15 Email Signature Mistakes That You Need To Avoid At All Costs

Even before the inception of modern digital marketing, email was thriving as a marketing method. There have been a lot of conversations to frame email marketing strategies. But what most marketers miss is a neatly designed email signature.

Email signatures might be the last thing in your email. But that is a small yet powerful strategy to improve your email marketing metrics.

A well-crafted email signature can increase the impact of your email marketing more than you realize.

In this article, we’re covering 15 email signature mistakes that you might be making.

TLDR

• Email signatures are the last point of your email. Yet they can greatly impact your email marketing strategy.
• Don’t add too much irrelevant information in your email signature.
• Including a profile photo and business logo in email signature makes the signature professional.
• Not hosting images on a reliable server will make the efforts futile.
• The common email signature mistake every marketer makes is not resizing the images to an ideal size.
• Not using an email signature is better than using an image as an email signature.
• The information of your email signature must be updated regularly.
• Don’t use too many variations of color, font, and size in your email signature.
• Proofread your email signature several times before sending it out.
• Don’t forget to add a CTA in your email signature.
• Your recipients don’t need to get access to each of your social media accounts to contact you. Share only two channels that you regularly update.
• Use legal disclaimers only when the email contains something confidential.

Email Signature Mistake #1: Adding Too Much Irrelevant Information

The more short and crisp your email signature is, the more impactful it is. Adding too much information in email signatures creates confusion among recipients.

Omit everything that has very little significance. The only information you should include in your email signature is

• Your name
• Your job designation
• Your company name and address
• Phone number
• A maximum of two social media links

That's it—nothing more, nothing less. Your recipients don't care about how many social media accounts you have.

It might appear very bland to you, but remember, less is more. You should include some other useful information in your email signature that we will discuss later in this article.

Nonetheless, if you are confused about which information you should include, a signature generator like Signature Ninja can ease your pain. It will only ask for information and materials that need to be included in your email signature.

Email Signature Mistake #2: Not Hosting Images on a Server

Images on email signatures make it more professional. However, if you don't host your photos on a web server, it might not show up at times.

If your recipient's email client does not support images, it can appear as attachments or, worse, not appear at all.

Hence, all of the images you use in your email signature should be hosted on a server. Make sure to include the URL written in HTML code.

Email Signature Mistake #3: Using Large Images

The logos and images you choose to use in your email signature should be resized to get the ideal size. If the original size is bigger than it is coded to display, it can be ignored by your recipients' email clients and appear as the original size (which can be larger than your actual email content).

Email Signature Mistake #4: Using Image as an Email Signature

There are so many reasons why you should avoid using images as your email signature.

The first and the most important among them is, most of your recipients' use email clients that do not automatically download and display images. Some of them do not even support pictures. As a result, your email can directly land into the spam folders of your recipient.

Moreover, you will not be able to hyperlink your website links, social media links in your email signature. Therefore, neither will your recipients be able to copy your contact details nor can they increase your website and social media traffic.

Email Signature Mistake #5: Using Outdated Information

The last thing you want to have in your email signature is outdated information.

Including promotional banners with a crisp CTA in your email signature is a very good idea. But if these are not updated, they’re of no use.

Moreover, you should update your contact and personal information if you need to. For example, if you change your contact number, company or open a new social media account and are not using the old one, you should update this information regularly.

Before sending out any email signature, go through a quick check to see all information is updated. Check out if all the links you use are working.

Email Signature Mistake #6: Not Including Social Media Links

Including all the social media accounts you have can clutter your email signature. Although personal social media accounts are not a good platform to contact for business purposes, nonetheless, these days, some people may want to reach out to you via Facebook rather than calling you over.

However, adding all the social media accounts you have can make your signature look cluttered. Not only is it unprofessional, but it can also confuse your recipients.

Hence add only two social media channels that you regularly update.

Email Signature Mistake #7: Using Custom Fonts

A personal touch can do wonders for your marketing efforts. But personalization also has its limits.

Choosing a custom font that does not support your recipients' devices will render your efforts useless because the font will be automatically changed to a default font.

However, don’t use multiple fonts and sizes throughout your email signature. Use only two different sizes and one font family. The size should remain between 10-12. Not too small, neither too big. Keep it simple and clean.

Email Signature Mistake #8: Playing With Colors

That's probably the worst thing you can do with your email signature- play with colors. Please, you do not have to play with colors in your email signature.

You can be a cheerful person and believe in colorful, vibrant stuff, but your email signature does not need to reflect that.

Choose only two colors. Make one the feature color and combine it with an elegant shade that matches your brand personality. Email signatures with multiple colors make it seem messy and unorganized.

Email Signature Mistake #9: Making Typos and Grammatical Errors

After reading the heading, you might think, "who does that?". But honestly, this can happen to even the best of marketers.

Your hours of effort and energy may yield no results because of one single typo. To avoid this, proofread your email signature several times. The best option is to get the email signature done through a professional signature generator like Signature Ninja, which reduces your chances of making a typo.

Email Signature Mistake #10: Using Quotes

Inserting personal quotes in your email signature will do nothing but ruin your email marketing efforts.

You are entitled to having your own value. Not necessarily will it align with your customers' values. In that scenario, your recipient might get offended, get a wrong impression, and would not care about the message you have delivered.

Apart from all of that, why do you even need to include a quote in your email signature?

Email Signature Mistake #11: Not Using a Call-to-action Button

Every bit of your email can make conversions. Even the email signature.

Not only can you generate a website and social media traffic through this, but you can jam your sales pipeline with leads as well.

A unique, short, and crisp CTA can make your efforts successful. You can hyperlink the CTA with a banner that explains the offer. You can hyperlink a relevant CTA with an article link from your blog section, and that can drive traffic to your content.

Either way, make sure the CTA is concise and impactful.

Email Signature Mistake #12: Inserting More Than Two Images

You only need two images in your email signature.

1. Your profile picture (Must be a formal one)
2. Your Business logo

Use an optimal size that would not take forever to load. Using more than two images can make the signature look cluttered.

Email Signature Mistake #13: Adding Word Documents or PDF Instead of Links

This is the most unprofessional thing a marketer can do. Word documents or PDFs should not be attached to email signatures. You can include them on your website.

The best thing to do is hyperlink an article from your website's blog. This is not only professional but also drives traffic to your website.

Email Signature Mistake #14: Using Long Legal Disclaimers

If you do not include any private information, you do not even need a disclaimer. However, if your email contains any confidential information, don't include a long one. You can use a few lines and link to an online version.

Email Signature Mistake #15: Generate HTML Code Through Word

The markup tags word inserts are Office-specific. Usually, they don't fit into HTML standards. If your recipients are not using Outlook, it can cause problems, i.e., the code can break, which will make your signature unprofessional.

Wrapping Up

Now that we have covered every email signature mistake that can mess up your email marketing efforts, you can check yours and fix everything that needs to be fixed.

Marketers are human; they can also make mistakes. But losing the credibility of your brand over something as petty as typo or wrong fonts are not worth it.

Even if you are sure about your email signature, get a review from a peer or colleague to be on the safe side.

The best option is to use Signature Ninja. You can choose from over 100 templates and even get a customized one. Besides, there are experts to help you. You can get direct email testing as well.

Sign up now and get your email signature done!