10 Essential Email Signature Marketing Principles (That Every Marketer Should Know!)

A diverse group of people looking at smart devices

As a marketer, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity if you think your company email signatures are simply sign-offs. Why? Because your busiest business communication channel – your everyday employee email – with the right email signatures can become a mighty marketing channel that packs a promotional punch way above its weight.

The challenge is to manage email signature marketing at scale to build your brand and grow your business. So we’ve put together 10 essential email signature marketing principles, each with practical takeaway tips that go beyond the basics to help you master email signature marketing.

  1. Email signatures should be managed by Marketing
  2. Email signatures are more than contact details
  3. Email signatures are your brand on email
  4. Email signatures deliver excellent reach, open and engagement rates
  5. Email signatures can open endless engagement opportunities
  6. Email signatures are a true campaign channel
  7. Email signatures can take recipients through the customer journey
  8. Email signatures can communicate compliance
  9. Email signatures can amplify your other marketing channels
  10. Email signatures must be mobile-friendly
  11. BONUS: Email signatures are great for internal marketing too

1. Email signatures should be managed by Marketing (not just IT)

If you want the benefits of email signature marketing highlighted below – from consistent branding to coordinated campaign engagement – then you need to be in control of all your employee email signatures. Your IT team might be responsible for technical email signature set-up, security and support but if you want to see real marketing results from your corporate signatures, it’s time to take charge, including selecting any email signature management software. Our Ultimate Email Signature Software Checklist highlights 15 things you need to know when buying email signature software.

Takeaway Tip:  Email signatures are a marketing channel. You’re a marketer. Take control.

2. Email signatures are more than contact details (but it’s vital they’re correct)

What’s the primary function of a professional email signature? To make contact easy and that means clear, correct and, in some instances, clickable interactive contact details. Keep things simple and stick to the essentials. These include your full name, position, company name (if it isn’t incorporated in your logo), phone number, email address, website URL, and social media profiles, and make sure that they are all up to date. Adding headshots? Make sure staff look professional and no poolside vacation shots from social posts! You’ll format contact details correctly every time by using our best practices for adding contact information on an email signature.

Takeaway Tip:  How to ensure employee details are all up to date? Automate. Use a signature solution that integrates with your Azure, Active or Google Directories to update signature details automatically.

3. Email signatures are your brand on email (so company-wide consistency is crucial)

As the company’s brand guardian you can’t afford for any employee’s email signature to undermine the money, time, and resources spent on your corporate identity. Centrally design a signature template to your brand guidelines’ logos, colours and fonts. If a template doesn’t meet your requirements – go bespoke! Brand consistency is key to customer trust and you’ll never achieve it if individuals are responsible for their own signatures (no matter how many guides you send them). Here are 15 ways email signature branding can boost your brand.

Takeaway Tip:  Centrally create and roll-out your on-brand company email signatures and ensure they’re tamper-proof.

4. Email signatures deliver excellent reach, open and engagement rates (the numbers speak for themselves)

The average employee sends 1,000 emails every month. So, for a team of 100, email signature marketing opens over 1,200,000 extra engagement opportunities a year! You’re reaching a huge audience of prospects, customers, partners and suppliers, with no need to build or buy a big subscriber list. They also achieve a 99% open rate because they’re part of ongoing email conversations and so they’re always going to get opened. No need to rely on snappy subject lines. Most importantly, we regularly see companies achieving email signature marketing engagement (click-through) rates of around 9% but can reach above 20%. Check out the engagement Rocketseed users achieve in our customer case studies.

Takeaway Tip:  Maximise reach and engagement by making sure all employees – from all departments – include interactive signatures on their emails.

A calculator showing email branding opportunities based on 100 employees

5. Email signatures can open endless engagement opportunities (especially by adding a banner)

Want to make every email extra eye-catching and engaging? Adding a banner lets you feature your best brand and product imagery, as well as concise, compelling copy and, most importantly, a clear and clickable call-to-action (CTA) button linked to your key content. Email marketing banners become even more impactful if you have the ability to apply them to the top of each email so they’re the first thing that recipients’ see. They really are incredibly versatile with messaging ranging from strategic brand building and product launches to tactical sales promotions and special offers , always making it easy for recipients to click through to a landing page specifically designed to convert. Need some creative ideas? Here are 33 great email signature banner examples to inspire you.

Takeaway Tip:  A/B test your CTA button sizes, colours and copy to see which drive the most clicks.

6. Email signatures are a true campaign channel (so start targeting, timing and tracking)

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that once your company email signature is designed, then that’s that. For maximum effect, your email signatures should reach the right audience with the most relevant messaging at the right time. That means targeting your marketing banners (ideally based on recipients’ previous email banner engagement). Take away timing worries by automating campaign start and end dates. Finally, you should track every ‘open’ and engagement to measure your signature marketing success and get the insights you need to optimise future campaigns.

Takeaway Tip:  Sound stressful? Consider using professional signature management software with targeting, scheduling and reporting functionality.

Advance-segmentation-rocketseed-email-signature-management

7. Email signatures can take recipients through the customer journey (from awareness to advocacy)

Are you emailing a prospect or checking in with an existing customer? Using the appropriate imagery, messaging and CTA on your email signature marketing banner can guide recipients along their buyer journey. Building awareness? Use your best product imagery and a ‘Find out more’ CTA. Ready to make the sale? Make it easy with ‘Buy Now’ CTA that links directly to your sales platform. Future email banners can upsell or cross-sell. Finally, run a ‘How are we doing?’one-click survey banner and follow up with a ‘Please leave us a review’ with recipients clicking through to your preferred review platform – you can use the reviews as social proof on future email banners! Need more reviews? Here’s how to request (and receive) them with every email.

Takeaway Tip:  Integrate your email signatures with your CRM system, such as Salesforce to help move recipients through their journey with the most relevant email banners to drive conversions.

8. Email signatures can communicate compliance (and showcase what your brand stands for)

If you’re a marketer in a highly regulated sector – such as finance, law or healthcare – adding a company email signature disclaimer is an essential means of demonstrating legal compliance. It’s also a great idea to add icons for industry awards, accolades and accreditations to give recipients complete confidence in your expertise and authority. These can also showcase your environmental and social responsibility (ESG) credentials. Want to show recipients that your brand is committed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion? Additions such as name pronunciation in email signatures and the email sender’s preferred gender pronouns help convey this succinctly.

Takeaway Tip:  Add phonetic name pronunciation to your company signatures – it can really increase inclusivity and help strengthen relationships.

Email signature example with name pronunciation phonetically

9. Email signatures can amplify your other marketing channels (and do it cost-effectively)

Include clickable icons for 3 to 5 actively managed social media profiles. Build your B2B network on LinkedIn and get people talking about your business on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Want to organically grow your email marketing subscriber list? Simply add a ‘Sign up to our newsletter’ CTA on all your staff email signatures linked to your sign-up landing page. Trying to widen content distribution? Email signatures are the perfect place to promote your blog, ebook, latest short-form video or case study – always with a clear clickable CTA (eg.‘Watch our 1-minute video). You can also boost event attendance – both face-to-face and virtual by simply adding a ‘Book Now’ button linked to your sign-up page. Suddenly every business email is an invitation! Our blog post on email signature marketing cost effectiveness explores this in more detail.

Takeaway Tip:  Integrate your company email signatures into your overall marketing comms.

10. Email signatures must be mobile-friendly (so design them to display on every device)

Up to 81% of your business emails are opened on mobile devices. Don’t miss out on all these opportunities with a default “Sent from my mobile device” or a signature that displays poorly (or goes missing!) on mobile. Mobile-optimise your company signatures. Think about the limited,vertical screen space. Keep your mobile email signature design simple; break up long lines; keep image file size small; use easily readable font sizes (8pt – 20pt); stick to 3 social media icons and make sure CTA buttons are big enough to press easily. Ideally, your email signature solution should mobile-optimise automatically! Read our guide on how to make your email signature mobile-friendly.

Takeaway Tip:  Don’t assume your signature is mobile-optimised. Test, test, test across all devices.

Multiple screens displaying an email signatures of Joanna Doe and a marketing email signature banner

BONUS: Email signatures are great for internal marketing too (so start engaging your staff)

Think of all the emails your staff send to each other every day. Email signatures can make each one an interactive internal marketing opportunity and an invaluable internal comms channel for HR to strengthen company culture. They’re a great way to keep all employees – in office and remote – informed, engaged and on-brand. Make it easy for them to click through to the latest company news, CEO video message, updated policy documents and social event details. Link new staff to the onboarding material they need and ensure existing staff engage with your latest training content. Want to increase staff engagement? Explore 7 internal marketing ideas to improve employee experience.

Takeaway Tip:  Want to gauge staff morale? Add a one-click staff satisfaction survey to every internal email.

Want to make it simple? Start by using an email signature manager

As you can see, there is SO much more to your company email signatures than a simple sign-off! I hope this blog has inspired you to take control, get creative and start running email signature marketing campaigns to build your brand, grow your business and strengthen your company culture.

One final point, if you want to make email signature marketing even easier, consider adding an email signature manager to your marketing tools. It’s a simple way to manage, automate and integrate signature marketing at scale to achieve success without the stress.

Leonie van Aswegen | Marketing Manager
Connect with Leonie on LinkedIn

Rocketseed Soars into Charlotte to Increase US Presence

An image taken by a drone of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA skyline

I’m delighted to announce Rocketseed’s expansion in the United States with the establishment of a new presence in Charlotte, North Carolina. This strategic move marks an important milestone in Rocketseed’s growth and aligns with our mission to provide cutting-edge email signature and marketing solutions to businesses worldwide.

This new East Coast presence, along with our established presence in California, means that our customers can now be managed from each coast of the USA, vastly improving our relationships and creating a greater degree of understanding of our customer base in the region.

Charlotte’s vibrant business environment and rich talent pool make it the ideal location for Rocketseed to establish a strong foothold in the region. Importantly, this new presence will allow us to provide more localised support to our valued clients across industries, including Healthcare, Finance, Professional Services, Real Estate and Manufacturing.

Although only a few months in, our Charlotte expansion is a testament to Rocketseed’s ongoing growth and success and we envisage a greater speed of growth in the region given the positive feedback that we’re seeing from both our customers and the prospects that we’re speaking with.

As Rocketseed continues to expand its global footprint, we remain committed to driving innovation, delivering exceptional customer service, and empowering organisations to unlock the full potential of their brand through email communications.

It was a big decision but we couldn’t be happier to have chosen Charlotte to be our base of operations for the US market and look forward to sustained growth as we move into the future.

Looking for professional business email signature software?

Experience the benefits of Rocketseed with our 14-day free trial, exclusively available for businesses with 50+ staff. Alternatively, you can contact us to discuss your requirements and how we can help.


Damian Hamp-Adams  |  CEO
Connect with Damian on LinkedIn

Setting Boundaries With Business Email Signatures

A birds-eye-view of a desk with various stationary and a clock with a 'Always on' post-it that's been scratched out.

Are you ‘always-on’ when it comes to email? At the mercy of your inbox and feeling pressured to respond even after hours or on vacation? Is it affecting your wellbeing and work-life balance? If so, it’s time for you to communicate boundaries about your working hours, and email boundaries especially. In this guide I’ll show you how you can do this extremely effectively simply by using your work email signature, including a range of specific boundary-setting message examples that you can use.

The importance of setting boundaries at work

In this world of remote and flexible working, cross timezone collaboration and always-on communications, there is more pressure than ever to provide everyone with an immediate response at any time – especially on email. The result? The divide between work and personal lives is becoming blurred and therefore the need to set and communicate boundaries – especially email boundaries – is more important than ever.

Why is setting email boundaries so important?

For many it’s simply because email is their busiest business communication channel, which can also make it the most time-consuming, distracting and stressful. If you routinely send and reply to emails out-of-hours or on vacation, whether you are doing it proactively or to meet others’ expectations, you’re sending out the signal that you have no boundaries.

Let’s take a closer look at the main benefits of setting and communicating email boundaries.

Setting email boundaries protects your time

Everybody wants your time. Your boss, co-workers and customers all compete for your time across a range of communication channels, especially email. Communicating boundaries means making your working hours clear, whether you work full-time, part-time or flexibly.

It is easy to forget that email is asynchronous, most emails are not urgent or emergencies so you need to prioritise (there are some practical prioritising tips later).

Setting email boundaries helps you get things done

You’re always busy but are you always productive? How many of the emails you receive every day actually help you progress your projects? Checking email isn’t the purpose of your job. Setting email boundaries means you can focus on the projects you’re paid to do and on which your performance is assessed.

Setting email boundaries helps manage expectations

Even with clear email boundaries you can’t stop people emailing you at any time. However, you can manage their expectations regarding your response time. Remember, most emails don’t require an immediate response and you shouldn’t feel pressured, especially outside of your working hours.

Setting boundaries increases your wellbeing

If you’re exhausted from overwork and replying to emails at midnight every night, your physical and mental health is going to suffer. Setting email boundaries can stop you burning out, help you recharge your batteries and restore your work-life balance.

Setting boundaries creates mutual respect

Setting boundaries isn’t all about you! Email boundary expectations work both ways. Take note of, and respect, any boundaries that your co-workers and customers set or ask them how quickly they typically reply and when are the best times to contact them. Your boundaries message can also make it clear that recipients should reply at a time convenient to them.

Who benefits from email boundary setting?

Email boundary setting at work can benefit everybody.

  • You. Communicating boundaries helps you protect your time, progress projects, improve your mental wellbeing and reclaim your personal life.
  • Recipients. Seeing your boundaries reminds clients of the best times to reach out to you and gives them realistic expectations of when to expect a response from you.
  • Your team: Your boss, your team and your business as a whole need you to be rested, refreshed and ready to do your best work. Clear work boundaries help ensure this as well as helping to create a culture of mutual respect.

With this in mind, there is one method that is ideal for communicating boundaries – your work email signature

Why your email signature is ideal for setting boundaries

If you want to communicate work boundaries – especially email boundaries – it makes perfect sense to add them to every business email and reply you send, without interfering with your main message. The easiest way to do this is with your work email signature.

After all, you use your email signature for work, so it’s time to start using it to set work boundaries.

A professional email signature with working hours included is a constant reminder to recipients and makes your boundaries more memorable with every email.

Ways in which you can set boundaries using your email signature

You can use your email signature to communicate boundaries including working hours, upcoming vacation, expected email response times and more..

A boundary-setting message can be included in your main work email signature design or in your email disclaimer, depending on the profile you wish to give it.

It is also important that your boundary setting message displays correctly on all devices, which you can ensure by following our guide to making your email signature mobile-friendly.

Here are examples of some of the types of boundary details that can be added to email signatures.

Working hours in your email signature

Whether you work full-time, part-time or flexibly, if you want to protect your time and keep recipients informed, an email signature with working hours included is essential.

Full-time Work Email Signature

Based on a traditional working week, an email signature working hours example could simply include:

My working hours are 9am – 5.30pm, Monday -Friday

These might be the hours that many recipients assume you work anyway but including them in your email signature still serves to emphasise your work boundaries.

Part-time Work Signature

Having an email signature with working hours can be even more important if you work part-time, making recipients aware of the best days to reach out and when to expect a reply. A part-time working days email signature example could include the message:

Thank you for your email. My work days are Monday – Wednesday. For anything urgent outside of these days please contact <manager’s contact details>. Otherwise, I will reply as soon as possible when I am back in the office.

Hybrid Work Email Signature

If you are a hybrid worker, working part-time in the office and part-time at home, you don’t need to state this on your email signature, unless your working hours are different at the different locations. However, in some instances it might be useful for hybrid working employees to include office hours in their email signature, such as:

I work in the office and remotely. I am always in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 9am – 5.30pm

A professional email signature with working hours is a simple way to set boundaries, without overly emphasising response times or other details.

Upcoming out of office and holiday (vacation) time in your email signature

You can also use your email signature for work to highlight upcoming times when you won’t be at work. To avoid your upcoming vacation, paid time off (PTO) or simply out-of office-time coming as a surprise to your clients and co-workers, you can keep them in the loop with a line in your work email signature. This way they can make sure they have what they need from you before you go and they won’t disturb you while you’re away.

Upcoming Vacation Email Signature

An upcoming vacation in email signature example could include:

Upcoming Vacation: I will be on vacation between <date> and <date> and will not be responding to emails during this time.

When’s the best time to add a vacation alert in an email signature? Perhaps 2 weeks in advance and make it clear what your out-of-office dates will be so others can plan ahead.

Upcoming Paid Time Off (PTO) Email Signature

In this instance, you could include a message for any upcoming PTO in your signature such as:

Upcoming Leave: I will be on leave between <date> and <date> and will not be responding to emails over this period. Please contact <manager’s contact details> if you require urgent assistance.

Out of Office Email Signature

Whilst your signature can be applied to an automated out-of-office email, it can also be useful to add an out of office signature message to notify recipients of a time when you will be away from the office (without giving a specific reason). An upcoming OOO in an email signature could say:

Upcoming Out-of-Office: I will be out of the office between <date/time> and <date/time> and will not be responding to emails over this period but will reply on my return. Please contact <manager’s contact details> if you require an urgent response.

Other ways to set boundaries with your email signature

Time Zones Email Signature

If you work internationally, are you always receiving emails from co-workers and customers across the globe who expect an immediate response even though it’s the middle of the night for you? If so, it can be worth emphasising your time zone in your email signature. This should remind them to take account of the time difference and help manage their response expectations. For example:

My core working hours are 9am – 5.30pm GMT

Also, if you are sending emails to clients or co-workers abroad, a line in your signature can make your response expectations clear:

<Company name> works across a number of timezones. If you receive an email from me outside of your normal business hours please don’t feel obliged to reply outside of your working hours.

Working Remotely Email Signature

Remote working – whether at home or otherwise – can enable you to work around other commitments and this flexibility increases the chance of you sending business emails before or after ‘normal’ working hours. Therefore a working remotely email signature example might include:

As I now work remotely, you may receive emails from me outside of normal working hours. Please don’t feel any pressure to reply outside of your own work hours.

Working from Home Email Signature

Whether permanent or temporary, working from home makes it easier to work around domestic and childcare responsibilities and, in some circumstances, explain why you don’t have access to certain office facilities. Similar to remote working, a working from home email signature could say:

I am currently working from home so you may receive emails from me outside of normal working hours. Please don’t feel obliged to reply outside of your working hours.

Flexible Working Email Signature

With an increase in flexible working, it is more important than ever to make your working patterns and response time expectations clear to co-workers and clients. This can apply to both employed and freelance workers who, by being early birds or night owls, may be sending emails before or after normal working hours. To take the pressure off recipients, flexible working email signature examples might include phrases such as….

  • I work flexible hours so I’m sending this email now as it is a time that works for me. Feel free to read, action or reply at a time that works for you.
  • I work flexibly and may send emails outside normal working hours. I do not expect an immediate response.
  • I choose to work flexibly and often send emails outside normal office hours. I do not expect you to reply to my emails outside of your normal hours.

Another flexible working email signature example could be:

My workday may look different from your workday. Please do not feel obligated to respond outside of your normal working hours.

Response Expectations Email Signature

Simplest of all, you can use your email signature to show your respect for other people’s work boundaries by including a line such as:

I don’t expect you to reply to my email outside your work hours

You can also use your signature to remind recipients of your own response time, for example by including:

I typically reply to emails within <timeframe>. If you need an answer faster than that please let me know.

What to include in your boundary setting email signature

A boundary setting email signature simply features a boundary message – either in the main signature or disclaimer – in addition to all the other information and branding that your email signature for work contains, namely:

Other ways you can set boundaries using work emails

Whilst work email signatures are an easy and effective way to communicate boundaries, here are some other tips and techniques to help set boundaries around email.

Use automated ‘out-of-office’ style email messages

Make it crystal clear in your vacation or PTO out-of-office message that you won’t be checking your inbox while you are away and will only be responding to emails when you return, and who to contact instead if the matter is genuinely urgent.

You can also use an automated out-of-office type reply when you simply want to concentrate on a current project. For example:

Thank you for your email. I am up against a deadline on another project but will get back to you within 24 hours.

Allocate email time

Break the habit of continual inbox checking by dedicating a limited number of sessions each day to reading, writing and sending email – say, two in the morning and two in the afternoon.. Perhaps get an hour or two of your most urgent work done before your first inbox check and then you can triage your messages and respond to any urgent ones. You could even communicate this with a message in your email signature such as:

I check my email twice a day between 10-11am ET and between 3-4pm ET

Triage your email

Simply make sure that you prioritise emails that are genuinely important for your current projects. You should be able to do this easily during your inbox checking sessions without complicating the process with multiple inboxes.

Stop sending emails out of hours

How can you communicate boundaries effectively if you break your own! Simply stop sending emails outside of your set boundary times. Of course you can check your inbox and draft messages at any time (even automate a send schedule) but stick to sending and replying to emails during your working hours.

Write better emails

Writing and sending emails that are ambiguous or unclear will only lead to you receiving more emails requesting clarification and requiring your attention. How do you write better emails? Start with a subject line that makes it clear what the email is about. Avoid using any ambiguous, unnecessarily complex language or jargon. Make it completely clear what action you require the recipient to take having read your email and if/when you require a response. See our guide for plenty of tips on how to write a professional email.

Don’t use email for every message

Simply use another, more appropriate channel. Because, whilst certain messages work best on email, many can be done better through chat and video conferencing apps such as Slack, Teams and Zoom. So if your message is short and simple ask yourself if it really needs to be sent via email.

Turn off notifications

The last thing you need is to be alerted every time an email arrives in your inbox. Notifications are the enemy of boundaries so turn them off – don’t feel the pressure to check with every ping on your phone.

Close your inbox

It’s that simple. Simply having your inbox always open is a permanent distraction. So unless you’re actively using it during one of your set email sessions, simply keep your inbox tab closed and put your phone away when you need to concentrate.

Use email templates

Do you receive lots of emails effectively asking for the same thing? To help you deal with these common requests quickly – and set expectations at the same time – you can create a set of standard response email templates. For example, you could create templates for routine recruitment and media enquiries.

Consider the real cost of email

The cost of checking your inbox is far from free. You need to be mindful of the time it takes, the distraction it creates and the stress it can cause. It interrupts your train of thought and stops the progress of your project so there is a real cost associated with every time you check your inbox and every email you open.

Some of these suggestions might seem very simplistic but they can be very effective in helping you to set email boundaries.

Use email signatures to set boundaries across your business

Want to create a company culture that respects work boundaries? The following tips can help you roll-out boundary-setting signatures across your business.

Set an Example by Setting Boundaries in your Email Signature

Does your company – especially senior management – have a culture of out-of-hours emailing, and expecting immediate responses from staff? If you are in a position of influence take the opportunity to lead by example and diffuse these pressures. By setting boundaries in your work email signature, you can inspire other staff to do the same and help change the ‘always-on’ culture.

Promote boundary setting using internal email signature marketing

With a professional email signature solution like Rocketseed you can add marketing banners to your internal email to promote the setting and respecting of boundaries, making the message clear to both new joiners and established staff. It’s just another way that centrally managing your email signatures becomes a useful HR and internal comms solution. An example of a boundary setting email banner could look like this:

An example of a boundary setting email banners with a laptop and an hourglass.

Implementing boundary-setting email signatures company-wide.

Setting boundaries across all company email signatures can be an implementation challenge. There 2 basic options:

  • Instruct individual employees to add boundaries in their email signatures
    This brings the risk that these instructions will be ignored or implemented incorrectly. Also, it is certain to be time-consuming for your IT team, assisting individuals with their signature updates.
  • Centrally add boundaries to all employee signatures
    Using professional email signature manager software you can simultaneously add boundary details to all employee email signatures and ensure they are consistently formatted and compliant with company policy.

Use company email signatures to show a boundary-respecting culture.

Use your email signature to reflect your company culture of setting and respecting email boundaries by adding statements such as:

At <company name> we value and respect flexible work arrangements so please respond when you are working.

Or

<Company name> is a flexible employer and, while I have sent this at a time that is convenient for me, I don’t expect you to read, respond or follow up on this email outside your working hours.

Ready to start setting boundaries with your email signatures?

At Rocketseed we know what a big part of life email can be. With our professional email signature manager software you can easily update all staff signatures centrally to communicate boundaries in accordance with your brand guidelines and company policies.

To start setting boundaries with your business email signatures, contact us today. Need email signatures for more than 50 users? Start your Rocketseed free trial today.

Shanique Brophy | Marketing Executive
Connect with Shanique on LinkedIn

How to Sign Off on an Email Correctly

Email sign off guidelines

Is ‘Best’ always the best email sign off? When you’re writing an email, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that is most important. So while there are only a handful of ways to say ‘Hi’, there are so many different ways to sign off an email that choosing the correct email ending can be confusing. From the formal ‘Yours sincerely’ to the casual ‘Cheers’, using the right business email sign off can make a real difference to your recipient’s reaction and the response you’ll receive.

You’re too busy to waste time worrying about how to sign off every email correctly. That’s why we’ve produced this guide to help you choose the most appropriate sign off for any email. You’ll learn how to look professional without appearing pretentious, friendly without being over familiar, and creative enough to stand out from the crowd. With our best practice business email sign off examples you’ll always make the right impression.

In this email sign off guide, I’ll show you:

What are email sign offs?

An email sign off is simply the short (usually two or three word) phrase that you use to end your email message before adding your name and email signature. It’s as simple as that. So simple that most people don’t give a second thought to how they end their emails. Even people with full professional email signatures say ‘But how do I sign off an email?’. Stand out from the crowd by leaving the right impression – and getting the right response – by always using the right email sign-off.

How should you sign off an email?

Unlike formal letter writing’s traditional sign offs of ‘Yours faithfully’ or ‘Yours sincerely’, there are no rules for signing off an email. You have to use your judgement and choose the most appropriate email sign off for the situation. There are, however, some email sign off best practices to help you make the right choice. Let’s take a look…

Email sign off best practices

These are the things you should consider when choosing an email sign off:

  • It’s all about context. Are you sending amendments to a client contract or arranging the company BBQ? Keep your email sign off consistent with your message content and style. So, if you’re sending a formal message use a formal email ending.
  • Think about your relationship with the recipient. Are you signing off an email to a potential new client or a close colleague? Is the recipient purely a business contact or have you built up a friendship? It’s the difference between using a ‘Best regards’ and a ‘Cheers’ email sign off.
  • Always be respectful. It pays to be polite so always use a respectful email sign off. It doesn’t have to be a stuffy ‘Yours respectfully’, a polite ‘Best wishes’ will do. And remember that different generations and cultures have different views of what counts as respectful!
  • Check punctuation and spelling. Only start the first word of your email sign off with a capital letter (‘Kind regards’ rather than ‘Kind Regards’ and don’t let any spelling mistakes creep in (Kond regrads?). When you re-read your email message don’t stop before the sign-off.
  • Make it personal. You can still stay professional while adding some personality to your sign off but it’s better to wait until you’ve established a friendlier, more personal relationship with the recipient.
  • Take care when being creative. Remember that a creative email sign off that appeals to you might not resonate with the recipient. This is especially true when emailing across countries and cultures where your sign off’s meaning might get, literally, lost in translation.
  • Keep your email ending on-brand. Use a sign off that suits your brand image. For example, you’ll use a far more formal email sign off if you work for an established law firm than if you work for a tech start-up or leisure brand. One way to ensure all staff use on-brand email endings is by implementing centrally controlled email signatures which will ensure brand consistency and compliance company-wide.
  • Go easy on the emojis. Should you use emojis in email sign offs? An emoji can say a lot, make it more visual and add a touch of humor. But be careful – make sure your chosen emoji means exactly what you intend!
  • Play it safe if you’re not sure. If you’re really worried about your email sign off looking unprofessional, being misinterpreted or causing offence, it’s best to play it safe with a non-specific email ending such as ‘Regards’.

Tip: To play it ultra safe, if you’re replying to an email, simply use the same email sign off as the original sender, as long as it is appropriate.

As Sean Butcher, Founder of Reflect Consultancy notes:

“Firstly, really consider your audience. Is it a large corporate or a small startup? Do you have a previous relationship with the person you are emailing or are you prospecting a cold lead? Are other people you don’t know so well cc’d (or could they potentially be bcc’d in the email thread) and therefore you’re exposing yourself to more people that could judge the way you are communicating?

If you have a pre-established relationship with your contact then it’s more likely you can incorporate a bit more flexibility in the way you exchange emails. Though for those people you don’t know, it’s best to start with an element of formality, and at the very least, general politeness in your tone.

Even then, whilst most people can accept a bit of ‘banter’, there’s a fine line between ‘jokey’ and ‘offensive’. Unless you are the very best of friends, you never know someone’s circumstances, personal situation or history. It doesn’t take any effort to be courteous, professional and polite, and people will remember you for it.

As a general rule: if there’s any doubt about your email sign-off’s appropriateness, or if you are in any way concerned that it could be deemed risky, then it’s always best to trust your gut and play it safe.”

Which email sign-off delivers the highest response rates?

Boomerang conducted a study and proved that a little thanks goes a long way. They looked at closings on 350,000 emails and found that gratitude sign-offs received the highest response rate.

‘Thanks in advance’ came up on top with a 65.7% response rate, followed closely by ‘Thanks’ at 63% and finally a 57.9% response rate for ‘Thank you’.

Email sign off statistics

Professional email sign offs

Whether you’re writing to your boss, a customer, a supplier or a co-worker, in the workplace you need to know how to sign off an email professionally. Remember that professional doesn’t have to mean formal. Using a traditional email sign off such as ‘Best regards’ might sound like playing it safe but in many ways it makes perfect sense. No one ever got reprimanded for being too professional! You can’t go far wrong with the following professional email sign off examples:

  • ‘Sincerely’ / ‘Yours sincerely’. A classic email sign off from the letter writing tradition, it is still appropriate for more formal business and legal emails but might make you look rather reserved.
  • ‘Regards’ / ‘Best regards’ / ‘Kind regards’. ‘Regards’ is the safest of safe choices, which isn’t always a bad thing. It’s professional and won’t spring any surprises but it can look rather ‘default’ and thoughtless, so best to add ‘Best’.
  • ‘Respectfully’ / ‘Yours respectfully’. An ultra-formal sign off best suited to writing to senior executives or government officials, it is certainly courteous and, quite literally, shows respect.
  • ‘Best wishes’. This is the best of both worlds. It’s formal but it’s also friendly, professional but with a more personal feel – a universal email sign off.
  • ‘Best’. Short and to the point, ‘Best’ has become a very popular go-to email sign off choice. But does it look dull? You can always extend it to a ‘Best wishes’, ‘Best regards’ or ‘All the best’ email sign off .
  • ‘Thank you’. Another neutral email sign off that works in almost every situation, making you look professional and polite.

Whatever email ending you choose, a professional email signature perfectly complements a professional email sign off to leave the right impression on the recipient.

Work friendly email sign off

With the business world becoming less and less formal…there’s plenty of opportunity to use a more casual email sign off. If you’re building a friendlier relationship with a client or co-worker, try warming up your email with a more relaxed ending such as ‘Warmest regards’, ‘Warmly’ or a cheerful ‘Cheers!’.

Funny email sign offs

Email sign offs don’t have to be a serious business. Sometimes it’s right to raise a smile with a humorous email sign off. But take care. Not everyone shares the same sense of humor. So it’s best to save up your amusing email endings for close colleagues and customers who you’ve built up a friendship with. Funny email sign off examples might include ‘See you later, alligator!’, ‘Thank goodness it’s Friday!’, ‘Catch you on the flip side’ or ‘And that’s a wrap!’.

Creative email sign offs

From cartoon character catchphrases to memorable movie quotes, a creative email sign off can really resonate with the recipient – but make sure they’re the right age and have the right interests to understand the reference. Pop culture email sign offs could include ‘To infinity and beyond!’, ‘Hasta la vista, baby!’, ‘Live long and prosper’, ‘May the force be with you’, or even the classic ‘Yabba Dabba Doo!

Remember with funny or creative email endings, chances are they’ll only seem funny or creative the first time the recipient reads them!

Email sign offs to avoid

When it comes to email endings to avoid, there are a few rules of thumb to remember.

  • Don’t be too formal. Overly formal email sign offs such as ‘Yours faithfully’ and ‘Yours respectfully’, whilst OK for letter writing, can make you look pompous rather than professional on email.
  • Don’t be too emotional. Affectionate email sign offs such as ‘Love’, ‘Lots of love’ or ‘Hugs’ aren’t appropriate for the workplace and are best kept for partners, close friends and family.
  • Don’t use abbreviations. Email isn’t SMS. Abbreviations in email sign offs like ‘Thx’, ‘XO’, ‘L8r’.‘TTYL’ and ‘Rgrds’ (really?) might be OK to close colleagues but to anyone else they’ll make you look lazy and unprofessional. Plus, there is also the possibility that the recipient won’t know what they mean!
  • Don’t be offensive. No surprises here! But it’s worth stating anyway. No swearing in your sign offs!
    Also, don’t use religious or political references in your email sign off to bless the recipient or show your political allegiance.
  • Don’t leave out a sign off. Leaving out an email sign off completely looks rude and abrupt. Using a sign off is courteous, even if only on the initial email in a conversation chain.
  • Don’t sign off an email with just your name. It’s brief and blunt and, while it might be OK in an email chain, it’s not a good way to sign off an introductory email.
  • Don’t be passive aggressive. Perhaps that ‘Kind regards’ sign off isn’t really kind at all! You’ll see some passive aggressive email sign offs below with tips on how to spot them.
Unprofessional email sign-offs

Passive aggressive email sign offs

Are you convinced that a colleague or customer is being cold or condescending under the cover of appearing professional and polite? Perhaps they’re using a passive-aggressive email sign off. It might be unintentional but if it continues it can harm your work environment, morale and productivity. To help you read between the lines, here are some of the most passive aggressive phrases used in workplace email sign offs – and what they might really mean – so you can spot them and ask the sender to stop.

  • Regards. (I really can’t be bothered to be at all friendly)
  • Awaiting your response. (I need the information NOW – hurry up!)
  • Any updates on this? (What’s taking you so long?)
  • Please advise. (It’s your problem now not mine – deal with it)
  • Thanks in advance. (You can’t get out of helping me now)
  • I look forward to hearing from you. (Get back to me quicker than you did last time)
  • All the best. (You won’t be hearing from me again)

Generational differences email sign offs

What does a GenZ email sign off look like? As Saman Javed, writing in The Independent reveals, Gen Z are signing off workplace emails in remarkably different ways from traditional formalities.

So while older generations play it safe with classic email sign offs such as ‘Kind regards’, ‘Best wishes’, ‘Sincerely’ and ‘Thanks’, the GenZ sign-off examples cited include ‘That’s all’, ‘Hehe, bye’, ‘Alright alright alright’, ‘Hasta la pasta’, ‘Insert pleasantry here’, ‘Don’t cross me’ and ‘Talk soon, loser’.

Do GenZ want a life free of professional formalities? Are millennials and older generations clinging on to a more formal workplace past? While the above might be extreme examples, it’s clear that there are generational differences in email sign offs that could spell the end for formaily.

Cultural differences email sign offs

When you’ve got a global customer base or workforce, it’s essential that your email communications aren’t misunderstood. An email sign off that doesn’t cross cultures, and has a meaning that gets lost in translation, can only amplify the risk and impact.

As Darren Menabney writes in Forbes, there are ways to avoid disaster when sending emails across cultures He emphasises that “Overcoming this risk requires the right mindset, cultural awareness and being intentional in crafting emails sent across cultures”. Using an appropriate sign off shows that you’re alert to cultural sensitivities”.

This is echoed by Lucy Pembayun, Founder of LEaF Translations who considers the email sign off faux pas that could happen when working in an international team.

“Striking the right tone in an email sign-off can be tricky when communicating in your own language with people from the same cultural background – but it becomes a whole lot harder when you are communicating with people from a different culture and especially when there is a different language involved. A tone that may be considered acceptable in your home country, may be deemed cold or even offensive by people from another country. For example, in the US it is common to sign off emails with “Regards”, but this can come across a little unfriendly in the UK, where we tend to opt for “Kind regards”.

Lucy highlights some other examples:

“Some countries are more than happy to abbreviate, such as Germany with “LG” for “Liebe Grüße”, but I’ve never come across KR or BW in the UK. Then there is the language itself. Whenever it comes to translation, a general rule of thumb is never to translate literally. Using the previous example from Germany, signing off an email to a British colleague with “Lovely greetings” would come across a little odd; translating the informal French email sign-off “Mille baisers” literally would result in you sending “A thousand kisses”. So how to avoid an awkward or even offensive email sign-off when working with international teams? If it is a colleague, why not ask them what would be appropriate – it could lead to a fascinating conversation about language and culture.”

She also notes,

“If you are writing an important email, perhaps to a prospective client or as part of a job application, then it could well be worth consulting with a native speaker to make sure you strike the right tone.”

Email sign offs for all occasions

Searching for the right email sign off for a specific occasion? Here are some situation-specific email sign off examples to help you.

Email sign offs – apologies

Is ‘sorry’ really the hardest word? Nobody’s perfect, and If you’ve made a mistake, missed a project deadline or even hurt a colleague’s feelings, you’ll want to apologize. As a rule, it’s best to apologize in person or by phone but that isn’t always practical. So what’s an ideal apologetic email sign off to help you say sorry?Whoever it’s to, writing an email apology starts way before the sign off. Acknowledge your mistake, show you’re genuinely sorry for it and want to put things right. Email sign off apologies need to be authentic, such as a simple ‘Sincerely’. You don’t need to sign off ‘With apologies’ – your whole email has been your apology!

Email sign offs – appreciation

Everyone appreciates a ‘Thank you’. So if a colleague has sent you the urgent information you needed or a supplier has hurried through a delivery to help you meet a deadline, emphasize your gratitude with an appreciation email sign off. It can really help strengthen relationships.

Keep it simple with a ‘Thank you’, ‘Thanks’, ‘Many thanks’, ‘With appreciation’ or even just an ‘Appreciatively’ email sign off. You can also make your thank you email sign off specific, such as ‘Thank you for your time’, ‘Thank you for the opportunity’, ‘Thank you for your support’, ‘Thanks for all your help’ or even ‘Thanks for thinking of me’. You can also offer to return the favour with ‘If I can ever help you like you’ve helped me, just say the word’. If you want to be formal, how about the email sign off ‘With gratitude’? Or perhaps keep it casual with a complimentary email sign off such as ‘You’re the best’, ‘You rock’ or ‘You’re a star’.

Email sign offs – condolences

Whether you’re writing to a bereaved family member, friend, colleague or client, a condolences email shows them you are thinking of them at a difficult time. Again, it’s all about the type of relationship you have with the recipient. If you’re close, perhaps a sympathy card might be more personal. Keep your message short and sincere and use a condolences email sign off such as ‘Thinking of you’, ‘Please accept my deepest sympathies’, ‘My sincerest condolences to you and your family’, ‘Please let me know if there’s anything I can do’ or ‘Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything’ (as long as it is a genuine offer).

Email sign offs – holidays/Christmas

Spread some seasonal goodwill with a traditional Christmas email sign off of ‘Merry Christmas & Happy New Year’ or ‘Wishing you a merry Christmas’ or a more playful ‘Have a holly, jolly Christmas’. But remember your colleagues and customers might not celebrate the holidays in the same way, so a ‘Happy holidays’ or ‘All the best for the holiday season’ might be appropriate alternatives. Perhaps you could use your email sign off for the holidays to speak for the whole company such as ‘Happy holidays from all of us here at [business name]’ or thank customers for their loyalty with ‘We appreciate your business and look forward to working with you in the new year! ’In addition, creating a Christmas email signature can inform recipients of your holiday period office opening times or feature any Christmas and New Year promotional offers.

Christmas Branded Email Signature Example

Email sign offs – vacation/annual leave

Whilst it’s tempting to gloat with a ‘See you in two weeks’ vacation email sign off before you leave but, while you’re away, it’s your out-of-office message that is important. It not only shows that you’re organized but should clearly state when you’ll be back, when recipients can realistically expect a reply from you and who to contact in the meantime, especially if an issue is urgent. You might also want to stress that you won’t be checking your email while you’re away. ‘I’m away on vacation from 2023 to 2023 and will not be checking my email during this time.If your message can wait, I will reply as soon as possible on my return.In the meantime, if you need urgent assistance please contact [contact email and telephone details]’.Alternatively, if you’re writing to the person going on vacation, you can add a vacation email sign off such as ‘Have a great time’, ‘Enjoy your break’, ‘Have a wonderful trip’ or even ‘Bon voyage!’.

Email sign offs – bad news

Nobody wants to have to break bad news. in an email or otherwise. Depending on the details – from a personal misfortune to redundancy, a bad news email is going to leave the recipient upset, sad, distressed and even confused. So if you have the task, perhaps use one of these bad news email sign off examples to offer consolation – ‘I’m here for you’, ‘Call me whenever you want to talk’, ‘Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you need anything’ – and help show next steps, such as with ‘Let’s talk tomorrow to work out a way forward’.

Email sign offs – job application

Whilst it might not be as important as your covering letter, resume or interview, knowing how to sign off a job application email can still be significant in your job search success. Show a prospective employer or recruiter how professional you are by keeping your job application sign off simple and safe. You can find other ways to stand out from the crowd. These job application email sign off examples are all safely suitable – ‘Best regards’, ‘Thank you’, ‘Thanks’ (but not ‘thx’) or ‘Looking forward to meeting you’ if you’ve been invited to an interview. Make sure you don’t sound entitled or presumptuous that you’ll be selected, so avoid sign-offs like ‘Thanks in advance’.

Relationship between email sign offs and email signatures

In their different ways, your email sign off and email signature both add value to your business email.

While the right email closing phrase is important for leaving the right impression and getting the right response from the recipient, a professional email signature is essential for identifying you the sender, clearly communicating your contact details and branding the email with your corporate logo. It also opens a host of marketing opportunities by enabling the recipient to click through to your website, social media profiles and key content.

Company guidelines regarding acceptable email sign offs are almost impossible to enforce. So the simplest way to ensure that all employee business emails are consistently on-brand company-wide is to control them centrally using a professional email signature manager tool.

You can also use your email sign off to draw attention to features in your signature and drive direct engagement. For example, ‘To set up an introductory meeting, simply click the ‘Book Now’ button in my signature’ or ‘You’ll find all you need on our website. Just click the link in my signature’.

So…

What’s the best way to sign off your emails?

If you are still unsure about which phrase to use to sign off an email, ask yourself the below four questions:

  1. What is the message of the email?
  2. What is the emotion that you want to convey?
  3. Is the email formal or informal?
  4. How well do you know the recipient?

Once you have answered these questions, you will be in a much better position to choose the right sign-off for every email that you send. You can also check out our 7 etiquette tips to help you write more professional emails to ensure you get every aspect of your emails just right.

Whatever email ending you choose, the easiest way to make your (and all your company’s) emails look professional is by adding a professional on-brand email signature to every email. Here at Rocketseed, we are experts in professional email signatures and can help ensure your signatures engage with your clients, generate new leads, and up-sell your products and services.

Contact us today to see how our business email signature software can revolutionize the way you sign off your emails.

Email signatures that display on every device

Shanique Brophy | Marketing Executive
Connect with Shanique on LinkedIn

The Evolution of Email Signatures

Evolution of Email Signatures

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.

Email Signature example with booking link

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
Email signature example with a CTA

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.

Good example of a rate my service email signature banner

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

Professional Emails Dos and Don’ts

Professional-Emails-dos-and-donts

While sending an email has become as commonplace as breathing in an office environment, many people still struggle to navigate the etiquette surrounding the most popular form of business communication.

How should you start your email correspondence? How should you sign off? Is it better to opt for short and sweet or to make each point crystal clear?

When you really think about it, the world of email is full of potential pitfalls that could be costing you more business than you care to think about. From always writing a clear subject line to never trying to be funny, keep reading to discover all the professional email dos and don’ts you need to know about.

DO use a professional greeting

If you are tempted to write “hey” or, even worse, “yo” as your email salutation, then you should know that this is never a good idea. It doesn’t matter how well you know the recipient. If you are sending a work email, you need to maintain some level of professionalism.

Instead, opt for “hello” or “hi” if you know the person very well and are on friendly terms or, if you want to be more formal, say “Dear (insert name).

In fact, whether you are writing a formal or informal professional email, it is also preferential to include the person’s name at the start of the email, as this can automatically make them feel more at ease and amenable to your request.

DON’T try and be funny

The problem with humour by email is that it is very easy for the meaning or tone to be misinterpreted. At best, this can result in an awkward exchange and, at worst, you could offend the other person and ruin your future working relationship.

As a rule, it’s best to keep humour for face-to-face meetings and phone calls, and keep your emails clear and to the point.

DO create an email signature

In today’s digital workplace, everyone should have a professional email signature. If you are currently just signing off with your name at the end of each email, then now is the time to embrace the power of a business email signature.

At the very least, you should be including your job title, contact details, and company website. You can easily get these right by following our best practices for adding contact information on an email signature. However, you may also want to add links to your business’s social media pages, links to events, and even links to your blogs or relevant brand news.

Professional email signature - Rocketseed

DON’T forget to proofread

If you have to reply to hundreds of emails a day, you can be forgiven for firing off a few without reading them through. However, if, more often than not, you are sending important emails without proofreading them first, you could be setting yourself up for a whole host of problems.

From grammatical errors to silly spelling mistakes, inappropriate language to sentences that just don’t make sense, if you don’t check over what you have written before you click send, you could be perceived as careless and even uneducated.

DO write a clear subject line

It’s the first element of an email that people see, so you need to make sure that you write a compelling, clear, and concise subject line. This is especially true if you are sending a pitch or reaching out to someone you haven’t corresponded with before.

Most businesses receive hundreds, if not thousands, of proposals each day, so you need to ensure that yours stands out from the crowd. Make sure your subject line is clear about what your email is about but that it also demonstrates what makes you different from other pitching companies.

DON’T use emojis

Everyone has received emails that include an emoji or two, and while it may seem harmless, these winking and smiling faces can actually have quite a detrimental effect on how you and your company are perceived.

Although perfectly acceptable to use in text messages or via live messaging, emojis are not professional, and they can significantly lower the tone of an otherwise professional and engaging email.

DO reply swiftly

While no one expects you to reply to every email right away, there is a specific timeframe that you should aim to adhere to, and this is 24 hours. If the email in question requires a more thorough response, then there is nothing wrong with a simple reply that states a suggested longer timeframe.

Not replying at all within 24 hours can come across as rude and unprofessional and can cost your business considerably in the long run. If there are extenuating circumstances as to why you have not replied to an email for a long period of time, you should ring the person directly to explain rather than send an email.

DON’T forget to close the conversation

All too often, emails are sent back and forth unnecessarily because neither party has closed the correspondence. Fortunately, this is very easy to fix. All you need to do is make sure you include the right phrase based on what you would like the recipient to do next.

For example, if no further action is required, you could say “no reply necessary” or “please let me know if I can be of further assistance”.
And finally,

DO sign off correctly

You wouldn’t end a face-to-face meeting without saying ‘goodbye’ so, in the same way, make sure you give all your emails an appropriate sign-off. This applies even if you have an amazing, professional email signature.

In choosing your sign-off, consider the content of the email, the formality or informality of the message and how well you know the recipient. From ‘Yours sincerely’ through to ‘Cheers’, our guide on how to sign off on an email correctly will help you get it right every time.

Email Signature Sign-Off Examples

If you can learn these dos and don’ts of creating professional emails, you’ll make a bigger impact every time you click that send button.

Sign up to our monthly newsletter for more email signature news, case studies and tips and tricks.

Shanique Brophy | Marketing Executive
Connect with Shanique on LinkedIn

Cost-Effectiveness of Email Signature Marketing

Cost-effectiveness of email signature marketing

When things get tough, the tough get cost-effective with email signature marketing. Because when you’re facing the challenge of building your brand, driving sales and growing your business in difficult economic times, cost-effective marketing is key. So how do you get more bang for your marketing budget buck, secure sales while saving time and money, and get return on investment (ROI) as well as results?

Whether you’re a marketing professional or a business owner looking for lower budget marketing activity options, there’s a cost-effective marketing channel that you really can’t afford to overlook. One that packs a promotional punch way above its weight and which you’ve almost certainly used multiple times today already.

Read on to see why email signature marketing – including interactive email signature banners – is cost-effective, delivers a wide range of budget-friendly benefits and amplifies the effectiveness (and cost-effectiveness) of your other marketing channels.

Why does marketing activity need to be cost-effective?

When economic times get tough, with budgets tightening and costs increasing, your marketing has got to be smart – and that means (ideally cheap!) cost-effective marketing strategies that deliver ROI.

Tough economic times

In tough economic times of rising costs and declining demand, the search is on for recession-busting, low-budget marketing channels that get results.

Tightened budgets

Your customers’ buying budgets are being cut and – rightly or wrongly – your marketing budget is being squeezed. If you’re going to ‘sell’ your budget to your CFO for sign-off, they’ll want to see cheaper marketing channels that can really drive revenue.

Increasing costs

Keep an eye on the real cost of your marketing. Sometimes channels that are cheap (or even free) end up costing in terms of creativity, production (both in-house and external agencies) and management time.

Return on investments (ROI)

This is the metric that matters. Is your business seeing the required return on its marketing investment? Below we’ll show you how to calculate it, and also cover some other factors to be aware of.

How do you measure marketing return on investment (ROI)?

When you want to show the success of your marketing investment (and what a cost-effective marketer you are), the best metric for the job is Return on Investment (ROI). You can also use it to show the predicted profitability of your budgeted marketing program.

Calculating Marketing ROI

ROI is a fairly easy calculation. Simply subtract your marketing spend for a set period from the revenue for that period. This is your net return. Now divide this net return figure by your marketing spend, and then multiply by 100 to get your marketing ROI.

ROI calculation formula

Marketing ROI example

Say you spend $5 on marketing and you make $30 overall, your net return is $25. Divide this by your initial investment of $5 and you get a total of 5. Multiplying this by 100 gives you 500. Your ROI is therefore 500%!

What’s a good marketing ROI?

According to Website Builder Expert:

‘Typically, an ROI of 5:1 is considered pretty good in digital marketing. This means that for every $1 you spend, you get $5 back. Marketers who want to be truly exceptional though, aim for a 10:1 ratio.’

Remember, the better the ROI, the better you’ll look and the better your chances of getting your marketing budget signed-off or even increased!

Is marketing ROI really the best performance measure?

ROI certainly shows marketing performance in hard financial terms but there are a couple of important things to remember.

Include all your costs

Your marketing investment is not simply the cost of the media or marketing agency charges. Think of the time and effort and in-house resources that have been used to plan, produce and manage your marketing campaign. Creating email marketing banner campaigns is very simple and cost-effective and, by using our email signature banners guide, can yield a sizeable return in engagement.

Consider other KPI’s

Also, whilst sales might be the ultimate desired result, not all channels can drive direct sales so you need to set realistic key performance indicators (KPI’s) for each channel such as increasing brand awareness on a budget or boosting website traffic, leads, follows, sign-ups, referrals and conversion rates. You might be surprised when you see below how many of these goals can be met using email signature marketing! 

Share marketing and sales data

To effectively measure marketing ROI in terms of sales you need to ensure that your marketing and sales teams share their data. They also need to work closely together to act on this data to focus on the marketing channels that drive sales and improve ROI. By choosing email signature software with CRM integration, it’s easy to see how email banner click-through results in sales.

Digital marketing ROI stats

According to Website Builder Expert:

  • Email marketing has the best average ROI at a huge 3,600%
  • SEO marketing has an average ROI ratio of 22:1 equating to 2,200%
  • Marketers who regularly calculate their ROI are 1.6 times more likely to secure budget increases for their marketing activities.

Why is email signature marketing cost-effective?

It might often get overlooked but email signature marketing could be the low-cost, high-reward channel you’ve been looking for. It might even become your most cost-effective marketing tactic! Here are 7 reasons why:

1. It makes every business email a sales opportunity

After all, it’s simply enhancing (greatly enhancing) your employees’ everyday emails – emails they would be sending anyway during the course of daily business. In fact, chances are, it’s your most used business communication channel. Suddenly, you can drive sales with every email, or at least reach each recipient with relevant email banner messaging to help move them through the customer journey. With email signature campaigns, suddenly everyone in your business is an active part of your marketing and sales strategy.

Email signatures that display on every device

2. It achieves exceptional reach

The numbers speak for themselves. When you consider the average employee sends 1,000 emails every month, for a team of 50 email signature marketing opens over 600,000 extra engagement opportunities a year! And over 12,000,000 annually for a business of 1,000 staff! Just think of all the different recipients. Unlike bulk email marketing you don’t need to build or buy a big subscriber list. You’re reaching a huge audience of prospects, customers, partners and suppliers etc (and every email ‘forward’ increases this audience still further).

3. It achieves a 99% open rate

How many email marketing platforms can boast that? Especially when you remember that the average bulk email campaign achieves between 10% to 30% open rates. Why is email signature marketing’s open rate so high? Because these are the emails your employees are sending during the course of everyday business, they’re part of ongoing email conversations and so they’re always going to get opened. No need to rely on snappy email subject lines!

4. It meets a huge range of marketing goals

Email signature marketing banners are incredibly versatile and with the right provider can make sure that your recipients are targeted with the most relevant banner messaging. From building brand awareness to requesting reviews, promoting special offers to showcasing social responsibility initiatives and, of course, driving direct sales, email banners can do it all. Want to see exactly what I mean? Check out our 33 great email signature banner examples.

Not only that, but as you’ll see below email signature campaigns can amplify the effectiveness (and cost-effectiveness) of your other digital marketing channels.

What-can-you-do-with-email-banners-Rocketseed-1

5. It’s prime high-impact space

Does high-profile ad space sound instantly high budget? Sure, your signature is at the bottom of your email but at Rocketseed we include top banners as email signature marketing. Because they’re at the top they’re the first thing recipients see when they open an email. It’s prime, eye-catching, high-impact space.

6. It’s personal 1-to-1 marketing at scale

Does ‘1-to-1’ marketing sound small-time, a lot of effort and the very opposite of cost-effective? Email signature marketing is 1-to-1 marketing at scale. These are the emails that build relationships. They’re not only about customer acquisition but also retention. Recipients don’t just have a relationship with your brand, they have a relationship with the individual sender – sometimes formal, sometimes informal. Either way, it’s a people thing and the familiar name and headshot in an email signature helps cement that interpersonal relationship and adds a personal trust element. These recipients, with whom you have a strong business relationship are more likely to click on your email banner than engage with a bulk email.

7. It delivers low cost conversions

We regularly see customers achieving email signature marketing engagement (click-through rates) of over 20%, whether recipients are clicking through to key content or direct to a sales platform or online store (with a clickable ‘Buy Now’ CTA on your banner).

If you want cost-effectiveness, you can’t afford to risk missing a sale or losing a customer. By choosing email signature marketing software like Rocketseed with real-time click alerts, your sales team will be notified the moment a recipient clicks on your banner or signature, enabling them to follow-up immediately. As Rocketseed integrates seamlessly with Salesforce it’s easy to attribute sales to your email signature marketing.

Other cost-effective benefits of email signature marketing

There are a number of other direct benefits that email signature marketing delivers to give you even more bang for your buck…

Makes every email look professional

What price can you put on professionalism? Your email signature says a lot about you and your company, and I don’t just mean your contact information. Clear, correct contact details are, of course, essential but for prospects especially your business email signature design can give them the reassurance that they are dealing with a reputable, reliable and professional company – and that’s worth its weight in gold. Check out our 12 Professional email signature examples: Best practice & top tips for a truly professional email signature design.

Saves your marketers and IT teams time

It’s true, time is money. The right email signature software can save your marketing and IT teams time. With Rocketseed not only can email banner campaigns be automated to start and finish according to your marketing programme but your IT team can save literally hundreds of hours by setting up and updating all staff email signatures centrally, with contact details automatically updating by being synced with your Azure, Windows Active or Google directory. So as well as understanding the reasons Rocketseed is ‘Loved by Marketing’, it’s also worth checking out why it is ‘Trusted by IT’.

Ensure a consistent corporate brand image

What do the businesses we trust most have in common? They project a consistent brand image across every channel – including brand name and logo, colours and fonts. Your business email is no different. Using a centrally-managed email signature solution gives you control over every employee email signature – across all departments – so every email they send is perfectly on brand. A cost-effective way to consistent branding company-wide!

Tracks every engagement for insights

Which email banner campaigns achieve the best conversion rate? Which recipients are clicking through most frequently? With Rocketseed’s email signature reporting and analytics platform you can cost-effectively track and analyse every recipient engagement so you can quickly measure signature marketing performance and gain valuable insights to refine campaigns for even more future success.

RS_Email-signature-reporting

Achieves cost-effective internal comms

Ever thought about internal email signature marketing? It’s an incredibly cost-effective HR solution. From onboarding and training to company news and social events, you can grab your staff’s attention with internal email banners and make it easy for them to click through to your key HR content.

How can email signature marketing amplify the effectiveness of other channels?

Choosing the best marketing channels for your new campaign will depend on your objectives, your business sector and your budget.
The cost effectiveness of email signature marketing becomes even more clear when you see how it can amplify the effectiveness (and cost-effectiveness) of your other chosen digital campaign channels. Here are 5 examples:

Amplifies social media marketing

Social media marketing can be a very cost-effective way to build a community of potential customers. Displaying your social media icons – linked to your actively-managed social platforms – on your email signature is a sure way to increase your social engagement, from building your B2B network on LinkedIn to getting people talking about your business on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Good example of a social media email signature banner

Amplifies email marketing

At its best – with a large subscriber list, strong subject lines, fresh content and clear calls-to -action – email marketing has been seen to achieve ROI of 3,600%. As a substantial organically-acquired subscriber base is essential for success, continually grow your list by simply adding a ‘Sign up to our newsletter’ CTA on your staff email signatures and banner campaigns.

Amplifies content marketing

Creating content – from blogs and infographics to ebooks and ‘how to’ videos – can be time-consuming. However, high-quality, evergreen content can be extremely cost-effective by driving high-intent engagement and conversions over a long period of time. The key to a successful content strategy is distribution and that’s where email signature marketing comes in. An email signature banner is the perfect place to promote your blog, ebook or video – always with a clear clickable CTA. It’s an incredibly cost-effective way to get a huge audience engaging with your content.

Video Email Signature Banner example

Amplifies your website and landing pages

The long-term benefits and cost effectiveness of a search-engine optimised website are clear (SEO marketing has an average ROI ratio of 22:1, or 2,200%), with more traffic and more conversions achieved by sites ranking the highest on Google. Boost your website traffic even further by always including a link in your email signature. Want to drive traffic to a specific page, maybe to build some ‘About Us’ brand awareness or a landing page for your latest promotion? A dedicated banner at the top of every employee email will soon see traffic skyrocket!

Amplifies events

Whether you’re staging a face-to face or online event, a promotional email signature banner showing subject, speaker, time and place is a highly cost-effective way to boost attendance. Make sure you have a clear ‘Book Now’ button to get recipients clicking through to your sign-up page. Suddenly every business email your team sends becomes an invitation!

What does email signature marketing cost?

Cost-effective isn’t the same as cheap, but fortunately email signature marketing is an affordable addition to your cost-effective marketing strategy.
If you’re just starting or currently have just a handful of staff then there are free email signature solutions available that might meet your basic company email signature design requirements.

However, if you’re marketing an SME or enterprise business and you want all the benefits of making your staff email signatures an integral part of a creative, co-ordinated and cost-effective marketing strategy, then you need an email signature marketing solution that can deliver at scale.

To find out the cost of a signature management and marketing solution that meets both the requirements and scale of your business, check out our product plan and pricing information. Simply move the slider to the size of your business (number of employees) and choose which product plan – Signature or Campaign – best suits your requirements.

Can you really afford not to use email signature marketing?

Ultimately, email signature marketing is about consistently branding your most used business communication channel and cost-effectively opening a huge range of engagement opportunities from every email you and your staff send.

It’s simple, affordable and delivers a great return for a whole range of objectives. as well as significantly amplifying the effective and cost-effectiveness of your other digital marketing channels.

Ready to make email signatures and banners part of your new cost-effective marketing strategy? Talk to us at Rocketseed, we’re ready to help.

Shanique Brophy | Marketing Executive
Connect with Shanique on LinkedIn

5 Steps to Christmas Email Signature Success

5 Steps to Christmas Email Signature Success

Bye bye Black Friday. So long, Cyber Monday. It’s now time to make sure your email signatures and marketing banners are ready for Christmas… and the New Year!

To help you, we’ve updated this blog post to give you 5 simple steps (plus a bonus email banner tip) to make your company email signatures Christmassy and meet the marketing challenges of the holiday season.

1. Create consistent Christmas email signatures

Don’t be an email signature Scrooge! Sprinkle some seasonal sparkle onto your company Christmas email signatures. What might make them merry and bright? Try adding some red and green colourways for a more festive Christmas email signature design, some shimmering snowflakes or maybe treat your head-shot to a jaunty Santa hat.

Christmas Branded Email Signature Example

But be sure to remember your brand. Are your staff remote working? Don’t let them go Christmas-crazy (calling themselves Santa’s ‘Chief Help Officer’ or similar). Far safer to use professional email signature software that gives you centralised control – and keep your naughty elves in check. Santa rests easy at night, knowing that his team’s signatures are completely consistent, totally secure and display perfectly across all devices.

2. Try some Christmas email signature marketing

While your Christmas email signature gives you a seasonal sign-off, just like Santa, your marketing message deserves top billing! So for more immediate impact you need an eye-catching Christmas email signature banner campaign to put your ‘Merry Christmas’ message at the top of every email and promote your seasonal special offers. With clear, clickable calls-to-action on your banners you can drive traffic directly to your online shop, booking engine or promotions page. And with Rocketseed’s sophisticated email signature analytics you can see exactly who’s engaged with your email banners over the Christmas period, and which Grinchy ones haven’t!

Christmas Sale Banner Example

3. Add Christmas opening hours in your signature

For some, after Christmas it’s straight back to business, for others everything shuts down until the New Year. Featuring holiday opening and closing dates in a banner at the top of your email is the ideal branded way to remind your customers, suppliers and partners in the run-up to Christmas. Far better than leaving them to find out via a chilly ‘out of office’ automated email reply.

Christmas Closing Date Email Banner Example

4. Donate to charity with Christmas email signatures

Supporting a charity this Christmas? An eye-catching company Christmas email banner campaign will drive extra donations. It’s the season of goodwill so, with a clear ‘Donate Now’ call-to-action button, recipients can easily click through to the charity’s own website or your own charitable donations page. After all, Christmas is all about giving, not receiving.

5. Get back to business with New Year email signature banners

Nothing says Happy New Year like New Year sales. So, just like your decorations, make sure your Christmas banners are taken down on time and your New Year banners are up and running – ready to do business. Showcase your best New Year sale deals and link straight through to your online shop.

New Year Sale Email Banner Example

Bonus tip: Schedule seasonal email signature campaigns in advance

Stressed at the thought of managing your festive banner campaigns in the run-up to Christmas when you’re rushed off your feet? Or worried about uploading your New Year banners during the Christmas break? Relax, with Rocketseed email signature software you can schedule all your banner campaigns’ start and stop dates in advance so they’re automatically applied and run right on time!

Need assistance with your Christmas email signature and banner marketing?

Please get in touch with us – we’re here to help.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, from all of us at Rocketseed.

Shanique Brophy | Marketing Executive
Connect with Shanique on LinkedIn

Create a Culture of Inclusivity With Name Pronunciation in Email Signatures

Culture of Inclusivity With Name Pronunciation in Email Signatures

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

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.

Diversity and inclusivity in 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…

Workplace inclusivity

‘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:

Correct name pronunciation in the workplace

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:

Pronunciation in email signatures

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

If you choose to add name pronunciation to your email signature template, it is best to add the pronunciation details directly below or next to your name. This prominent placement ensures that recipients will see the pronunciation guidance immediately and relate it to your name easily. Making pronunciation information such an intrinsic element of the signature also shows the importance your company places on it.

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…

Email signature example with name pronunciation phonetically

This is the approach taken by Deloitte UK.

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.

Email Signature example with name pronunciation as an audio file

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.

Name pronunciation as audio file in an email signature

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.

Email signature banner example promoting colleague name pronunciation

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. Need email signatures for more than 50 users? Start your Rocketseed free trial today.

Damian Hamp-Adams  |  CEO

Connect with Damian on LinkedIn

Why is Rocketseed ‘Trusted by IT’?

Rocketseed Email Signature Software trusted by IT

In our article Why is Rocketseed ‘Loved by Marketing’?, we delved into the first part of our brand strapline and showed you what marketers, like CMO Marcie, love about Rocketseed email signatures.

However, while marketers like Marcie can champion the adoption of email signature software for their own marketing goals, they know that they need the company IT department on-side if it’s going to be signed-off. Because even when IT aren’t the initiators of new company email signatures, then chances are they’re the gatekeepers.

And while marketers might echo the immortal words of The Beatles, ‘Love is all you need’, when it comes to choosing and using the right email signature software, IT teams need something more objective – trust.

So let’s take a look at the second part of our strapline and show you why Rocketseed is ‘Trusted by IT’.

7 reasons IT teams trust Rocketseed

Meet Todd. Todd is in IT.

In fact, he’s been working as a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for several years and is well-versed in all the technical processes in the company. So it was Todd who the CEO turned to, to introduce new professional on-brand email signatures across the business, with central control, time-saving automation and marketing functionality that CMO Marcie’s team could manage.

Todd always strives to find the most effective solution. He can’t afford to have software installed that doesn’t work correctly. His priorities are different from CMO Marcie’s. He wants stress-free signature software that saves his team time and effort, especially as there aren’t many people working in his IT team. At the same time he’s wary of outsourcing and prioritizes security and support.

Here are the 7 reasons why Todd (and CTO’s just like him) trust Rocketseed:

1. He TRUSTS that the implementation process is simple

Rocketseed is simple to deploy, integrating securely with the company mail server, and the browser-based interface requires no installations or additional hardware.

2. He TRUSTS that all email signatures are 100% secure

Security is Todd’s main concern about all email signature software but he’s got no security worries with Rocketseed. Rocketseed meets the highest industry security standards. All mails are sent using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and are TLS (Transport Layer Security) encrypted. All newly released security updates are automatically applied.

3. He TRUSTS that Rocketseed is optimized for all major mail servers

Rocketseed integrates with all major mail servers including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and Exchange,  so even if Todd’s company migrates to a new mail server in the future he trusts that Rocketseed will remain optimized in its performance.

Mail servers

4. He TRUSTS that employee signatures are tamper-proof

With Rocketseed, Todd knows that his team have central control over all employee email signatures which not only means that they’re consistently branded company-wide but also that his team don’t have to train or ‘police’ individual employees to manage their email signatures correctly. No matter how tempted employees might be to get ‘creative’ with their own signatures (such as by adding quirky quotes) they simply can’t – Rocketseed email signatures are 100% tamper-proof!

5. He TRUSTS all email signatures will display perfectly on every device

With over 80% of all emails now opened on mobiles, it’s essential that company email signatures display perfectly. Rocketseed is mobile-optimised so you can trust that all email signatures and banners will display perfectly on desktop, laptop, tablet and smartphone every time. Find out more about our mobile friendly email signatures.

Branded email on multiple devices

6. He TRUSTS that Rocketseed will save his team time

With Rocketseed, not only can Todd’s IT team make company-wide signature updates instantly, but can also benefit from specific automation capabilities.

One key time-saver is the syncing of Rocketseed with the company’s Azure, Windows Active or Google Directory, so that any data updates made to employee contact details in the directory are automatically updated in their email signatures. At no point do the IT team or individual users have to manually update the contact details on individual email signatures.

Azure, Windows Active & Google Directory Sync

7. He TRUSTS that Rocketseed is always there to help

And we are. If Todd’s team needs help they don’t need to search through FAQ’s or knowledge base (although we have these too). Whatever the question, Rocketseed are on-hand with 24/7 emergency support.

Looking for email signature software you can trust?

When it comes to what you need to know about Rocketseed our strapline says it all. For IT, it’s all about delivering a professional email signature management solution you can trust completely, making your life easier and getting the results you require.

Of course, trust doesn’t happen overnight, trust has to be earned. When it comes to email signature management success, we’ve earned the trust of some of the biggest brand names across a host of industry sectors worldwide.

So if you are an IT manager looking for email signature software you can trust completely, it’s time you talked to us. We’d love to show you what you can achieve with Rocketseed.

Janine Ferenčak  |  MD, RocketDev

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