Common Email Signature Mistakes To Stay Away From

Graphic designers tend to have a keen eye for what looks good, but knowing what works well and what works great when it comes to email signatures are quite different. That’s why we have put together this list of common mistakes to avoid so that you know what not to do if you want to get the most from your email signature.

1. Using Word for an HTML

Just don’t do it! Word will automatically insert Office-specific tags into your HTML signature, and those mark-up tags don’t follow the regular HTML standards. This can cause an issue if your recipients aren’t using Microsoft Outlook. While HTML can make your email signature look professional, broken HTML will make you look like an amateur.

2. Images Above Your Email

The top of an email is not the place for images. While your designer may suggest putting your business’s logo or some other eye-catching design at the top of the email, just don’t do it. This is the section of your email that most readers will see in their preview pane, and there’s really not a lot of room to convince them to open the email and scroll down. Instead, place your logo and other images below your email signature design.

3. Using Anything Other than In-Line CSS

Both developers and designers rely heavily on CSS (style sheets) to specify fonts, colours, and a load of other aspects for the layout of the design. It just doesn’t work the same way for email, thought. In fact, the bigger email clients, like Outlook, don’t honour CSS in a way that designers are used to. That’s we recommend that designers code all colours, fonts, and other details in-line. In other words, they should work to specify formatting instructions throughout the entire email, paragraph by paragraph and table cell by cell.

4. Using Image Formats Besides JPG

Broken images in an email signature is one of the most common mistakes we come across. Usually, the broken images are a result of the file type not being supported by the email client. If you must have imagery in your email signature, do your best to avoid .png files. There are several reasons why .png images are degraded, and that results in low-resolution or broken images. If you want consistent and reliable results, we suggest sticking to .jpg files.

5. Failing to Use Imagery

Sure, email clients can definitely be a little fussy when it comes to images, particularly mobile email clients. However, it is worth noting that most email clients do support a majority of images (remember to stick to .jpg to be safe, thought). Using imagery in your email signature can help to truly capture the recipient’s attention, express your company’s ideas in a rather novel way, and give your email and overall professional look. Images are also great for prompting a call-to-action. Not having imagery is probably one of the most common email signature mistakes we come across, and one we definitely discourage.

Take note of these things and have an email signature that looks professional.