With the channel of email continuing to rapidly growing, the burden of maintaining a consistent brand image increasingly rests on the versatility of email signatures.

More and more businesses now understand the effectiveness of corporate emails and how they are a prized asset when it comes to stepping up global branding and marketing efforts.

That’s why I will discuss how companies can use email signatures to their full potential and benefit from increased brand exposure through direct connectivity.

Improving connectivity

After more than 18 months of restrictions, employees and customers alike miss the additional satisfaction that a face-to-face conversation brings.

With modern email signatures, the aim is to bring as many in-person characteristics to corporate email as possible. For example, something as simple as embedding a photo helps recipients match a positive interaction to a face and leads to a more welcoming experience.

Including links to individual and company pages within a signature offers the chance for senders and recipients to network and stay in touch after a fruitful interaction.

Psychology plays a huge role in the written word. It’s easy to misconstrue the intention behind written text, so meanings can easily get mixed up – which can, unfortunately, sour a good interaction.

Whether it's in your email signature or in the message body , exploring one tone of voice can help convey your message in the way it was intended.

Looking at consistency

Creating a consistent brand experience is key to establishing long-term success and customer loyalty. 

When it comes to delivering this experience, there are three key rules to bear in mind. If companies understand consumer behaviours, how to communicate effectively, and how design influences change, they stand a strong chance of achieving long-standing success.

The flexibility of modern email signatures means they can help strengthen these areas through direct interactions with employees.

Email signatures can also be tailored to advertise products and convince customers to convert. They're also a low-cost method of reaching a broader customer base.

Having a crisp design with links to relevant information pages and social channels helps influence customer behaviour, expands communication options, and helps establish a positive user experience that keeps people coming back.

Not having a consistent brand – or any brand at all – hurts an organisation's bottom line in more ways than one. With 77% of consumers making purchases based purely on branding, having a distinct, instantly recognisable brand image is crucial to growth.

With consumer trust rapidly decreasing, the impetus is there for companies to proactively change or face reputational damage and lower profits.

A uniformed response

Part of establishing a consistent experience is implementing a centralised strategy to make changes in one place. 

Whatever the purpose of your signature may be – whether it’s one focused on the legal disclaimer or geared towards marketing – different departments often use personalised email signatures.

For example, a sales department might be looking to push a promotional signature that flaunts certain products and the best deals available. On the other hand, a legal department’s signature might be more conservative in its approach and focus design efforts towards the disclaimer.

Manually editing the contents of an email signature to tailor it for recipients is not only inefficient but can easily lead to an inconsistent brand experience.

Using a centralised email signature solution allows businesses to roll out templates with consistent branding on every email, while allowing for different design variations per  department.

A marketing and customer service hub

Customer feedback is a fundamental building block for company growth. If businesses are not listening to their customer base, they're destined to fail. Luckily, acquiring the feedback you need isn’t that difficult.

Email signatures are the perfect location to place a simple 1-click survey or a simple traffic-light performance indicator to get actionable feedback.

This way, respondents feel heard and the business gets the chance to gain crucial feedback. With email signatures, that information can also be relayed to individuals for personal KPIs.

With the ability to share information directly with recipients with every email, the marketing potential of signatures increases significantly.

Email signatures are a fantastic place to show off your credentials. The needs of modern consumers are changing as global issues take precedence in their decisions.

For example, a business can benefit from displaying awards or showing a commitment towards ethical or environmental production methods. Through this, companies gain positive exposure by spreading a message in the hope that other companies follow suit.

Social media is often a haven for company news, highlights and, in some cases, the latest promotions. Providing links to these channels via your email signature is crucial. Not only does this help build a rapport with customers – giving them an informal sphere to engage with your company – it also helps drive brand loyalty