It can be all too easy to take your email signature for granted. It’s there. It serves a purpose.

However, with so many potential benefits, including brand profile, marketing growth, customer satisfaction, and improved internal comms, there is a lot more to business email signatures than meets the eye.

Discover how email signatures have evolved in recent years as we take a trip down memory lane. Plus, find out how you can ensure you can make the most of yours for maximum impact.

The basic email signature

The original purpose of a professional business signature was simply to provide recipients with the sender’s name and some basic information about them and their company. This included their job title, phone number, and company website.

Although some people added additional information, in most cases, emails were ended with a simple “yours sincerely” or “best regards”.

The inclusion of an image

The next development in email signatures was the addition of an image. Typically this involved a small profile image to go alongside the text part of the signature. This added a personal touch and allowed new clients to get to know the sender better. Unfortunately, at this time, poor-quality images were commonplace, as were unprofessional, personal photographs.

It was also common for images to be ‘referenced’ (ie. the email contained links to the images hosted on a webpage) which, by default, most email programs, such as Outlook or Gmail do not display. This resulted in images appearing as a red corner ‘X’ and requiring to be downloaded separately. To avoid this, Rocketseed embeds images by default so they display automatically on every device.

The evolution into digital business cards

Over time, professional email signatures turned into digital business cards, and companies started to add these signature blocks to the messages of all their employees. This often relied on individual employees following installation and design guidelines or IT departments setting them up individually. This was time-consuming and left the signatures open to tampering by individual employees. Rocketseed eliminated this issue completely by giving IT and marketers central control over their company signatures and making them tamper-proof to ensure brand consistency.

These electronic business cards often included a company logo and further contact details of the company, such as its address and telephone numbers. They even looked just like business cards.

The idea behind this type of email signature was to create a sense of brand unity and to improve brand recognition.

The power of marketing in email signatures

As we come closer to the present day, modern email signatures changed both in appearance and their purpose. Most notably, the electronic business card design went out the window, and more stylish, contemporary-looking email signatures started to appear.

These new and improved business email signatures became a marketing channel in themselves.

Let’s say, for example, you have an event coming up. By including an invitation to this event in your email signature, you can reach hundreds of new potential guests and even allow them to confirm their attendance.

Or maybe you want to schedule a meeting with a new client. Rather than email back and forth, you can simply include a link in your email signature for them to book a meeting. Let them access a calendar with time slots and available dates and pick the most convenient time and day for them.

Other elements you may want to include in your email signature are:

• A link to your blog or latest industry article
• Links to your social media pages in the form of social media icons
• A link to sign up to your newsletter
• Information about any awards or accreditations your business has
• A link to a new product or service

Rocketseed increased email signature marketing potential further with the opportunity to feature eye-catching banners, either below the signature or at the top of every email. These banners offer a full marketing campaign channel, with the ability to be targeted, tracked and automated. This ensures that the most relevant banners are applied and reach the right recipients at the right time. What’s more, they are hugely versatile in terms of what they can achieve, from raising brand awareness and driving sales to measuring customer satisfaction and requesting reviews. These 33 great email signature banner examples show you the full range of what you can achieve with them, both externally and internally.

The golden rule to make the most out of your email signature as a means of marketing your business is to always include a clear, concise and clickable call to action (CTA). This will show your recipients what steps they need to take next and will maximise your chance of converting.

The emergence of email signature software

While rare, you do still see some companies allowing their employees to get creative and design their own personal email signatures. Unfortunately, this is not a good idea.

Email signatures are an important part of a brand, and therefore, they need to be uniform in their design. However, they also need to be updated on a regular basis if you want to make the most out of them as a marketing channel. This is why the popularity of using professional email signatures software started to grow.

Essentially outsourcing the creation of your corporate email signatures to a third party, email signatures software can save you time, cut your costs, and enable you to make the most out of your company’s email signatures. There are, however, a number of things to consider when choosing email signature software for your business, and they’re highlighted in our Email Signature Software Checklist.

Make the most of your business email signatures

Long gone are the days when a professional email signature only included your name, job title, and basic contact information. Today, brands are taking advantage of professional email signatures as a highly engaging marketing channel and using them to promote their companies as much as possible.

Whether you are launching a new product, organising a big event, or you simply want to engage more with your customers, the right business email signature can transform the way in which you communicate.

Businesses are also increasing workplace inclusivity and strengthening company culture by including employees’ preferred pronouns and name pronunciation in their email signatures.

If you are struggling to create and manage all of your employee’s email signatures, then professional email signatures software is exactly what you need.

Here at Rocketseed, we have a wealth of experience in helping businesses to brand every employee’s email across every device. Offering professional design, consistent branding, marketing campaigns, and industry-leading reporting & analytics, you can rest safe in the knowledge that every aspect of your business email signatures are taken care of.

Contact us for more information or sign up to our monthly newsletters for the latest email signature news, best practices and case studies.

Janine Ferenčak  |  MD, RocketDev

Connect with Janine on Linkedin

How do you say your name? Does it get pronounced incorrectly every day by customers, colleagues and other work contacts, making you uncomfortable, annoyed – even offended – and determined to make sure it never happens again? Or have you struggled to pronounce a person’s name and been too embarrassed to ask the correct pronunciation? If so, we’re here to help.

“When you have an unusual name or when people are used to pronouncing it in a certain way, you get used to hearing it mispronounced. There is a certain creativity to how people choose to call you – I’ve had such a range that I would be almost excited to see what comes next! In reality, it would be so much simpler to ask politely what’s the correct sound just the way we ask what’s the correct spelling. All of us know that we have names that are unusual or difficult to figure out so it does not come as a surprise to us, when asked, but it does make us feel an effort is being made to be inclusive – through the name, we also acknowledge the heritage we bring, the back story. There’s a lot in a name that can help organisations be mindful, to recognise and accept differences and make staff welcome. I love that my organisation is diverse and we have people with different backgrounds – they bring richness and creativity to our approach to problem-solving and how we engage with our market. Calling them by their correct name is the least effort to thank them for their work.”

Dana Denis-Smith | CEO | Obelisk

Everyone deserves to have their name pronounced correctly. However, name pronunciation – alongside the hot topic of personal pronouns – can be challenging. In the workplace it is especially important both as a key part of Individual employee identity and in helping employers increase inclusivity.

It’s time to be practical, proactive and professional about overcoming these problems and start adding name pronunciation to email signatures..

In this blogpost I’ll show you

• What name pronunciation is and why it’s so important
• The benefits of correct name pronunciation in the workplace
• How to create a more inclusive work environment through name pronunciation
• Why email signatures are the ideal tool to ensure correct name pronunciation
• How to show name pronunciation in email signatures
• How Rocketseed can help

Let’s get started…

What is name pronunciation?

It might sound like a simple question but to ensure a focus on inclusivity, we like the clear, helpful definition given by Joseph Aninakwa, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant at Inclusive Employers.

“Name pronunciation is simply being able to pronounce a person’s first and last name as they would prefer it to be pronounced in its original intended form. This means without deviating or shortening for ease.”

While some names are undeniably more straightforward (being pronounced exactly as they are spelt), for those names that are more uncommon in your country (or the country you are communicating with) additional effort with name pronunciation is required.

With that in mind, let’s explore just why correct name pronunciation is so important.

Why is name pronunciation important?

Firstly, let’s be clear, name pronunciation is important. Here’s why…

Names are linked to personal identity

Our names are key to who we are. As Jane Bryan, of the University of Warwick’s ‘Say My Name Project, notes in The Times Higher Education supplement “Our names are entwined with our personal identities, often chosen with care and laden with meaning” – meaning that spans all kinds of personal, cultural and symbolic associations as well as reflecting our family, ethnicity and heritage.

“Names are so pivotal to people’s identity, but so many people find that the majority cannot be bothered to try and say names that are different in any way. I’ve struggled with this my whole life. My full name is Mousumi, (pronounced Mow-shoo=me). At school teacher’s refused to try and say it so I used Mo, and then when I started working I found that a career in sales meant spelling my name all day to people as they couldn’t be bothered to try and say my surname either which is pronounced exactly as it’s written. Shortening people’s names for them, mispronouncing them or refusing to say a name are all forms of microaggressions which can cause people distress, frustration and irritation. It can damage a person’s sense of identity and completely alter the meaning of a name. We now see that many people add the phonetic spelling of their name in email signatures, and platforms like LinkedIn have a function to record how to say your name. We always encourage people to try and say people’s names or ask people how to say their name instead of shortening it for them. It’s such a fundamental thing to get right for people, and crucial to help people feel they belong.”

Mo Kanjilal | Co-creator | Watch This Sp_ce

Correct name pronunciation shows respect

Someone taking the time and making the effort to pronounce your name correctly – or even asking how you prefer to be addressed – is a simple sign of respect to you, your race and ethnicity.

Correct name pronunciation signals inclusion

As names are often linked with ethnicity and culture, their correct pronunciation, or asking the correct pronunciation, is an act of acceptance and can open opportunities to discuss name heritage and promote inclusivity.

“As a professional with a non-anglicised name, when meeting with new contacts my name inevitably leads to conversation. My first name I’ve never taken any offence over, and do find it endearing if anyone correctly rolls the ‘r’. Also, refusing to Anglicise it as a child has been a wise decision, as it has inevitably been a talking point, and often memorable for people. Regarding my last name Atijas, unfortunately the ‘j’ remains an ongoing challenge for all non-phonetic language speakers. I may very well remove it in future, and simply keep Atias. If I had a dollar every time someone asked me if Darko was my real name, I would be a wealthy man”.

Darko Atijas | CEO | True Altitude

But… mispronunciation can cause lasting damage

Name pronunciation is also so important because mispronouncing or misusing names can have the reverse effect, undermining personal identity, disrespecting the individual, leading to feelings of alienation and causing more harm than many realise.

A prime example was highlighted in a recent article in Metro “Mispronouncing African names is not a ‘harmless’ mistake – it creates lasting damage”. This contrasted the rich religious, spiritual, family and poetic significance of African naming traditions with first-hand experiences of having names mispronounced, refused, abbreviated and mocked, and the offence caused.

The numbers speak for themselves with Race Equality Matters citing a recent poll in which 73% of respondents from more than 100 organisations said they’d had their names mispronounced and consequently felt ‘not valued or important’, ‘disrespected’ and ‘that they didn’t belong’. 88% of respondents thought a phonetic name spelling campaign would help tackle race inequality and so the #mynameis campaign was launched.

As a company that has always had a strong African presence in terms of offices, staff and customer-base, it’s a topic close to our hearts and highlights the importance of correct name pronunciation in the workplace.

The benefits of correct name pronunciation in the workplace

While correct name pronunciation is important in all aspects of life, it’s especially important in the workplace, with the often complex relationships between colleagues, customers and other day-to-day business contacts.

There are clear benefits as correct name pronunciation can:

Create a more relaxed working environment

Correct name pronunciation engenders mutual respect and reduces annoyance making for a more relaxed working environment for everyone.

Create an inclusive and relaxed workplace

With research showing that name mispronunciation can lead to alienation, saying names correctly increases people’s sense of belonging within an organisation.

Help recruit and retain staff

From job interviews to performance reviews, correct name pronunciation can get working relationships off to the right start and show staff they’re valued.

Improve customer interaction

A culture of correct name pronunciation extends respect and goodwill to customers, suppliers and other business contacts through getting their names right in all interactions.

Boost brand image and commercial performance

With businesses increasingly looking to deal with, buy from and invest in inclusive companies, name pronunciation can have a positive impact on your brand and business performance.

This all sounds great, but to achieve these benefits employers need to create a culture in which correct name pronunciation is promoted and normalised. So, how can you actually make it happen?

Demonstrate compliance

Ensuring correct name pronunciation company-wide is a key step to meeting diversity and inclusivity compliance standards.

How to create an inclusive work environment through name pronunciation

How do you create a workplace culture where correct pronunciation is the norm? We suggest starting with some guidelines…

‘Say My Name’ Project Guidelines

An initiative that has caught our attention is the “Say My Name” project undertaken in 2021 by the University of Warwick’s Community Values Education Programme. Focusing on the importance of names to feelings of inclusion in organisations, its findings resulted in the following invaluable guidelines for handling people’s names with respect and sensitivity and boosting their sense of belonging.

Focus on pronunciation

Never assume you know how to pronounce a person’s name – ask.

Listen to the individual

Emulate their pronunciation and then invite them to correct you.

Model correct name use

Make an effort to greet everyone by name – research shows their brand ‘light up’ when you get it right!

Prepare in advance to use names

Proactively check pronunciation ideally with the name-bearer, or use websites such as NameShouts.

Question your assumptions

Don’t assume someone’s ethnicity or gender from their name or that their name is pronounced as it is spelt.

Normalise awareness of correct pronunciation

Create a culture that cares about name pronunciation including through audio name badges or pronunciation guides in email signatures.

Pay attention to the details

Note exactly how people introduce themselves or sign their emails.

Help others get it right

If you hear someone’s name being mispronounced in their absence, offer the correct pronunciation if you know it.

You can find more information about the “Say My Name” project here. There’s one other common question to consider…

Should you correct others on name pronunciation?

This can be a sensitive issue. People aren’t perfect. Whilst most mispronunciation will be unintentional (albeit it lazy or careless) and can be resolved with polite correction, intentional malicious mispronunciation is a different matter, possibly constituting harassment that needs resolving officially with HR support.

You might also find it difficult to correct people who mispronounce your name, especially if they’re your boss, a longstanding customer (the customer is always right?) or even a close colleague but the truth is, the longer the mispronunciation continues, the harder it becomes to put right, so polite correction at the outset really is the answer!

These are great guidelines so how might you promote them across your organisation? Here are a few suggestions:

How to promote name pronunciation across organisations

Lead from the top

Those in leadership positions need to set an example, following best practice, making an effort to pronounce names correctly and being open to correction.

Make it an HR priority

Whose responsibility is implementing these guidelines and championing the values? In most companies this falls to HR. As our own Head of HR says:

“Correctly pronouncing someone’s name not only demonstrates respect but also helps to create an inclusive workplace. There are various statistics available showing the impact of diversity and inclusion initiates in the workplace. From an HR standpoint, it’s important to build an inclusive workplace culture as it empowers employees to be innovative and collaborative. When employees feel valued and empowered, it has a positive impact on their performance, which overall improves the business performance. It might seem small or unimportant to address an employee by correctly pronouncing their name, but this is a great first step in creating an inclusive workplace.”

Robynne Simmons | Group HR Manager | Rocketseed

Include in training

Make sure that the importance of name pronunciation is emphasised in equality, diversity and inclusivity training.

Internal marketing

Whether it’s internal email newsletters and email banners or simply mentioning it at a company social event, remind staff about the importance of correct name pronunciation.

Add into social profiles

Encourage staff to use audio name pronunciation in their social profiles where the platform allows, for example LinkedIn.

“I find it to be a best practice for professionals to adopt the usage of pronouns and phonetic name pronunciation wherever they can – email signatures, social media profiles, et cetera. It creates a more inclusive environment for everyone that you’re interacting with when you make it commonplace.”

Christina Stokes | Senior VP of Talent Acquisition | Rubenstein

Include in email signatures

On every email you send, there’s an opportunity to show how your name should be pronounced. There are a number of factors that make email signatures the ideal tool to show correct name pronunciation…

Why are email signatures the ideal tool to show name pronunciation?

Email is your most used business communication channel (The average employee sends 1,000 emails a month) so it’s a huge opportunity to show customers, colleagues and contacts your correct name pronunciation.

Adding name pronunciation to your email signatures is the ideal solution because:

They’re personal

Even when you have a company email signature, the contact information shows your personal details – your name, qualifications, job title and pronouns – so it’s the ideal place to show your correct name pronunciation.

They’re practical

By regularly sending emails to a range of recipients not only will your name pronunciation reach a wide audience but with the more emails they receive from you, the more likely your name pronunciation is to stick in their memory.

They’re professional

A key aim of email signatures is to make you look as professional as possible. Showing your name pronunciation in the context of a well-designed on-brand email signature adds to the professionalism that correct name pronunciation implies.

They’re promotional

An email signature with name pronunciation promotes the values of your brand to the outside world. It’s clear to your key audiences that your brand is actively inclusive.

They’re proactive

It’s likely that you’ll be emailing somebody before having a call with them. Your email signature therefore provides a proactive way of showing people how to pronounce your name so they get it right the first time they speak to you.

So how do you add name pronunciation to email signatures?

How to show name pronunciation in your email signatures

There are two main ways to add name pronunciation in your email signatures.

• Add a phonetically-written form of your name in the signature
• Add an audio file of your name to your signature

Let’s look at both options.

How do I write my name phonetically?

There are two options here:

1. Spell your name as you pronounce it

This keeps things simple and is especially helpful for long names. Simply split your name into syllables and spell out all the sounds in each to help correct pronunciation (this may involve using letters that are not in the actual spelling of your name). You can also capitalise the letter sounds to be emphasised when pronouncing your name correctly. Here’s an example…

This is the approach taken by Deloitte UK.

Our names are central to our identities, they make us unique and distinctive to one another. All our people now have the opportunity to add phonetic name pronunciation via their email signatures. #RespectandInclusion #NationalInclusionWeek pic.twitter.com/qchkXKUV7G

— Deloitte UK (@DeloitteUK) September 28, 2020

2. Use the International Phonetic Alphabet

Whilst there are 26 letters in the alphabet, there are 44 sounds in phonetic transcriptions to show the pronunciation of vowels, dipthongs (the sound formed by the combination of 2 vowels in a single syllable) and consonants. Writing and reading the international phonetic alphabet also requires the understanding of special phonetic symbols and is therefore realistically too complicated for effective everyday email signatures.

Add a link in your signature to a recording of your name

By linking a recording of your name to your email signature, you’ll be sharing your name with the world in your own voice so there’s no reason for any email recipients to mispronounce it! See how you can easily record your name using Namedrop.

The recording can then be linked to your email signature and displayed by your name as a clickable speaker symbol next to your name or, even more clearly, with a ‘hear my name’ call-to-action button.

How can Rocketseed help?

Worried that adding name pronunciation to company email signatures will crowd their design? Or concerned that letting individual employees add name pronunciation in different ways might make for inconsistent branding? Rocketseed makes it easy to add name pronunciation to company email signatures.

Using our signature creator or professional signature design service, it is easy to create an email signature template incorporating a field for a written pronunciation guide. Alternatively a clickable speaker icon or ‘hear my name’ call to action button can be added to your signature linked to the recorded audio file of your name.

With Rocketseed you can be certain that your pronunciation guide will display and work correctly on all email clients and devices.

Rocketseed also enables you to centrally control staff email signatures company-wide so that the format used is consistent and in keeping with the brand look and feel of your signatures. Unless it is company policy for all names to include pronunciation details, employees can be offered the choice of whether they want name pronunciation included in their email signatures.

Finally, Rocketseed’s email signature marketing banners can be used on all HR and internal emails to promote the understanding of the importance of name pronunciation and its significance for diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. With banners linked to detailed content about pronunciation and inclusivity, recipients can simply click-through to learn more.

Here’s what our customers say…

“Our names are central to our identities, and pronouncing them correctly is a sign of respect. Rocketseed’s capabilities to include name pronunciations within email signatures is a very important step to fostering inclusion for all GLAS employees.”

Samantha Dinnan | Marketing | GLAS

Everyone deserves to have their name pronounced correctly. Adding name pronunciation guides to employee email signatures is a simple step that can make a big difference both to protecting individual employee identity and creating a company culture of diversity and inclusivity.

To find out more about adding name pronunciation to your email signatures and how Rocketseed can help, contact us today.

Damian Hamp-Adams  |  CEO

Connect with Damian on LinkedIn