Since the invention of email, email signatures have been an important part of branding yourself in your business. I’ve seen the best and worst of email signatures.

You know the guy. Yeah, that one. With this signature:

GUY COOL
AT THE COOL BUSINESS
“IT’S ALL ABOUT HOW COOL I AM”
407-888-COOL

Oh man. Not good.

So let’s start with what should be included in your signature to effectively brand yourself, without looking like you love yourself too much.

1. Basic contact information

It’s a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people I get emails from that have forgotten a critical part of their contact info - like a phone number. Is it necessary to put your email address? Not necessarily, although I recommend it. People will generally have your email address if they’re getting an email from you, however on a reply or forward, it might not come through as the sender of the original - and you never know who may want to contact you.

True story: I changed my email signature of my personal email to include some cute little icons and accidentally mis-typed my phone number. I found out when a client used it to call me (luckily that same day) and got a wrong number. I fixed it, but not without embarrassment!

2. Website and Company info

Have a logo? Use it! Company name or email address? Perfect! You’re not just branding yourself, but also your relationship with the company you work for. Have the logo image link to the website. Your signature also provides valuable information to the end user. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used emails I receive to find a website or company name.

True story: Make sure the company name you put on your signature is your CURRENT company name. I had a vendor who switched companies and put the name of the old company on their signature out of habit. Not good.

3. Your Photo

Camera shy? Too bad. Your photo is a great addition to your email signature! It gets people to not only recognize you, but remember you! This is especially true for Realtors. Your image is everything! If you don’t have a professional picture, definitely invest in some great headshots (I happen to know an excellent photographer!) and use the best one for your sig. One will do… no need for an album of your latest vacation. Keep it clean and professional. I happen to like the look of black and white headshots - but that’s up to you!

True story: My hobby is photography, but I’m terrified of being in front of the camera. My headshot came from our Christmas card to our family! I cropped my head and used that as my headshot. I have another one floating around where I’m holding my cat - and she’s not happy about it.

4. Social Media Icons

It’s all the rage right now - those cute little social media buttons in bright colors. They put all the information at your fingertips! They also expose things like your Facebook, blog, and Twitter to people who might not think to look for you there. You can find these little icons floating all over the internet, or, if you know someone who uses them - ask if you can also use them! Make sure when you’re linking them, you’re sending them to the right place. Test them out. Some links, like Facebook, can be a bit tricky.

True story: I connect to anyone who emails me with little social media icons. Matt, the ITGuru, says that when you’re adding images, you’ll want to make sure they’re small to cut down on company email bandwidth.

Now, here’s some important how-to’s!

Organize your information

If you’re not familiar with html or creating signatures from scratch, see if you can ask someone who uses a signature you like to help you out. If you have a marketing or advertising agency, they may be able to help you with it as well. An effectively coded signature may use a table to keep the information organized and from shifting around. You may still need to edit the signature in your email program (i.e. Outlook) to get it right.

Just like in writing emails, you want to stay away from things like capitals, and use bold or italics in moderation, and only when absolutely necessary. If you’re more designy and contemporary - it’s ok to use all lowercase or put your name together as one word, so long as you differentiate with color or style. Use a nice sans-serif font like Arial, Verdana or Helvetica. If you’re more traditional, use a plain font with serifs (the little lips on letters), like Times or Georgia. I wouldn’t use script fonts since they don’t always display correctly - and because they’re a little bit outdated.

If you really want to use a script - use your own signature! Just use a blank piece of paper and black thin line sharpie or pen to sign your name. Use your scanner to send it to your computer. Crop it down (Microsoft Image Editor would work, or Adobe Photoshop) and save as a small jpg in Black and White.

Creating a New Signature

A great new signature might start from an html code or from scratch. If someone sends you the html for the code they use on their signature, follow these steps to upload the code to your Outlook and modify with your own information.

Step 1: Save the html file to your desktop.

Step 2: HTML quick and easy. Ok, ready? Right click the file and choose “Open With” and select “Wordpad”. This puts the file in html code so you can relink the links. You have to dig around a bit - but eventually you’ll see http links for facebook, linkedin, etc. You’ll need to retype or copy/paste the links that go directly to your information where you see the other ones. Don’t let the code overwhelm you. Look for the main words in the link and start there.

Step 3: The picture is a little more complicated because you’ll want to make sure you have a picture available in a similar size. Upload it online to a file sharing site like picasa web galleries or photobucket. Copy the http link it gives you for the picture, and replace the old code with the new one of your picture.

Step 4: Save the wordpad file.

Step 5: In Outlook, use the “Tools” pull-down menu and open “Options”.

Step 6: Click on “Mail Format” (the third tab) and see the Signatures section at the bottom. Click that and then choose “New”.

Step 7: This is where you’ll choose to use the file you already saved as your starting point. First, make sure you Name your new signature. Browse for the file and then click “Next”. This will take you to the part where you can Edit to modify your information.

Step 8: Retype any text (that’s the easy part). Your links and photo should already be fixed up. Delete anything you don’t use.

Step 9: Save!

Step 10: I always do another signature without my photo for replies. Just do a new signature, change the name to “Signature Reply” (or whatever will help you know it’s the reply version) and select the first one you created as your starting point. Then, delete the photo of yourself and save it.

Remember to apply each new signature to your Main Signature and Reply/Forward Signature and save your options!

It’s all a little trial and error - so don’t get frustrated if it takes you longer than you think. The upside is that you should only have to set it up once!