You send lots of emails. Think of all those pitches to editors, replies to clients as well as interactions with interviewees, friends, family and coworkers.

Your email signature is a valuable, free space that appears time and again in front of people who’ve already decided you’re worth their attention. Most of us set one up quickly and forget about it. But could it be working harder for you?

The nudge effect of the email signature

The golden rule of advertising is that people must see a message multiple times before they act on it. Likewise, your email signature delivers repeated exposure without you lifting a finger. I’ve bought books this way, simply because I saw a tagline under someone’s signature often enough that I got pulled in.

Kris Faraldo of IttyBiz, which provides marketing resources for small businesses, reviews their signature roughly once a month, tweaking it to nudge people towards their services. This habit has brought ‘a small but noticeable uptick’ in clients and sales: ‘You can make very good money over time from even a marginal investment in crafting a good signature.’ Here’s how to start.

Crafting the message

Faraldo argues that people too often treat their email signature like a business card, either dull or overstuffed. The fix was to start treating it instead as a container for just one or two calls to action.

Drop the encyclopaedic contact info. Pick 1–3 actions you want a reader to take instead.

Build your signature around the top one first:

      Award-winning self-help author: Practical wisdom for daily growth

Add a second only if it earns its place:

      Read a free sample chapter of my next book

Then you could draw the eye with a PS:

      P.S. Check out my latest posts on LinkedIn

Test and learn

Testing helps here. Two messages may work better than three, or one over two, because too much choice creates friction and every extra element may steal attention from what’s already there.

Make a point of trying something different each month. Make sure you only change one variable so you have a clear idea of what works. Always have a hypothesis to test. For instance, add a free trial to drive up course enquiries or change to one  single powerful message over two or three. Don’t just remove or add a random element(s).

Designing your signature

Design needn’t cost. You don’t need a signature generator or a subscription tool. Faraldo built hers as a three-column table in Word. Google Docs does a similar job. Just copy and paste into your email client’s signature settings.

Take care with images. A logo or headshot dropped straight into a signature may get flagged as an attachment, blocked by default, or shown as a broken box until or unless the recipient clicks ‘download images’.

Images, if you use them, must be hosted properly: a stable URL on your own site or a reliable image host, sized small (under 20-30KB). Always test the finished signature across Gmail, Outlook and a phone mail app first. A signature that shows a red X to half your readers is a poor look.

One signature per hat

If you write commercial copy and fiction under the same name, don’t force one signature to do both jobs. Keep a version for client work that points at your services, and a separate one for newsletter replies or submissions that points at your book or your Substack. Most email services make this very easy.

Useful reading 

Useful advice on social proof, copy, optimising for mobile and CTAs:

• Using Email Signatures as a Marketing Tool: Tips for Promoting Your Latest Offers
• Useful info on tools: How to Create A Professional Email Signature for Your Business
• Using content hooks to drive passive interest: Blogger Email Signature That Makes an Impression
• Free email signature generator: How to design a professional email signature for freelancers

BIO – Dan Brotzel’s latest novels are Thank You For The Days and The Wolf in the Woods. He also writes widely on Medium

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