Many site owners do a good job in having a great website and printed marketing material but fall short in taking care of something so simple to fix yet so important to their business: Email Signature and Branding in their Social Media accounts.

=1= Branding an email signature:

There are known best practices in setting up a strong email signature such as:

• Have a signature in your email and use it each and every time!
• Do not actually use your actual “signature” (as you would sign a check). That’s not needed and is old school.
• If you can, use customized signature for different email recipients: Customers, Vendors, Employees and Others.
• If possible, use a shorter version of your signature in your email reply.
• Use the same font, style and color scheme used in your other marketing material (website, printed and others).
• Use HTML for the text not a single image for your entire signature as you take a chance of the image not displaying. This is the one instance when using <table> as a form of coding is recommended (for emails only).
• Display your logo in an appropriate resolution and size … not too small and not too large. In addition to showing the right size image, add code for the exact width and height of the logo.
• Bold and/or color the important information such as your name and your favorite way of contacting you. By this, we mean that,if you prefer phone communication, make sure your phone number is bold.
• Make sure to include your website address with a link to it.
• Add links to your social media accounts if you are active in them. If you are not keeping them updated, do not use them in your signature.
• Add your slogan if it brings value to your email communication.
• You can also add a statement such as “Please consider the environment before printing this email ” if this is appropriate for your company. Some companies like law firms may have to place some legalese in their email.
• Do not make it too long.
• Review your email signature every 6 months to make sure it stays relevant with your company’s goals and brand.

=2= Social media branding:

Most advice applied to a strong email signature are true for Social Media.

• Make sure you use every field made available by your social media account. Your company profile should be complete, the text should be succint yet compelling and the images should be relevant.
• Your banner image and other graphics should be in line with your brand. If you have a well developed website, use the same colors, fonts (if this is possible) and “tone of speaking” of your site on your social media platforms. Do not forget to display your logo.

By branding your email signature and social media accounts, you are giving your company a very professional and cohesive look.

Watch our 15 minute-webinar below to review what you need to do with your email branding.