For businesses, an email signature is like a website on a micro scale.  You should definitely have one, but it needs to be done well to make the right statement about your business.  There are also various stylistic and technical issues to consider.  I like to think our email signature is pretty good.  Clean, simple, with a hint of color to make it stand out and represent our brand:

However, one of our clients stands out for having an all-around great email signature that I think should stand as example to others.  As part of our ePiphany issue focusing on inspiring work by our clients, we would like to show you the email signature from Demi and Cooper. They are a Chicago advertising agency we have worked with to provide webcam service for building development projects.  Their signature has a nice mix of clean and simple design, appropriate use of images, and inclusion of social media links.  Have a look at the signature of Walter Ottenhoff, who did the actual design for it:

	Walter Ottenhoff | Web Art Director/Manager | Demi & Cooper Advertising P 847.931.5800 | F 847.931.5801 | demicooper.com

If you’re going to use graphics in your signature, do so sparingly.  And be sure to host any images at your company’s website, referring to them there rather than including them as email attachments.  If social media links are appropriate, by all means include them and use the appropriate thumbnails.

A professional email signature should ideally be crafted by an experienced web designer.  The signature is basically just a little bit of HTML, but there are concerns specific to viewing in an email client.  Test in as many email clients as possible to be sure that people won’t see an unintended mess at the bottom of your emails. We recommend Litmus for an automated service to perform such testing.

If you can’t get a custom HTML signature, one free alternative is a Firefox browser plugin called WiseStamp.  Their signature edit tool would feel familiar to anyone who has used MS Word or blog authoring tools.  You can input your social media profile addresses and it will add links to them automatically, with some nice options for customizing their display.  WiseStamp will add your signature to all the common web mail clients.  You can even get the HTML from it (although without the social media links) to use in a desktop email client like Outlook.  One tip: be sure to uncheck the promote Wisestamp Project option in the settings.

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Andrew Crowe Categories: ePiphany Featured Story, General, How To, Marketing, Technology, Web