Animated email signatures are perfect if you want to catch the attention of your recipients. A smart animated banner or logo can make a lasting impression. The challenge is coming up with a jaw-dropping animation idea and including it in your design project… That’s why I’d love to share some animated email signature ideas to inspire you. So, have a look at the 5 fresh animated email signature examples and learn how to easily create your own successful signature project.
Let’s start with some visual aids. The examples below show some simple animations and demonstrate how you can use them to elevate your email signatures.
Example 1: Event Promo
Organizing large conferences and other events is a demanding task. To make the most of your effort, it’s a great idea to promote those events with every email you send. This animated email signature design uses a simple transition to channel your readers’ attention where you want it. It doesn’t mean that this example can only be used for event promotion. Add your own animated GIF with a killer CTA to get the traffic flowing right where you want it.
Here’s a good idea for an animated email signature banner. This example shows some interior designs, and it can link to your website. However, you can easily edit the banner to showcase any other type of work – websites, arts, and crafts… you name it! It’s a great way to include your freelancer’s portfolio in emails to prospects. Just don’t go overboard – an overloaded GIF might gently push your emails right into the spam folder.
Another generic name, because that’s precisely what the design is focused on. An animated banner is the star of this signature. A relatively simple animation works brilliantly to catch attention, but it’s your job to determine your animated banner’s content. Focus on your best offers or unique selling points and add a link to the right landing page.
This email signature template has the most generic name imaginable – and for a good reason. It includes one of the most obvious animations you could come up with! Don’t underestimate it, though – simple animations are nothing to sneeze at. They still catch attention without overwhelming your conversations with too much movement.
The Beating Heart isn’t reserved for Valentine’s Day only. This simple animation can be used for all kinds of CSR campaigns or whenever you want to show in your message that you care.
In short, animated email signatures are not that different from standard professional signatures. The only thing that changes is the animated part. So, instead of a static banner or logo, you use an animated GIF or an animated PNG (APNG). An MP4 or other video file formats are out of the question, because embedding such content in emails is a big no-no. Email apps just aren’t built for that.
Keep in mind, this article is focused on showing you good, reliable animated email signature examples. Would you like to learn more about how animated email signatures work, which email apps support them and generally see animated email signatures for all their pros and cons? Check out our definitive guide to animated GIFs in email signatures. While longish, it’s a good read – I highly recommend it!
How to create an animated GIF?
There are many tools that can help you create an animated GIF. One of the easiest is Canva. In fact, all the examples from this article were created using Canva.
AI is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it can help with mundane tasks and make your life much easier – sometimes even doing a better job than a fresh intern. On the other hand, overusing AI can make you super-lazy. But most importantly, have you ever tried solving a complex problem with an AI-powered support bot? Yikes! An increasing number of people are getting sick and tired of the AI overload and prefer human interactions.
That’s why we’ve created some free badges you can add to your email signatures (and beyond) to let everyone know you’re not a bot.
Why promote human interactions?
As the AI hype continues, we might be just one step away from seeing AI-related content every time we open the fridge.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a rant about AI. I regularly use AI and happily ignore its suggestions about my awkward phrasing.
There’s no denying it: LLMs can be incredibly helpful. Heck, AI-generated content can sometimes seem more empathetic than something created by an actual human. But I’m still a dinosaur who sees more value in interactions between humans.
So, if you’re a dinosaur like me, let it be known. If you take your time to read, understand and provide real answers to emails, brag about it using one of the “100% written by human” badges.
About “written by human” badges
Our badges are 100% human-generated. And there’s more than one way to use them. You can:
add one to your email signature,
use it on your website,
print it and stick it onto something you created (for example, my children love having stickers on their foreheads. But I think we’re still a long way from AI-generated living humans 😉).
Pretty much anytime you want to brag about creating something on your own, our badges will help you get the message across.
How to add a human-generated badge to your emails?
Need an inspiration on where to add a badge? Check out those email signature examples:
How to prove you’re not a bot?
You’d be surprised how often this question pops up these days. So, let’s try to answer it – without asking any AI tools.
Yes, adding a “No AI” badge to your email signature will suggest that you’re not a bot. But, to be honest, you can add such a badge to automatically-generated emails as well.
So, what’s the best way to prove you’re not a bot? Here are some ideas:
Read emails carefully. I don’t know about you, but from my experience, most AI-generated responses are seemingly helpful, well-construed and reassuring about how much customer experience matters. But ask a support bot a more complex question and you’ll get a wonderful, grammatically perfect, verbose – yet absolutely unhelpful – answer. It’s like it doesn’t understand the question but tries to answer it anyway. Pretty but useless is still pretty useless.
Answer questions. That’s the natural follow up to the point above. Many times, when I was redirected to a human agent, I still wasn’t sure if it’s really a human. Sometimes, because I needed to paraphrase my questions a few times before getting a relevant answer (or not). Sometimes, because the real human used a canned response that didn’t cover my scenario. That’s why, if there’s a question, answer it. It’s quite simple. And if you don’t know the answer, it’s far better to admit it, than to ignore the question or make uneducated guesses.
Go the extra mile. If you really want to stand out, don’t stop there. Make an effort to predict what else you can do to help. That’s one of the best ways to build customer loyalty and something a bot is unlikely to do well.
Add a personalized email signature. While there’s no stopping you from setting up a bot with a great, personalized email signature, most people won’t bother to do that. That’s why a well-formatted email signature with a high-quality headshot of your actual face is a low-cost yet highly effective method to boost your credibility.
Promote no AI (or little AI) culture across organization
If your organization doesn’t use AI for everything, it’s a good idea to let your customers know about this.
If you have a highly creative team that likes to put real effort into their work, add a “Created by Humans” badge to everyone’s email signature.
Now, I’m sure that your team is great at what they do, so don’t break it by making them change their email signatures manually. If you’re using Microsoft 365, that’s something we can help you with.
We’ve designed a tool that integrates with your database and automatically adds a professional email signature for everyone in your organization. Automating a mundane task of setting up an email signature (and keeping it up to date), is the smart step. Here’s why:
Easter and spring are the perfect time for some cute email signatures. If you want fluffy bunnies and pretty flowers to take over your email signature block, the time to act is now. All the cute email signature examples below are available for free in our email signature generator, so you can get your own spring email signature in no time.
Cute Easter email signature examples
Get ready for some Easter & spring cuteness overload. 🐣
Fresh Spring
Fresh Spring works great if you want to promote your best spring offers with every email you send.
Want to use it outside of spring season? Simply replace the banner with your own. Here are some email signature banners we’ve prepared for you, along with some instructions on how to edit them in Canva and add them to your email signature.
It’s springtime, step outside, take your fresh photo and use it in this email signature template. Great Easter Sale combines the Easter vibe with a traditional two-column layout. Use it to promote your time-limited offers!
This pretty email signature example lets you include all your contact details and branding. The banner is perfect for Easter, but you can freely replace it with your own or remove it, to make the signature more compact.
Blooming Sale is a modern email signature template designed to help build your personal brand. Include a professional headshot in the middle and link to your social media profiles to easily grow your network.
Cute email signatures are tricky. On one hand, they should catch attention and make your recipients smile. On the other, they should remain functional and professional. Evergreen Easter is a compact signature with some Easter eggs included. It strikes the perfect balance.
For a complete list of our cute email signature ideas, visit the free email signature generator. Don’t worry, our email signature ideas are all professional. The cuteness factor differs from template to template, but we’re sure you’ll find something that’s just right for you.
Why refresh your email signature?
If you’re wondering if changing your email signature for Easter is a good idea, here are some pros and cons:
Pros
Changing your email signature now and then proves you’re active and engaged.
After a while, your email signature might become almost invisible to your regular recipients – they get used to it. A quick email signature refresh brings it back into focus.
It’s a great opportunity to boost some time-limited promotional offers.
Spring is the traditional time for change and growth – the whole world wakes up from the winter slumber, ready for this year’s challenges and opportunities. Email signature is no exception.
There are many email signature tools on the market. Choosing the best one can be a challenge, especially if you don’t deal with creating or managing email signatures on a daily basis. I guess you could test all email signature software on the market to see which one is the best, but I have a better idea.
We work with email signatures every day. We live and breathe email signatures, they’re our bread and butter. That’s why we’ve decided to put together a list of the most important characteristics that the best email signature tool should have.
What is the best email signature software?
The best email signature software should be:
100% reliable.
Flexible.
Easy to use.
It’s obvious that vendors will pitch their own tool (guilty as charged). So how can you verify whether certain software lives up to its creators’ promises? Either test it yourself or look for organic reviews on sites like G2, Capterra or TrustRadius.
But for now, let’s dive a bit deeper into different types of signature software. There are different kinds of signature tools and to choose the right one, you need to ask yourself one question “what do I need?”.
So, if you need to:
manage signatures for everyone in your company,
create one signature design that gets automatically personalized for everyone in your team,
get intelligent signatures that change based on recipients, keywords or other variables…
An email signature manager is a tool that not only lets you design a signature but it also integrates with your company systems to make sure every employee gets the right signature, with their own personal details.
Why? Think about this scenario:
You have a team of 100 employees. Each employee sends around 30 emails a day. That’s 3,000 brand impressions daily. To put it simply, a brand impression is any interaction with your brand. In this case, it refers to how many times your clients see your business email signature (which can either look professional or not). Each impression can be either a risk or an opportunity. Let’s make a list (or two lists, to be exact).
Risks
If a company doesn’t manage its email signatures, it may need to deal with several risks:
No signature means a customer or lead never sees an alternative contact channel like a phone number. This translates to lost opportunities or decreased customer satisfaction.
A broken signature layout, an old logo or outdated contact details –all of these can damage your brand.
Having a unified email signature layout is already a huge step toward true professionalism in email communication – consistency is key to making your brand more noticeable and trustworthy. And there’s even more you can achieve with a smart approach to using email signatures:
Create effective email marketing campaigns without the need for profiling.
Collect customer feedback easily with one-click surveys.
Include scheduling links to simplify demo bookings and 1-on-1 meetings.
Run targeted or customized campaigns for specific markets, teams or recipients.
Why use an email signature tool?
With these risks and opportunities in mind, businesses can’t afford to overlook email signatures. They are a valuable asset.
Theoretically, you could manage email signatures without any additional tools. But in practice, you’ll either spend hours setting up signatures for every user in your organization or fixing those set up by users themselves – who often forget to keep the signatures up to date, set them up on all devices (including mobiles) or get overly creative.
What is the best email signature manager?
The best email signature management software needs to:
offer centralized management for quick, company-wide updates,
let you easily add personalized signatures to all emails,
include an easy-to-use email signature designer,
be 100% reliable & secure,
work with all email apps and devices,
keep signatures automatically up to date (e.g. sender info, contact details),
support advanced rules (e.g. applying different signatures based on the sender or recipient).
CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 is the top choice for managing email signatures in Microsoft 365 organizations of any size. It offers all the essential features and qualities of the best email signature manager and much more. It’s also the only email signature tool that lets you manage automatic replies and is fully Microsoft 365 certified.
But don’t just take my word for it – see what CodeTwo customers say about it and why it has consistently been the top-rated email signature solution on all major software review sites.
An email signature generator, also known as a signature designer, is a tool that lets you create email signatures – starting from their layout and design, to adding contact details, images, and other elements.
You could do it in Photoshop or Canva – it’s a great place to start, especially if you’re a graphic designer. The problem arises when you try to deploy such a signature in an email app. Why? Because email apps are specific, as is the HTML code they support. Not everything you design will look right across different apps, e.g. Outlook, Gmail, the Mail app for iOS or other email apps. That’s why dedicated email signature generators exist – to combine ease of use with a guarantee that the final product won’t break after you send the first email.
What is the best email signature generator?
The best email signature generator won’t just let you design your own signature. It will also translate your idea into HTML code that’s easily digestible by email apps. So, the best email signature generator should:
offer a variety of templates (layouts) to choose from,
be easy to use and let you quickly copy/paste complete signatures,
include ready-to-use designs that work well in various email apps,
let you add your own graphics,
not place a watermark on the signature,
be free or at least not lock its most basic features behind a paywall.
Yes, it’s that time of year. Almost everyone is getting ready for the holidays. Elves make their way to shelves, reindeer enter the spotlight and snowmen just stay frosty. Decorations find their way to almost every nook and cranny of homes and companies alike. Emails are no exception – it’s a great time to refresh your company email signature design. And if you want to do it in style, animated Christmas email signatures are the way to go. Check out our holiday-themed signature examples and get inspired.
Best Christmas email signature examples
We’ve prepared some Christmas email signature ideas for you. See our examples to get inspired and start crafting your animated email signature right away. All these designs are available in our free email signature generator, so changing your email signature should be easier than decorating a Christmas tree.
Each of the designs below includes an animated banner designed in Canva. You can use our project to create your own email signature banner. For example, you can:
change the animation however you like,
add your logo or introduce colors that better match your brand,
Add a “Merry Christmas” banner with snow falling from the sky and sparkling stars in the distance to immediately bring warmth and a sense of safety to mind:
You can easily replace “Merry Christmas” on the banner with “Happy Holidays” or another festive greeting by using another design (also available in this Canva project):
Feel free to add a custom CTA and a link to your Christmas campaign.
Animated email signatures are perfect for catching attention. Even a slight animated element works wonders, especially when you refresh a design everyone has gotten used to. So, if you want your email signatures to be noticed but don’t want them to be to flashy, Animated Christmas is for you.
Want to change something on the banner? Use our free Christmas banner Canva design to do that in just a few minutes! There are a few other great designs in the project as well. Just look at them go:
Need more inspirations?
Did you think that was it? That’s only the tip of a snowman’s nose!
Check out our library of Christmas-themed signature ideas. A little bird tweeted us (because it couldn’t have X-ed us) that snowflake-shaped social media icons are one of the all-time favorites.
How do animated banners work?
Email signatures are peculiar. They’re built on HTML, but not the kind that allows you to do virtually anything. That’s why all non-standard elements need to follow certain rules if you want your email signatures to work across all email apps.
That’s why, if you want an animated signature (holiday-themed or not), you’re forced to use GIFs. They’re supported in almost all popular email apps, except for some old-school ones like Outlook 2016. And yes, people still use it.
If a certain email app doesn’t support animations, it will show the first frame of the GIF. That’s why we made sure the first frames of our Christmas email signature GIFs look great even as static images. If you decide to create your own animations, it’s better to stray from fade-in effects that start with an empty background. While they might look nice, there’s a risk they will not appear as you intended in some cases.
These signature designs come with a high risk of spreading joy in the workplace. Before you use them, read the following information and notify your brand manager or supervisor.
There are some things you should keep in mind when using animated email signatures. Animated GIFs are quite heavy. If you’re using our free email signatures generator, the GIFs are hotlinked or hosted, which doesn’t increase the email’s size. Still, after your recipients open the email, the banner’s loading time might be noticeable. If you make some changes on your own and embed those banners into your email signature, you’ll notice that your mailbox size grows faster than usual.
There’s another thing. While an animated banner isn’t malicious and is usually sent with good intentions in mind, there are scenarios when it might slightly increase your chances of getting caught by spam filters.
Keep in mind that it’s not the banner per se that puts spam filters on guard. Filters rate emails based on a variety of factors, such as certain keywords in the email body, image-to-text ratio and, above all, the links included in the message.
[Update]: This blog post was updated on November 19, 2024 to include information about new deep link types.
Are you using Microsoft Teams? Advertised as “the ultimate messaging app for your organization”, in most cases it allows employees to communicate and collaborate with high efficiency. If you are using it as a primary means of communication, it is vital to direct your co-workers to this channel. So, is there an easy and efficient method to link to Teams? There is! The secret is to use the so-called deep links.
See the top Halloween email signature inspirations for 2024! This year, minimalist design is trending like never before, so we’ve prepared simple yet stylish email signature inspirations for Halloween. Take a look at spooky signature designs and start putting Halloween decorations to your emails. With our signature generator, you’ll find your emails hard to be ghosted.
Top email signature examples
We’ve summoned our best graphic designers to brew some tasty email signature designs for Halloween. Clicking on any of the designs opens a portal to their shelf in our signature library. From there, you can get straight to our free email signature generator to make your own signature.
Grim Design – there’s no better inspiration for Halloween personal email signatures.
Spider’s Web – a Halloween-themed email signature that can’t wait to crawl into your recipients’ mailboxes (and hearts).
Ghastly Branding – this Halloween email signature example puts “go” into ghosts.
Pumpkin (Social) Media is a perfect way to gather a crowd on your social media covenants.
Compact Pumpkin combines minimalist design with Halloween spirit.
If you think that’s all we have to offer, think again. We’ve dusted off the cobwebs from the popular Halloween email signatures from the past.
Pick the design you like the best or scares you the most.
Add a pinch of your personal touch – change the default values to your own. Link to ye olde website.
Summon the signature into your email client.
Whenever in doubt, follow the steps from the user’s grimoire – it predicts the questions you might have and breaks down each step of the email signature summoning formula.
As a last resort, use the contact form to contact the benevolent spirits behind the veil of mail-signatures.com. They will be happy to cite the right passage from the user’s grimoire or point you to one of our helpful scriptures.
You can do it. Even a zombie could do it.
And if you’re an HTML wizard, all of the Halloween signature templates can also be downloaded. Whatever you do, remember to follow the email signature etiquette, otherwise you might be in for a trick, instead of a treat.
The best part – the generator and designs downloaded from the signature library are completely free to use for your email signature needs. You don’t even have to sell us your soul.
If you’re a freelancer, you know that every interaction with your potential and existing clients counts. And whether you’re looking for high paying jobs or the most interesting offers, at some point, you will be exchanging emails. To make the most out of those interactions, you need to show professionalism from every angle. And email signature plays a crucial part here, especially for freelancers.
Let’s start with showing you the best email signature designs for freelancers, then I’ll get deeper into the whys and hows of freelancer email signatures.
Top freelance email signature examples
Check out this gallery with some of the best freelancer email signature examples. They are all available in our free email signature generator. You can easily edit and adjust them to your or your clients’ needs. Focus on the layout that works best, because you can freely remove a banner, disclaimer or irrelevant social media buttons.
Why do freelancers need to work on their email signatures?
Freelancer job opportunities have been on the rise for years now. And with high popularity of freelancer platforms like Fiverr, Freelancer or Upwork, it’s easier to start out. At the same time, it means that the competition is getting fierce. No matter what kind of freelance projects you’re doing, more and more freelancers bid on the usual job offers.
To land a job, you need to have the skills, sure, but it’s not enough. It’s just as important to be great at selling this to your prospects. You can do it by making your email signature stand out.
No matter if you’re looking at entry or expert level job opportunities, a professional email signature is a perfect way to make a good impression. Think first impressions – when you’re reaching out to your new prospects and maintaining your image when you’re emailing with your current clients.
Potential clients
When reaching out to new clients, whether responding to some offers, or looking for opportunities, you need to show your best side. An email signature plays a vital role, as it tells a story about you in the way you want it to. Sounds simple, but the closer you look, the more questions you’ll have. That’s why I’ll give you a checklist with signatures that just work.
Current clients
When you’re emailing with your current clients, it’s best to focus on your availability and building a strong relation. Make sure that your email signature looks well even when you’re emailing from a mobile device. Also, compose the signature in such a way that no matter who gets the email, they will know who you are and what you do. It might turn out that someone at the company might need your services, too, except from your main point of contact. Make it easy for others to reach out to you.
On the one hand – it’s super important to promote your personal brand. On the other, as a freelancer you’re usually not a part of a specific company. If you are, your freelancer’s career probably focuses on some side hustles, and you won’t necessarily want to promote your affiliation with the main income source.
So, it’s good to lead with the obvious basics and then use your secret weapon to seal the deal. Here’s what to include in your email signatures:
First & last name. Unless you’re a superhero – then feel free to use your alias, instead.
Tagline. Use it instead of a job title. Use something that best describes you in a few words. “Freelancer” isn’t bad, but it’s much better to identify you specialization right away. So, write, for example, web designer, technical writer, graphic designer, wedding photographer.
Contact info. It is super important. Focus on the contact channels that you’re most responsive on. A WhatsApp link that can start a chat with prefilled message is a nice touch that most people don’t even know about.
Work hours and time zone. Freelancers usually work remotely. That’s why it might be a good idea to add a note about your availability, so that people don’t call you at 3 in the morning.
Photo. Most freelancers don’t hide their face behind a company logo. Your professional photo is your trademark, and you should use it to add a human touch to email conversations. And if you think that you have an ugly mug, just like mine, remember that a smile and a bit of photoshop can work miracles!
Social media profiles. You can use any, but let’s get real for a second. It all depends on what kind of freelance projects you’re doing and on your presence. Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube are the first your recipients will click – they can provide samples of your best work. Facebook and X might make sense if you have a considerable number of followers – that shows your voice matters to a lot of people. LinkedIn is good for showing your experience and certified skills. GitHub is great if you’re a programmer.
You probably would have thought of those elements anyway – this list doesn’t have items exclusive to freelancers. If you stop there, you’d have a pretty good email signature. But you’re not here to be just good. You’re here to make sure you’re viewed as the best. That’s why I’ll show you the list with your potential secret sauce.
How to make a freelancer’s email signature shine?
If you want to have an outstanding freelancer’s email signature, add at least one of the following elements:
Your portfolio. That’s your most important asset. No matter what you do, it’s the portfolio that gives your prospects the most information and works in your favor. It shows what kind of projects you’ve been a part of, if you’re versatile or not, what’s your skill level or just if your style is a good fit. You could do with a portfolio built on Behance, a similar service, or even any of the freelance platforms. But to truly stand out, having your own website gives you an edge, especially since you gain full control over your presentation and show that you’re a freelancer to be reckoned with. If you don’t have a portfolio, not everything is lost. You’ll work on it as you go. Think of other methods you can show your expertise and experience.
Link to your freelance profile. If you’re on Upwork, Fiver, Freelance or any other service, you’ve already put a lot of effort to make your profile stand out, right? Make use of it by adding a “See me on…” link. It’s even more useful if you’re reaching out to potential customers and want to handle them through an intermediary.
Banner. Instead of using a standard marketing banner that companies usually add to their signatures, you can design something that links to your best project or the complete portfolio.
Blog or vlog. A good blog or vlog can make people fall in love with you. Professionally. Show the best you have to offer, share original thoughts, and it will work miracles in terms of relation building.
Best email signature generator for freelancers
I’m going to show you a tool that’s an absolute number 1 for freelancers.
Design your own email signature
Creating an email signature from scratch is harder than you might think. To make it work across different email clients, you need to write it in HTML code and then test across various clients. There is some heavy lifting, since you need to research how to code email signatures (specifically) in HTML. And believe me, it’s nothing like designing websites. You’ll have to use only inline CSS, work with tables, and make sure Outlook interprets the code the same way as Gmail… In short, it’s a nuisance.
So, instead of hurting yourself, you can use the free email signature generator. No HTML coding skills required. Just pick a template, adjust it to your needs, replace the default contact details and graphics and voilà.
Design signatures for your clients
But that’s not all. If you’ve ever been on Fiverr, you might have seen that companies often need experts to create professional email signatures for them. The free email signature generator lets you do that in no time. Yep, for free. See how you can do it in our guide
Email signature management
Now, designing an email signature template is one thing. But if you ever come across a job that mentions email signature management, you’ll need another tool.
Email signature management is a must for companies that have hundreds or thousands of users. Even when you have a unified signature template, you can imagine how hard it would be to update email signatures for every employee on every device. That’s where central management comes in. Instead of manually changing and adding signatures for everyone, you create one template. This one template is automatically personalized and added to all emails in the company.
When you look at students’ email signatures, you immediately notice there are two approaches: some go overboard, while others think that simply adding their name is more than enough. Which one are you?
This article is for college, university and school students alike, because you can start building a professional image, regardless of your age or level.
Continue reading if you want to learn why email signatures are important, how to get a perfect one, and see some great email signature ideas.
So, which email signature is better – the supercharged version or the half-baked one? The answer is simple:
Neither.
If you go overboard, there’s a good chance your email signature will take up more space than your actual emails. You don’t want that. Adding irrelevant elements or too many of them just irritates your recipients.
A simplistic email signature could work if you desperately want to stay under the radar. But even then, it’s better to go from simplistic to at least simple, so that your recipients don’t have to ask who you are and how else they can reach you.
That’s why it’s best to get your signatures just right. They can be good and simple or good and complex. I’ll try to help you find the perfect balance.
Do students need professional email signatures?
Let’s be honest – having an email signature is not a deal breaker. You might get through college or university without ever setting up an email signature, so why bother? Here’s why:
Your school might require you to have a signature that follows specific guidelines. This makes communication unified and more effective.
A professional email signature leaves a good impression. If done well, it shows attention to detail, focus and suggests that you know what you’re doing.
If you include your institution’s visual identity in your emails, you show that you want to be a part of it.
A well-crafted email signature makes you stand out.
A professional email signature can help you win when you’re job hunting or trying to get an internship.
Every teacher and professor is different, but it all comes down to this: they can devote themselves to guiding you towards the best possible future for you or to making your life miserable. That’s well within their might, so you might want to stay on their good side by showing some initiative and making sure the signature doesn’t break or overwhelm your recipients.
Always remember that a professional email signature leaves a good impression, but it won’t do much good if it’s placed under an unprofessional email. Emails do require some level of professionalism; school and college life is a good moment to get used to that. So, it’s a good idea to double-check your emails before you send. And sometimes, to take a deep breath before you even start writing.
Best practices
Check the guidelines
Before you start designing your brand new email signature, check your college website for more information. There’s a good chance that your institution has guidelines that you need to follow when designing your email signature or even has a signature template at the ready. This makes the job easier for you.
You don’t want to be mentioned in the college newsletter under the headline “Freshman Did It Again”, with a verbose explanation why it’s not good to get too creative with your email signatures.
Do the research
If your college doesn’t have any branding and styling tips and your student ambassador hasn’t been announced yet (or just stares blankly when asked about signatures), you need to do a bit of research. Study the college logo with a color picker to see what font colors to use. Check some official emails to see if there’s an official font family and find out what your faculty adds to their signatures. If you want to go with an elaborate email signature, consider preparing a simplified version for replies/forwards, so that you don’t dominate email conversations with your signature alone.
Make it unified
Use the same email signature for emails sent from a PC, tablet or a phone. Otherwise, your communication gets chaotic.
What to include in your email signature?
You’d be surprised how much data you can include in an email signature. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should, you know? It’s like when you write a resume – you might want to leave out this one time when you were a part of a school play (as the tree no 3), even if you think it shows some initiative and is somewhat relevant.
Like I already mentioned, a lot depends on the college guidelines. Some might be against any images to keep mailbox sizes to minimum and prevent chaos when everyone has a different idea on what images to add to a signature. Others might encourage additional elements but expect you to follow some other guidelines. Below I’m listing some elements that should make it to your signature, some nice-to-haves and definite no-nos.
DO include
Your Name.
School name.
Department.
Your level (e.g. Major, JD candidate, BA/MA Student, 1st year and so on).
Alternative contact methods, like the phone number.
CAN include
Your photo, as long as it’s at least semi-professional.
The school motto.
Social media buttons BUT tread lightly. If your profiles contain strong opinions about important matters, show interest in your field of study or focus on your hobbies and interests, they should be good to go. If they consist mainly of drunk photos, or videos from your game marathons, don’t tempt college faculty to go there. Anyway, if you’re looking for ready-to-use social media icons, you can grab them here.
Academic achievements.
Publications or articles you were a part of. Links to Google Scholar, ResearchGate or Academia are welcome.
Portfolio.
Pronouns – either as a way to show support for LGBTQ+ community or show your recipients that you know who you are. If you want to look deeper into this subject, or share your opinions on the matter, go to this article.
Address – might be useful if a college or university has multiple locations or simply requires this.
Email address – this may come as a surprise, but an email address (either official or personal) might come in handy in a signature. For example, if your email gets forwarded and the forwardee wants to contact you. Or when a school mailbox suddenly stops working and you don’t want an urgent matter to wait for someone to fix it.
DON’T include
Motivational quotes, unless it’s the school motto.
Irrelevant achievements.
Any irrelevant links.
More than 3 font styles.
Memes, no matter how funny it is to end an email with a mic drop.
Everything from the CAN include list. It’s too much. Focus on the most important stuff.
Best email signature examples for students
Take a look at some examples of well-crafted student email signatures. Get inspired before you start working on your own.
A well-thought email signature that shows a variety of elements. Make sure to use only “the good” social media links, pick and choose the other elements. You can see what I meant by using the right colors – this whole signature is cohesive – there are no accidental elements and everything looks well together.
This inspiration is great if you want to focus on promoting your academic achievements. That’s a good way to show off your publications, stand out (in the good way) and help the faculty associate your face with your work.
This email signature design shows how to achieve consistency. It’s visually pleasing and contains everything a good signature needs.
The easiest way to get your own email signature is to use a dedicated tool. It makes the design process much easier and the result works well, even if you have no idea how email signatures are crafted (a very specific HTML code, by the way).
Email signature management for schools, colleges and universities
If you’re a faculty member and happen to be reading this, note that your email signatures need to be at a different level. That’s why many educational institutions decide to manage email signatures centrally.
Managing email signatures for entire educational institutions is a whole different story. Email signature management helps schools of all levels ensure that their emails are always professional and on-brand.
To take care of signatures for anyone on the campus, you need a professional-grade tool that lets you act in a centralized way. See how CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 helped schools manage their visual identity in emails:
Metropolitan School, localized in Cairo, Egypt is a high standard educational institution. Their experienced personnel offer high level of education based on American Curriculum. See how CodeTwo secured their brand
