9 Email Signature Designs And 5 Tools To Create Them On Any Budget

A perfect business signature is an art. A good email signature can leave a lasting impression, it can convert, and, most importantly, it can make you look like the best professional ever.

If you’ve always wanted your email to look professional but never knew how to start, we can help you.

What is an email signature and why you need one

Email signature, or sig, is a short text at the end of an email that provides the reader with the basic information about who the person writing to them is. In their signature, people can add anything they believe to be important: their full name, the company they work for, position, contact details, photo or company logo, etc. Your email signature is basically your business card in digital form.

You may think – why do I need to create a business card in an email? Doesn’t the other person know who I am already? Well, it’s not quite so simple. There are quite a few good reasons why you need it:

• With a signature, people can easily and quickly find your contact information.
• Including your company in the signature can give the recipient a chance to research your company and product better before getting back to you with an answer.
• A signature gives people an opportunity to contact you if your message was forwarded. When the direct recipients hover over the sender’s name, they will see your name and email. But if they decide to forward your email to their business partners, they won’t know how to contact you. Inserting a signature will give them the info they need to contact you.
• Signature helps drive traffic to your company website and social profiles.

Besides this, you need to remember one more thing – it’s a standard of professional email correspondence. If you use your email to build connections, pitch your product to companies, or any other professional communication, the recipient will expect to see a signature. An absence of one might make them doubt how serious you are about what you do.

Tips for creating an email signature design

Creating an email signature seems like a pretty simple task. But as with all simple tasks, the simplicity leaves a lot of room for error. We want the signature to be readable, relevant, and elegant, and to achieve this, you need to follow a few simple guidelines.

Do keep it short and simple.
Provide all the necessary information about you and your company, but stay brief – 5-7 lines are just enough.

Do customize according to your position.
If you are a member of the marketing department, then you may need to include details like social media icons with links; on the other hand, your developer’s team can omit this info from their signatures.

Do add social media links or/and icons.
This will drive traffic to your social media profiles and help set up additional contact channels with your prospect. Add professional social accounts only – you are working within a team, not on your own.

Do promote recent content.
Free e-book download, upcoming conference appearance, new product launch, etc. can all be featured in a signature. It’s okay to let people know about an important event in the company.

Do follow the laws of the country.
During my research for this article, I was surprised to find out that some countries treat email signatures extremely seriously. For example, if you live and work in the Netherlands, you must add information like your company registration number and location, registered office, etc. to your email. Who knew!

Do change your email signature from time to time.
Seeing the same email signature over and over again can make it annoying and easy-to-forget. Update it about as often as you update your website design. Keep it fresh.

Do add a call-to-action.
Include a CTA to push the recipients to follow a link and read more about your company or offer. However, don’t turn it into a sales pitch.

Do make it mobile and tablet-friendly.
If you’re an email marketer, this is nothing new for you. When creating an email signature, make sure everything is displayed correctly and every link and icon is tappable.

Do check for spelling mistakes.
This is just common sense. Misspellings in an email might come through as human, but mistakes in a signature show that you are absent-minded.

Do include only real and valid information.
If the recipient can’t contact you, then what’s the point in a signature? Double-check your contact details to be sure and review them regularly.

Do A/B test.
If you have the time and you believe a signature affects your conversions, why not A/B test it? This is especially relevant for sales reps.

Don’t use multiple colors and fonts.
Great email signatures do not contain a variety of colors and fonts. They are simple, reserved, and easy-to-read. In one word, elegant. You don’t want your signature to annoy, you want it to be a nice little handy detail.

Don’t use multiple images.
Just like with fonts and colors, keep it simple with images. Use only one image in your signature – a professional photo or your company logo. Please, don’t ever use a selfie.

Don’t disclose personal information.
Without a doubt, a human touch is important, but don’t go as far as adding your personal email and phone number. Use your professional contact details only.

These basics are what a professional signature is built on and ignoring them will definitely leave a mark on your reply rate. Let me demonstrate.

Which of these two would you trust to do business with?

Best professional signature examples

We’ve covered the basic rules in the tips, but it’s better to see once than to hear twice. So let’s take a look at the best examples of those rules in action and how you can experiment with your signature.

Brief and readable

According to the research by Marketing Land , the perfect size for a signature is 7 lines. Other sources claim that four lines is just enough. We recommend to use just the essential data and stay within the 4-7 lines window.

Try two columns

As a rule, email signatures contain just one column of text. But why not try two? The recipients will find the necessary information fast, and the signature stays readable.

Add your photo

When the person on the other end of the letter knows what you look like they start seeing you as a human and not just as another email in their inbox. A photo in an email signature attracts attention, boosts visual interest, adds a human touch, and makes you seem more trustworthy.

Use a background

You can try and use a background for your signature. Make it as simplistic as you can. Always make sure the text is readable on top of it.

Please note, there are some downsides to this design. According to research, though such pictures may seem attractive, people are more likely to remember signatures with people, than those with abstract images.

Play with colors

Of course, there should be no cacophony of colors, but playing with color blocking or your corporate colors is a good idea. A bright color will attract the readers’ attention to the important parts of your signature. Moreover, human brain is more likely to remember colorful images than monochrome ones.

Add more icons

Want to show your leads that you are a real person? Give them more options to connect? Let them explore your work before they give you a definitive answer? Add more relevant icons to your signature. Please don’t forget to attach links to the icons.

Insert your company logo

Think using your own photo is just a little too personal? That’s OK, you can always add your company logo.

Try a CTA

Do you think it’s a good idea to add a CTA in the email body? Of course, it is. Why not add one to your email signature too? Add something small, like an e-book download link, to provide value to the recipient.

Boast a company achievement

If your company has recently celebrated a notable achievement, you can temporarily include it in your signature while it’s still relevant.

Email signature generators

Creating an email signature design is not as complicated as you may think. You can use Paint, PhotoShop, or Canva for this purpose. But remember, it won’t be displayed correctly on every device and in every email client, which is why you need a tool specifically for creating email signatures.

MySignature

Price: $4/month, multiple signature packages start at $9/month
Rating: 💜💜💜💜💜
Link: mysignature.io

This service is our favorite among the bunch – it’s really comfortable, easy-to-use, and the designs are slick and beautiful. It offers 86 social network icon options!

Once you register, you unlock a lot of features that can make your signature look amazingly professional. All signatures are optimized for desktop, mobile, and tablet. A great email signature generator tool all around.

Si.Gnatu.Re

Price: Free (editing open for 30 days, can be unlocked forever for a one-off $5 payment); $5 (individual); $35 for 10 signatures. All payments are one-time.
Rating: 💜💜💜💜
Link: si.gnatu.re

This editor is definitely worth a try. It’s very easy and offers a pretty slick design with just enough customization. You can do anything with your signature: change font type and size, upload your logo, add as many social logos and you wish, change the signature width, background, text, and logo colors, and much more. If you want the signature to be added automatically, you’ll have to pay. But you can bypass this if you don’t mind manual copy-pasting. The one-off payment model is a big plus too, making this the most affordable service in the list.

Exclaimer

Price: 14-day free trial; £4.85 (per month per 5 users).
Rating: 💜💜
Link: exclaimer.co.uk

The tool is quite affordable – it starts at around $6.50/month for 5 users. It can create email signatures for G Suite, Office 365, and Outlook. The signatures created within the platform are displayed correctly on any device, including mobile and Apple devices.

You can create your signature by dragging the elements into the editor field or use one of the templates. Personally, I wish the elements were more customizable (like picture shape or fonts) and the templates were a bit more current and clean. Can it create a signature? Yes. Are there better options on the market? Definitely.

WiseStamp

Price: Free, $6/month
Rating: 💜💜💜
Link: wisestamp.com

The service works just like the previous ones: fill in the fields about yourself, choose an email service provider you are going to send with, and test your signature by emailing yourself. The signature appears immediately in the email builder.

You can add signature fields, social profile icons, and links, change the font and your photo size, social icons sizes. Many other features are available if you upgrade to Pro. WiseStamp branding will be shown after the signature unless you upgrade. The free plan is not advertised openly and covers only a very basic signature.

NewOldStamp

Price: $6/month
Rating: 💜💜💜1/2
Link: newoldstamp.com

There are 29 templates available in the preview, and you can change and transform every single thing in your template. The designs are alright and there are lots of options for customization. The only problem is, there are no free plans or trials. This is not the best option on the market, but it’s an option!

Why not try it

If you do most of your business via email, a signature is a must-have. It makes you more memorable, more human and gives the recipient enough info to continue your communication.

Creating a good email signature is pretty easy, even on a budget. Just pick a style you like best and try recreating it in one of the tools for free or for as low as $5. Test email signature in an email drip campaign with Snov.io for free. Good luck.