Get These 6 Things Out Of Your Email Signature

Let’s talk about the exciting world of email signatures! Sarcasm aside, let’s talk about the email signature of B2B sales pros and, more specifically, what really shouldn’t be in them these days. Why dedicate a couple hundred words to this seemingly inconsequential topic? Because every pixel matters, that’s why. Every drop of communication says something. So why not ensure that a block of information you’re sending out with every email is as efficient and effective as possible?

To that end, here’s a short list of email signature faux pas that the digital savvy B2B sales pro needs to drop…

Social Icons

Are you down with social selling? Great. The B2B sales rep that’s intelligently tapping into LinkedIn, Twitter and Snapbookgram is gaining a leg up on his or her competition. What isn’t so great though is a bunch of social icons in an email signature. For starters, they don’t always load right across all email clients (especially mobile). They also can get dated quickly as branding changes. Just look at the evolution of the Twitter icon. Would you

want to have to update your email signature every time fresh branding comes out? Of course not. But if you don’t, you look dated—and that’s not good. So instead of icons, simple hyperlinked text works just fine.

A Bajillion Phone Numbers

You’ve got your office phone, maybe a work mobile, a personal mobile, maybe a home office line… We get it. You’ve got a lot of phones. Throw in a fax number and you’re nearing a baker’s dozen. Including all of these numbers in your email signature makes zero sense. Literally, all they do is take up lines of text. Shed the layers and include just one phone number. (You can probably ditch the fax altogether.) Explore any of the call forwarding solutions that can funnel all calls to one number.

The Environmental Plea Email Signature

Let us preface this with the fact that we love the earth. That said, the holier-than-thou “Please consider the environment before printing this email” text has no place in your email signature. Including indicates to your recipient that you think they might not care about the aforementioned earth. You better not print this email, jerk. Oh! And let’s do business together! Also, when was the last time you printed an email? The sheer bombardment of email is enough to exhaust any email printing efforts. (Side note: Smart Rooms fix this. Just saying.) So take the webdings trees and italicized green text out of your sig.

Inspirational Quotes

There’s nothing really more to write here. (Deep, eh?)

Your Email Address

If you’ve sent or are sending an email to someone, they have your email address. There’s no need to waste a signature line on it.

Any Sort of Animation

Gifs are cool but if you have any animation in your email signature, it’s safe to assume you’re selling knock off little blue pills. On a less snarky level, as mobile email consumption continues to increase, anything that sucks battery life, no matter how small, isn’t going to get much love. (And yes, animation consumes more power.)

That’s our list. What else should be forever forbidden from the email signature?