And it’s one we at Rocketseed get asked a lot.
Because when it comes to designing and managing professional email signatures, first impressions count and, if individual employees are able to add their own ‘inspirational’ quotes, then that says a lot about a business’s attitude to its brand guidelines (assuming it has any), company-wide consistency and keeping its signatures under centralised control.
My reply is always to tell the enquirer the last time I was truly inspired by an ‘inspirational’ quotation on an email signature. Never.
OK, I’ll admit one or two have made me smile, but the rest have simply made me cringe. And I can safely say that an ‘inspirational’ quotation on an email signature has never made me change the way I look at life – only the way I look at the sender.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good quotation, and famous quotations are famous for a reason – they resonate. But whether you’re quoting Karl or Groucho Marx, is the quotation really adding value to your email signature?
As A.A. Milne said, a “quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself” and, whilst designing a professional email signature wasn’t what he had in mind, a well-known quotation in your email signature isn’t going to make you look original, just lazy.
But just in case you’re tempted to reach for your dictionary of quotations or google “inspirational quotes” for, er, inspiration, here’s a few reasons you might want to avoid adding quotations to your professional email signature design…
They’re clutter
Our experience is that people always want to include more in their email signature than is really necessary. When it comes to streamlining an email signature, the quotation is a strong contender for the first thing to go!
They’re unprofessional
Unless, perhaps, you’re a professional motivational speaker.
They’re unintentionally revealing
Your chosen quotation might say more about you than you realise (and not in a good way), things about you that your reader really doesn’t need (or want) to know – your religion, your politics, your taste in movies or your personal (possibly too personal) mantra. You don’t want your email signature to offend anyone.
They can be wildly inappropriate
If your email is about cutting staff, predicting a profits downturn, or disciplining a staff member, your inspirational quote won’t make anyone feel any better – it really won’t.
They’re a waste of prime marketing space
Your email signature can be a powerful marketing channel – especially with Rocketseed! – and an interactive marketing campaign banner with a clear call-to-action is a far more engaging use of your email signature space.
They need controlling
If individual employees start adding their own favourite (or questionable) quotes to their own signatures, your brand consistency is finished.
BUT…
There’s always an exception to the rule. Of course there is. If your company motto is as familiar as your logo, is backed up by your brand guidelines and really adds value to every email, then feature it in your email signature. But it’s one more thing to keep under control and for total brand consistency, centralised control of your company’s email signatures is essential.
At Rocketseed “our world is email”
The email signatures we produce and manage for our clients are “designed to do business”. We don’t feature either of those lines on our company email signatures, but our email signature software will easily transform every business email you send into a valuable new marketing channel with results that will speak for themselves.
You can quote me on that.
Damian Hamp-Adams | CEO
Connect with Damian on LinkedIn
