There seems to be much debate about e-mail signatures and what they should or shouldn’t include. How much information is too much? Can I include my headshot, cat’s name, personal social media icons, and fax number? Here at Jackrabbit, when it comes to e-mail signatures we believe less is more.
Our reasons for keeping it simple stem from our extensive emailing-all-day-everyday experience. Sure, you could come up with an amazing design, jam-packed with contact information and intriguing visuals, and it might look awesome. But it simply isn’t practical or serving the right purpose. We e-mail LOTS of people on a daily basis and there are a few things we wish more people would understand:
IMAGES TO BE OR NOT TO BE
Image files, such as logos or social media icons, may be nice looking but can seriously bloat your e-mail threads. When you go back and forth with someone in an e-mail, these images are sent in each message. Most e-mail clients like Outlook or Apple Mail won’t load the images of the previous message so you end up with a long, scary-looking list of URLs. This makes finding things in your e-mail more annoying than it already is.
DON’T MAKE ME SEARCH
To combat reason one, some people will turn off their e-mail signature after the first message in a thread. This seems to make sense until you are 50 e-mails into a conversation and all you need is a person’s office number. You have to scroll all the way down to the bottom to find the information. This isn’t too bad on a desktop but if you happen to be looking for that number on mobile, you better break out the ice for your scrolling thumb.
CONSISTENCY IS KEY
From a more technical side, the problem is consistency. There are tons of applications that people use to view their e-mails (some examples: Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, Mailspring, Mac Mail, Airmail, etc.) and each one has its own ways to interpret and implement signatures. Getting your e-mail signature to look perfect in every application, on every operating system (PC and Mac) is darn near impossible. Just another reason we highly recommend a simple, text-based e-mail signature.
NOT HAVING A SIGNATURE IS NOT AN OPTION
What is worse than having a bloated signature that distorts easily and turns images into URLs? Not having one at all. Don’t make your colleagues, clients, or customers frustrated when they can’t find your information.
We hope this helps you make an informed decision about incorporating e-mail signatures for your company. Happy emailing!