The Top 5 Common Email Signature Mistakes

Did you know that nearly four times as many emails are sent every day when compared to all Facebook/Twitter updates, Google/Yahoo/Bing searches and Internet page views COMBINED! This equates to about 188 billion emails daily, with the majority coming from businesses.

However, did you also know that many organizations make silly email signature mistakes that can seriously damage their brand representation? This leads to a company losing control over its email signature block, making it look sloppy and unprofessional.

Check out the top 5 common email signature mistakes to avoid:

1. Including TOO many contact details

Don’t overwhelm email recipients with multiple phone numbers, email addresses and websites. Too much contact information can come across as slightly desperate and is a common email signature mistake.

Ironically, the more choices you offer a recipient, the less likely any of them will be clicked. Only ever include essential contact details in your email signature design.

At the same time, don't try and correct this email signature mistake by including too few contact details. Make sure you include at least your full name, job title, phone number, and email address. It's also recommended that you include a web URL and your company's mailing address.

2. Not designing for mobile devices

At least half of the people who read emails use a mobile device. This means that your signature is being shown on a smaller screen. If a recipient can’t easily put their thumb on a link, your email will get deleted. Remember, mobile email signatures are just as important as desktop email signatures. It's with this in mind that you should not fall for this most common of email signature mistakes.

Also, reading speed on a mobile tends to be slower, so you want to use a font size of 11 to 14. In the end, usability must take precedence over design when it comes to mobile email signatures.

3. Having irrelevant or outdated content

It is advisable to include at least one call-to-action in any professional email signatures. However, be careful if the content is irrelevant or outdated. If you’re not updating your blog or social media accounts on a regular basis, then don’t add links to them in your email signature. If the white paper you're promoting is old, use something more up-to-date.

The content you promote in email signatures always needs to be current and relevant. Sending someone to a page that hasn’t been updated in months could backfire on you. At the same time, promoting content that has nothing to do with your business goals is just foolish. It makes you look like you’re not serious about your work.

4. Not using Alt text

You never know where your email may get forwarded on to. By adding Alt text, any person that gets your email can hover over a signature image and get an idea of what it is they are meant to be looking at.

Also, it is important to remember that not all recipients will be able to see the images you put in your email signature, so it is good to have Alt text to fall back on.

5. Not adding an email disclaimer

Whether you like it or not, having an email disclaimer is the law in certain countries, particularly in North America and Europe. So don’t forget to include a disclaimer in your email signature. This is often the most common of email signature mistakes.

The content will often include the company name, registered office address and company registration details which is a legal requirement for corporate email in many countries. Make sure that your emails are complying with international email law.

Further reading

You might now be thinking email signatures are more complicated than you thought. Watch our video below on the 17 Email Signature DOs and DON’Ts to make sure that you don’t make any other email signature mistakes.