Boosting Your Email Marketing with Email Footer and Signature Templates

Picture this. You’re paying at the cash register at your local convenience store when you notice an attractive flyer. You pick it up. The message reads:

Timmy’s Bar & Grill – FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR

$5 Wing Buffet

50% Off Apps

$5 Pitcher

$2 Domestic Bottle

You scan the page diligently for an address, but, alas, there isn’t one!

Someone bungled the contact information, so now you can’t enjoy a $5 wing buffet. Ridiculous!

That’s exactly how email recipients feel when they receive a marketing email without a footer and signature.

What is an Email Footer? (And Why Should You Care?)

The email footer, not to be confused with the email signature, is the small text block at the bottom of a marketing email, below the body content and email signature section.

It can be as basic as your company’s address and an unsubscribe link or contain essential information like contact details, a website link, email preferences, legal disclaimers, and more settings. Although email footers are often overlooked, they are essential for building trust with the audience and protecting your business.

Before delving deeper into how to create a fantastic email footer, let’s quickly understand the differences between an email footer and an email signature.

Email Footer vs. Email Signature: What are the Differences?

While both email signatures and footers can be used at the end of a marketing campaign, they are not the same.

The primary difference is that email signatures support visual elements such as images, social media icons, and a company logo, but email footers use simple text.

Here is an example from Coursera for reference.

A modern business email uses both footers and signatures to convey various information in a visually appealing manner. This breaks the monotony and helps readers digest the information more efficiently.

How to Create Stunning Email Signatures and Footers – Best Practices

Here are six things to consider when creating a professional email signature and footer.

Add an Unsubscribe Link

Adding an unsubscribe button to the email signature or footer might seem counterproductive. However, enabling readers to unsubscribe from your marketing correspondence helps maintain email list hygiene. This improves email deliverability and customer engagement while building trust with the audience.

Ask Recipients to Add You to Their Address Book

Being added to your contact’s address book prevents your email messages from landing in the spam folder. When the recipient manually adds you to their address book, it signals the email service provider that they want to keep receiving your business correspondence, which increases your sender reputation.

Add a Personal Touch

Adding a personalized signature makes an impactful impression on the target audience and leaves them on a high note. You can insert an electronic signature to help readers connect with the human behind the brand or a personal sign-off note that says, “We’ll miss you”, to make them feel valued.

Add Your Social Media Links

Social media channels encourage people to keep conversations going with minimal input from the creator. This helps spread the word and introduces your business to new audiences. Add social links to your email signature, asking readers to follow you on social media and share your content with friends, family, and everyone they know.

Add Menus to Encourage Readers to Explore Various Sections of Your Website

Menus guide the reader to different sections of your website. Adding them to your email signature helps the audience navigate to other parts of your website. For example, you can point readers toward the “sale”, “new arrival”, or “best-selling” sections of your eCommerce website or the “about us” page for other businesses.

Optimize Your Email Footer for Mobile Devices

Mobile optimization is one of the most essential email footer best practices. It allows readers to view your message on different screen sizes without interruptions. A plain text email footer loads easily on a poor internet connection and displays key elements, such as company name, legal information, preference center, and phone numbers, which leave a good impression on the audience.

5 Email Footer Examples to Help Visualize What We’ve Learned

Email footers represent your brand identity. So, don’t be afraid to experiment. Here are five unique email signature templates from reputable global brands:

Airbnb’s Simple Email Signature

What We Like About This Email Signature

1. The clever use of white space highlights the CTA, which asks the reader to get the Airbnb mobile app.
2. Notice the single-column design? This makes the content optimal for mobile viewing.
3. The bold email preferences and unsubscribe links are hard to miss.

Patagonia’s Perfect Use of Email Signature and Footer

What We Like About This Email Signature

1. Patagonia’s email signatures remind customers about the brand’s core values. Notice the four icons at the top.
2. The customer service helpline is highlighted to help readers get in touch. This increases customer trust and brand reputation.
3. The disclaimer is neatly inserted in the email footer as a fine print.

Nat Geo Adds a Survey Link in the Email Signature

What We Like About This Email Signature

1. The visually appealing design, with its black and gold accents, reminisces the brand colors.
2. The copy prompts the reader to take the desired action. (Take the survey)
3. Notice the use of blank space in the footer section to break the information into palatable chunks.

Nike Packs All the Elements Neatly into the Email Signature

What We Like About This Email Signature

1. Nike continues its lifestyle-first marketing strategy in the email footer. Notice that the focus is on NRC, which is the Nike+ Run Club campaign.
2. The template is visually appealing and segregates the essential information into sections for easy viewing.
3. Notice how the CTA buttons are placed in decreasing order of importance.

WeWork Uses Hierarchy to Break Information into Palatable Chunks

What We Like About This Email Signature

1. WeWork uses white spaces and a smart hierarchy to split the information into bite-sized chunks in decreasing order of importance, starting with “refer friends” and ending with “view in a browser”.
2. The email signature highlights the company’s motto, reinforcing the company’s core values and increasing brand recognition.
3. The strategic placement of the slogan, followed by the social links, encourages customers to follow them on social media.

Create Effective Email Signatures and Footers and Build Customer Trust with Expert Guidance

Optimizing the email signature and footer is crucial for effective email campaigns. While the process might seem overwhelming initially, you will become familiar once you start. So, don’t worry, and take the first step.

From simplifying unsubscribing to adding social links and brand icons to the email signature, remember the best practices to build trust with the audience. The examples above should help you visualize everything we’ve learned here. Feel free to reuse them for your email marketing campaigns, but remember to personalize them according to your brand voice.

If you need help creating or optimizing your email footer, we can help. Book a discovery call here, and an expert will get in touch at your convenience. For any other assistance, you can contact us here.