www.patronum.io EMAIL SIGNATURE MANAGEMENT www.patronum.io 01 | EMAIL SIGNATURE MANAGEMENT MANY ORGANISATIONS ARE STILL ASKING THEIR TEAM MEMBERS TO MANUALLY ADD NEW EMAIL SIGNATURES TO THEIR GMAIL INTERFACE. BUT THERE IS A BETTER WAY... PATRONUM www.patronum.io 02 | EMAIL SIGNATURE MANAGEMENT Yet t h e re a re still many people out th ere wh o don’ t give th eir e m a i l sig n a t u re s t h e consideration it desires. It still surprises us that over 4 8% o f bus i n e s s e m ail users don’ t have an email signature, while oth ers ma ke d o wit h p o o rl y th ought- out or ba dly design ed on es. Your email signature h e l p s convey yo u r corporate identity, wh eth er your a solopren eur or mul ti-na t i o n a l org a n i s a t i o n , an effec tive email signature can h elp drive busin ess a n d imp rove yo u r custom er relations. Res ea rch c a rried out by Ra dicati Group estimated that th ere are on ave ra g e of ove r 26 9 billion emails sent on a daily basis by over 4 billion email u s e rs . EMAIL S I G N ATU RES BILLION EMAILS SENT DAILY 269 OF BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS SAY THAT EMAIL IS THEIR PRIMARY WAY TO COMMUNICATE. 86% OF BUSINESSES DON’T HAVE AN EMAIL SIGNATURE. 48% h t t p : //w w w. r a d i c a t i . c o m /w p /w p - c o n te n t /u p l o a d s / 2 0 1 7/0 1 / E m a i l - S t a t i s t i c s - Report-2017-2021-Executive-Summary.pdf www.patronum.io 03 | EMAIL SIGNATURE MANAGEMENT OK , s o w h e n was th e last tim e you han ded your busin ess card to a cl i e n t , pro ba b l y two or m ore year n ow ri ght? Rem ember th e 3.5” floppy disk an d t h e days b e fo re LinkedIn wh en th e busin ess card was kin g ? Wh en th e onl y way of exch a n g i n g conta c t informat ion at a n etworkin g event was a physic a l 3 . 5 x 2 c a rd . WHY USE AN E M A I L S I G N ATU R E? In t h e M i d d l e Ages m onarchs, bish ops an d oth er n obles would issue offi c i a l dec re e s , a n d docum ents an d sign th em with a wax seal. Th e wax wo u l d typ i c a l l y b e pressed with a unique han dh eld seal or with a sign et rin g. B a ck th en th e busin ess card wa s a way to s h ow o f f yo u r s ty l e , m a ny m a n-h ours were spent in m eetin g s d i s c u s s i n g m e t i c u l o u s l y c ra f te d b u s i n e s s c a rds f rom th e font an d colour s ch e m e s to t h e n u m b e r o f l aye rs o f pa p e r. Your email signature is the new business card, it conveys to your clients the type of organisation you are. An effective email signature can make all the difference so here’s our guide to setting up your business email signature. W hile email doesn’ t n eed a wax s ea l to p rove i t s a u t h e n t i c i ty yo u s h o u l d s t i l l d o your ver y best to en d th e e m a i l i n t h e co rre c t way. U s i n g o n e o f o u r awesom e email signatures sh ows yo u r p ro fe s s i o n a l i s m . 1 . A good HTML email signature s h o u l d a llow your receiver to kn ow m o re a bout your busin ess – produc ts , b l o g s , a n d social m edia links. 2 . Email sign atures form par t of o u r company bran d. 3 . Make your custom ers aware of n ew an d impor tant ann oun cem ent s . Your email signature can in clu d e tim e -limited bann ers to prom o te n ew offers or ann oun ce impo r t a n t chan ges. THE DE AT H O F THE BUSINESS CARD? Wh e n i t co m es to creatin g th e perfec t email signature, less is often m o re . You d o n’ t want to create som ethin g like Gar y, do you ? www.patronum.io 04 | EMAIL SIGNATURE MANAGEMENT We s e e s o m any organisations with out a professional email signature. S o we ask “ Wo u l d you sen d out company letters or invoices on unbran ded pa p e r ? ” We l l , i t ’s t h e sam e with email, sen din g emailin g with out th e co rre c t com pa ny b ran din g can dama ge your busin ess. Wh e n i t co m es to creatin g th e perfec t email signature, less is often m o re . You d o n’ t want to create som ethin g like Gar y, do you ? HOW TO D E S I G N THE PERFECT EMAIL S IGNATU R E Join Our Beta T R Y P A T R O N U M F R E E FOR 30 DAYS Sen d i n g e m ails that are in consistent could cause reputational dama g e to you r o rg a n i sation. We stron gly believe that th e key to establishin g a b ra n d an d b u i l d i n g trust is through consisten cy. This is true with email too. I f yo u rece i ve d a n email f rom a supplier which is off-bran d you may suspec t t h a t i t was a p h i s h i n g email. It is e s s e n t i al that ever y email sent f rom your organisation is consisten t w i t h you r b ra n d i n g. This in cludes font type, colour an d size, an d logo. www.patronum.io 05 | EMAIL SIGNATURE MANAGEMENT KEEP IT SIM PL E You r e m a i l signature sh ould be des i g n e d i n th e sam e way you des i g n e d yo ur busin ess cards, so kee p i t s i m ple, struc tured, an d tr y to i m a g in e it fittin g within tha t 3 . 5 x 2 rec tan gle. We would typ i c a l l y re comm en d that your em a i l s i g n ature contains th e ma i n e l e m ents as a busin ess card . But w h a t about th e m ost con t rove rs i a l elem ent for an em a i l s i g n ature, your Email Add re s s? Sh o u l d yo u i n clude your email a ddress within your email signature, afte r a l l , th ey a re a l rea dy rea din g your email right , so th ey have your email a d d re s s . But , by i n cl udin g it within your email signature it can make it easi e r fo r peo p l e to co py it into th eir conta c ts list . In M a c M a i l , for example, it’s just a few extra clicks to pull it f rom th e to p o f a m e s s a g e . After that , just keep your details to a minimum, nam e, t i t l e , ph o n e n u m ber, an d website are all you n eed. For many organisations , we’d also re co m m en d in cludin g your social m edia links an d icons. You r e m a i l s ignature sh ould complim ent your organisation website, crea t i n g a co h e s i ve v i sual identity. If you don’ t have a visual identity avoid th e ove r u s e of to o m a ny colours (we recomm en d a maximum of 4) an d keep th e fo n t con s i s te n t , Tah oma or Verdana are always a safe bet an d avoid fonts th a t a re n ot p re - i n s t alled on both iOS an d Win dows devices. www.patronum.io 06 | EMAIL SIGNATURE MANAGEMENT KEEP IN CO N TACT Rem e m b e r t h e main point of th e em a i l s i g n a ture is so that your clie n t s a re able to conta c t you in th e f u t u re . Social m edia is ext re m e l y i mpor tant th ese days, don’ t cl u tte r your email signature wit h eve r y sin gle social n etwork pro fi l e yo u ’ ve got . We’d a dvise a ga i n s t u s i n g personal profile links , s o p i ck th e on es that are pop u l a r a n d right for your bus i n e s s a n d th e sec tor you work in. I n a d d i tion to social links in cl u d i n g a graphical bann er can also b e u s e d to great effec t wh en pro m o t i n g upcomin g events or pro m o t i o n s , but a gain make sure it’s i n ke e p in g with your visual ide n t i ty. Em a i l ba n n ers give you an oppor tunity to turn your emails into pa r t a ma rke t i n g chann el. Th ese bann ers are highly effec tive in prom otin g n ew pro d u c t s , webinars, or ser vices to existin g custom ers. However, you n e e d to make s u re t hat th e bann ers remain consistent with your overall bran d , a n d don’ t d e t ra c t f rom th e email itself. Tr y to keep your email bann er i m a g e as small as possible, ideally, n o m o re than 10kb, with a maximum h eig h t o f between 90 an d 150 pixels. Do n ot atta ch th e ima ge, but in s tea d embed th em within th e HTML . W h e n designin g a bann ers aim for a we b resolution of 72dpi so that it c a n b e displayed correc tly on smar tp h o n e s an d within preview pan els. www.patronum.io 07 | EMAIL SIGNATURE MANAGEMENT KEEP IT COM PAT I B L E Not te s t i n g your email sig n a t u re w i th different em a i l cl i e n t s is on e of th e m o s t comm on mis t a ke s we see with in-h o u s e design ed em a i l signatures. Diffe re n t e mail clients wil l re n d e r your emails diffe re n t l y. So u n l e s s yo u want your boss ca llin g you durin g dinn er complainin g th a t h i s n ew e m a i l s i gnature looks rubbish on th e latest m obile device make sure yo u test i t . We te st all our designs a gainst th e major email clients, but if you d o n’ t have a tea m of en gin eers ch eck out ser vices such as Litmus or Email on Ac i d wh o w i l l b e able to ch eck your email signature for you. It’s a l s o a l i ttle -kn own fa c t th at m ost email clients have a limit o n t h e num b e r o f chara c ters th ey allow within an email signature, an d as your e m a i l sign a t u re i s likely to be HTML th ere will be m ore chara c ters in your e m a i l sign a t u re t h at you can a c tually see. Wh e n i t co m es to creatin g th e perfec t email signature, less is often m o re . You d o n’ t want to create som ethin g like Gar y, do you ? www.patronum.io 08 | EMAIL SIGNATURE MANAGEMENT Crea te yo u r own design, test it an d th en deploy, or simply pick f rom ove r 20 pro fe s s i o n a l ly design ed an d tested email signatures, it’s completely u p to you . Pa t ro n um is th e perfec t tool givin g you th e ability to mana ge th e e m a i l sig n a t u re s for your entire organisation all f rom a sin gle centralised loc a t i o n . PATRO N U M - E MAIL SIGNATURE MANAG E M E N T Join Our Beta T R Y P A T R O N U M F R E E FOR 30 DAYS www.patronum.io 09 | EMAIL SIGNATURE MANAGEMENT Pat ro n u m p rovides a compreh ensive email signature mana gem ent to o l des i g n e d fo r both technical an d n on- technical users. Email signature s a re upd a te d a u tomatically in real- tim e usin g information centrally stored w i t h i n you r G o o g l e Direc tor y. Pat ro n u m i s build on th e Google Clo u d a n d is infinitely scalable, sec u re a n d always up to date. So it doe s n’ t m a tter h ow many users you have j o i n i n g an d m ovin g aroun d you r o rg a n i sation th ey will always have t h e co rrec t information within th e i r e m a i l s ignature. CONCLUSIO N Tod ay ’s m o dern workpla ce is m ore digital than ever before, an d wo rki n g f ro m h o m e i s becomin g th e “ n ew n ormal”. Mana gin g th ose rem ote wo rke rs can b e co m plex an d challen gin g, that’s why we created Patronum, a s t h e a dm i n i s t ra tors swiss army knife. MANAGE WI T H CO N F I D E N C E Usin g Pa t ro num for Google Workspa ce (G Suite) is simple, easy an d wil l s ave you p l e n ty o f tim e an d m on ey, allowin g you an d your team to focus o n t h e m o re i m p o r t ant thin gs within your busin ess. READY TO BECOME THE MASTER OF YOUR DOMAIN? Yo u c a n re gister an d get star ted with Patronum in as little as a m i n u te . B o o k a n o nlin e dem onstration today at www.patronum.io