Email Signature or Signature Block

by, Jon Burgess, M.B.A.

For years, professionals have used a standard “signature” on the bottom of their corporate emails, which has proved to be a useful tool in both building brand and improving overall communication.

Typically, emails contain the “who, what, when, and where” sorts of items, and a link to the company’s website. This is usually been standard practice, but has recently become an issue on a few fronts, especially when images and extra lines of copy like quotes or disclaimers are added.

Email Signature Etiquette
Some signatures are too long. For some outrageous examples of overdoing email signatures, Google or refer to this link: “Too Much Flair” for some great examples. Most agree that a signature that is too long, too wide or has multiple colors and images, is not usually in your best interest.

Here are a few tips for a short and professional signature:

1. Signatures should include your full name, title, organization name, and phone number.
2. Include your website address (URL).
3. It is unnecessary to include your street address; that should be on the website.
4. Eliminate your email address; that is in the header of the email.
5. Photos or images, such as logos, can be problems in a signature. Most email programs today block the images from being viewed without downloading them, causing a boxed “X” to show up instead of the image. Many firewalls, or SPAM filters, will not allow certain types of images, such as gifs or jpg files, to get through, causing the email to be blocked.
6. In “replies” to emails, or email threads, you should only include your signature once, not every time your reply. You can set up a reply/forward signature with in Outlook to designate that response.
7. Use one common font, one color; avoid using bells and whistles, to achieve the most professional impact.
8. Automatically formatting the complementary closing line (i.e., Sincerely, Take Care, etc.) is optional, as some prefer to customize this phrase, depending on the situation.

Sample automatic signature block:

Take care,

Jon

Jonathan Burgess, M.B.A.
Internet Manager
T: 909-798-7092   
RedFusionMedia.com

Signature Spamming
As the Internet has improved security and SPAM prevention, one of the things that has evolved is that email service providers scan outbound emails, to prevent spamming from entering their servers. Recently, one of our clients had his account locked within our Everyone.net email service. The reason was that his signature was too long and had too many links. 

SPAM scanners, such as “SPAM Assassin” or similar products, use a point system that increases as you add certain types of content, until it is blocked.  The use of more fonts, colors, links, and html, can all contribute to the elevation of your SPAM rating, until your email is blocked.

Corporate Branding
One of the things that amuses me frequently is when I get corporate emails that are “all prettied up” with backgrounds and signatures that are all fluffy and NOT corporate. Companies should establish a standard for email signatures that will not desecrate their established brand.

When you set a corporate standard, remember to consider how the “From” line will look to the recipients of your emails. In this day of heavy email loads, if you want to get your email read and not accidentally deleted or skipped, be sure to include your first and last name, and your company name.

For example, our emails show the reader they are from Jon Burgess @ RedFusion Media. This is often set up at the server level in organization, so you may have to enlist the assistance of your IT person to change this. We have missed important communications from one of our clients who has a larger operation, because we read only “Henry” in the “From” line. Who’s that? Delete!

For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_block
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/

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Redlands, CA 92373
www.RedFusionMedia.com

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