Emails, emails emails…

Despite the rise of messaging apps and other services, in this age of digital communication email is still the most effective, efficient, and preferred method of communication for most businesses. This is due to its wide reach, cost-effectiveness, familiarity among users, secure nature and its ability to deliver communications at speed.

For these reasons, it will continue to be an essential component of the modern workplace environment. The fact that on average, employees receive 121 and send more than 40 emails every day proves that!

This continued reliance means that email signatures have also become an essential part of business communication.

What is an email signature

Email signatures are the block of text that appears at the end of every email you send. They contain essential information about the sender and the company including name, title, phone number, email address and even marketing messages.

What makes a good email signature?

Here are some best practices for email signatures:

  1. Keep it simple: A cluttered email signature can be distracting and unprofessional. Keep your signature simple, with only essential information.
  2. Use a consistent format: Use a consistent format for all email signatures. This can help to ensure that your business is presenting itself in a professional and uniform way.
  3. Include necessary information: Ensure that your email signature includes all necessary information, including name, title, phone number, email address, and legal disclaimers.
  4. Update regularly: Update your email signature regularly to ensure that it reflects the latest contact information and other relevant details.

What is email signature management?

Email signature management allows you to create email signatures and targeted email banners, assign them to relevant employees and deploy them to all their devices at the click of a button,  without them having to do a thing.

The pros

Professionalism
Email signatures have a significant impact on the credibility and professionalism of a business. It is the first impression that customers, clients and prospects get from your business. A well-crafted company-wide email signature with no inconsistencies and mistakes conveys professionalism, authority, and attention to detail.

Brand consistency
Email signature management is essential for consistency and establishing a strong brand identity via your employees who effectively become brand ambassadors. A consistent email signature can ensure that your company is presenting itself in a uniform way, provides proof to the recipient that you take your business communication seriously and that you are committed to presenting a professional image.

Templates
If you don’t have access to a designer, many email signature management tools offer a suite of templates for you to choose from.

Compliance
Certain industries require specific disclaimers, such as financial services and legal practices. Signature management helps to avoid legal issues by ensuring that all necessary disclaimers, legal notices, and other required information are included in the signature.

Easy to make global changes
Email signature management makes it easy to ensure changes are made to all email signatures when required. If a business changes its phone number or email address, it can be challenging to ensure that the change is communicated to all clients and prospects. Or perhaps your business’ branding has been updated and the logo in all email signatures needs changing.

Marketing
Email signatures can be used for marketing purposes by including dynamic content. Perhaps your business is up for an award and you’d benefit from votes from your customers and prospective clients – include it within your email signature banner during the relevant time period as a way to communicate in a targeted, non-intrusive way.

You can also integrate customer feedback surveys into your signatures for fast customer feedback.

Onboarding
No technical delays when a new employee joins your business. Your email signature management tool synchronises with your email directory and automatically applies email signatures to new team members.

Tracking performance
Most email signature management tools allow you to track your email signatures’ impressions and brand exposure via your Google Analytics dashboard so you can analyse how many email signature clicks turned into leads or sales.

And the cons

While email signature management provides many benefits, there are potential challenges and drawbacks that need to be considered.
Creativity
Email signature management potentially limits the creativity of employees who may want to use different formats or designs for their email signatures.

Overuse
It’s argued that email signatures should not be used excessively, as they can become distracting or overwhelming. Including too much information or too many links can lead to the recipient ignoring the signature altogether.

Cost
Of course, there is a cost attached but most tools are relatively inexpensive and are on a per-user basis.

Overall, the pros of email signature management outweigh the cons, as long as it is implemented properly. We can take care of your email signature management as part of our flexible Managed IT Services.

Book a ‘no strings’ 30-minute chat with us today to find out more.