailing address when your email address should suffice.

11. Use the Appropriate Text Separator

Instead of hitting enter/return for every piece of information on your email signature, opt for vertical pipes “|” or dashes “-“.

This allows you to control the amount of text you’re putting into your signature and makes things neat.

A good example of this is if you want to include more than one contact number. Separate both contact numbers with a vertical pipe to keep things short.

Don’t overwhelm your reader with multiple lines on your email signature, which leads us to…

12. Keep it to Four to Five Lines Max

Your reader does not need to know what your zodiac sign is or if you’re an ENFJ, so make sure you keep your email signature short.

Here’s what marketers need to understand.

People get intimidated when they see a lot of words in a particular section. They become more reluctant to breeze gith through a block of text if it’s too long.

So you need to keep it short.

This is the same reason we recommend social badges instead of putting down the entire link so that you can cram a lot of information and still keep it visually appealing.

Keeping it short will also help with mobile optimization.

13. Think Mobile

Always make sure you do a test of your email signature before you release it.

Send it to your own email to see what it looks like under an email and also make sure you view the email on mobile as well.

A lot of your contacts check their email on their phones and you need to figure out if your email signature is good-looking on a smaller screen.

If it looks bad, then it’s back to the drawing board.

14. QR Codes

If you really want to add a lot more information then consider adding a QR code next to your email signature photo.

We found this to be the best less-intrusive way to add more information while still being able to convert with a signature.

We have an an entire article devoted to using QR codes to convert.

We strongly advise that you turn that QR code into a landing page to get people into your funnel.

It’s not enough that you’re adding links.

You should track them as well.

This is especially true for links going to your company’s website.

By using a UTM tracker, you can find out how much of your traffic is attributed to your email signature and you can harness this data to find out if it’s converting in terms of traffic.

What do you do if no one is clicking it?

Start considering redesigning your signature altogether.

Takeaways

Getting your email signature right is critical.

It appears in every email that you send out and it’s a way for you to convert.

With your email signature, your reader can get to know you better and figure out if they can trust you.

That helps build a connection with them.

You see even little things like an email signature have to be built with intention in mind. This ensures that you’re using all your channels for growth.

About the Author

The name's Houston Golden. I'm the Founder & CEO of BAMF — a company I've grown from $0 (yes, really) to well over $5M+ in revenue over a span of 5 years.

How did I do it? Well, it's quite simple, really. I've helped hundreds of business owners and executives get major traction (because when they win, we win), I tell all on this blog.

Growth hacking is a state of mind. Follow along as I explore and expose the unknown growth strategies and tactics that will change the way you think about marketing.
Connect with MeJoin the Facebook GroupFollow Me On Instagram

Leave a Reply

Leave the first comment