Email signature marketing is one of the easiest and most inexpensive methods of promoting your brand and advertising your products online. But do you know how to measure its effectiveness seamlessly? The most efficient way is to use UTM parameters for your links in email signatures and see the results in Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about website traffic, traffic sources and conversions. 
UTM (Urchin Tracking Modules) parameters are also known as Custom URL Tags. Google Analytics collects data from tags, everytime someone clicks on a link labeled with UTM parameters. These tags will give you the exact details when and how many times someone clicked on a link in your email signature and has been redirected to your website.
Adding Custom URL Tags to Your Email Signature
The simplest way to create Custom URL Tags for your links is by using the Google Analytics’ URL Builder. Thanks to custom URLs you can also monitor other activities such as newsletters, banners, blog posts, social media updates (tweets, facebook statuses, etc.) or link campaigns. Here are some hints how various UTM parameters can help you manage your campaigns: • Campaign Source (utm_source) – Identifies the source of your traffic, e.g.: newsletter, banner, linking. • Campaign Medium (utm_medium) – Identifies the medium the link was used in, like: email, SEO, CPC. • Campaign Term (utm_term) – Optional parameter suggested for paid search to identify keywords for your adverts. • Campaign Content (utm_content) – This is an optional parameter as well, it gives additional details for content-targeted ads. • Campaign Name (utm_campaign) – Identifies a specific promotion or campaign, such as a Christmas promotion or summer sale. An example (based on our own mail-signatures.com website) of how to enter information for the custom tagged email signature link using the Google Analytics’ URL Builder :
Fig. 1. An example how to complete the Google Analytics’ URL Builder. Underneath the table you can see a ready link with custom tags.
How to add a custom URL to your email signature in Outlook 2013 and 2010:
1. Open Outlook and click New Message. 2. In the resulting window click Signature in the Quick Access Toolbar and in the resulting dropdown menu click Signatures.
Fig. 2. Select Signatures to edit and add the custom URL your email signature. 3. In the resulting Signatures and Stationary box highlight the signature you want to edit or click New to start designing a new one. 4. Highlight or select the part of the signature which you want hyperlinked and click on the Link icon.
Fig. 3. Replacing existing URL with the custom URL. 5. The Insert Hyperlink box will appear. Add the custom URL you built using the Google Custom URL Builder at the bottom of the box and click OK. 6. Save all changes. Learn more about creating and modifying email signatures in Outlook 2013 & 2010
How to add the custom URL to your email signature in Gmail:
1. Click on the gear icon at the top right and choose Settings in the middle of the menu.
Fig. 4. Gmail account settings. 2. Scroll down to the Signature Box. 3. Select your website link in your email signature and click on the Link button.
Fig. 5. Gmail signature editor. 4. Then select Change and add the custom URL you built using the Google Custom URL Builder. 5. Choose OK and scroll to the bottom of your email settings and click Save Settings. Learn more about creating and modifying email signatures in Gmail
How to add a custom URL to your company-wide automatic email signature in Google Apps:
1. Go to the email signature editor in your Google Admin Console as per this article. 2. Highlight the part of the signature where you want to insert the custom hyperlink, click the hyperlink button: 
, paste your custom URL in the resulting window, click OK, Add Setting and Save changes.
How to add the custom URL to your email signature in Office 365 OWA:
1. Log in to your Office 365 account and click Outlook in the top menu to go to your Outlook App Web. 2. Click the Gear icon in the upper-right corner and select Options.
Fig. 6. OWA account settings. 3. In the option panel on the left click Settings and the email signature editor will appear. 4. Highlight or select the part of the signature you want to change and click on the Link icon. 5. Replace the existing URL with the custom URL you built using the Google Custom URL Builder.
Fig. 7. OWA email signature editor. 6. Click Save at the bottom of the page. Learn more about creating and modifying email signatures in Office 365 OWA
Tracking the results After a few days, you can start checking if anyone has clicked on your email signature. Log into your website’s Google Analytics account, go to Traffic Sources tab and select Campaigns. Try to keep things consistent and always use the same URL format as Google Analytics differentiate uppercase, lowercase and spacing. Alternatively… If you don’t use Google Analytics, you can create a custom URL using a link shortening service like Bit.ly. They provide statistics for all links you create and save in your account.
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