Whether you own a small business or a large enterprise, there is always something you can do to further improve your email marketing strategy.
After all, there's so much that goes into an effective email communication campaign. From understanding why customers click through in the first place to creating eye-catching designs that stand out from the crowd, every step can take you closer to a successful sale.
Although they appear at the end of an email message, it's crucial to not neglect your professional email footer. A well-organized and optimized email footer design can be a major game changer when it comes to boosting your company branding and driving conversions.
If you already have an email footer, some simple tweaks can help you see results faster than ever before. If you have yet to create one, don't worry! We will take you through the basics of creating a compelling email footer and show you a few of the best email footer examples to get you started.
Adding essential elements like your company address, unsubscribe button, and social media icons can improve trust, brand recognition, and compliance with email regulations.
What is an email footer?
An email footer, also known as an email signature (or basic email signature), is a section at the bottom of emails that includes your business' contact details, mailing address, legal disclaimers, social media links, clickable links to your business website, an unsubscribe option, and more. You can even feature a simple message in your email footer that appeals directly to your customers and tells them more about your brand's mission.
Generally, effective email footers help set the foundation for long-term business success. Pair them with proven email templates with responsive layouts to take your email campaigns to the next level. Consider using a powerful tool like an email signature generator or email footer creator to save valuable time.
Why are email footers important?
Email marketing should always be a vital part of your marketing efforts, and optimizing your email footer or email signature can keep you way ahead of your competition. Take a closer look at a few of the top reasons why:
- Reinforce your brand identity: Don't forget to include your company name and show off your company logo in your email footers to remind customers on what your brand is all about. Choose a specific, limited color palette and add a tagline with every message sent. Highlight your social media icons and website link, so your customers can connect with you on other platforms. In general, a well-branded email footer can help customers recognize you with ease. Tools like an email footer creator or email signature generator can simplify this process.
- Build trust: Including contact information, such as your business registered company address and phone number, demonstrates transparency on your behalf, allowing your business to appear more credible and trustworthy. Emails that appear unprofessional can even end up in spam folders. Adding your email address and registration details reinforces legitimacy.
- Easy communication: Having clear contact details available for your customers, including your company's physical address, social media buttons, and phone number, can also help them get in touch more easily. This can improve customer satisfaction by shortening order inquiry timelines and allowing for more brand-customer interaction. Clickable links to an email preference center or FAQ page are also helpful.
- Legal compliance: The CAN-SPAM Act and other email regulations, depending on where your company is based, mandate that unsubscribe links and other required legal information should always be included in your email footers. A legally compliant email footer can keep your business out of trouble. You may also want to include confidentiality notices and a reference to your privacy policy to meet privacy laws.
- Social media promotion: Adding social media links encourages your email recipients to follow and engage across other social media platforms, increasing potential leads and conversions further down the line. It can even help you gather social proof.
- Drive website traffic: Including a website link generates more clicks and traffic for your business. Adding a navigation to your website's homepage, FAQs, and store can make it more likely for email recipients to pay you a visit.
Optimizing your email footers and email signatures can give you multiple advantages when promoting your business among existing and potential clients alike. You can also experiment with different types of email footers depending on the type of email and its frequency.
Make sure you take a look at the best email footer examples and start making upgrades to your own.
How to optimize your email footer
- Feature your logo
- Keep it simple and consistent
- Make it easily viewable on mobile devices
- Be mindful of hierarchy and spacing
- Include a Call to Action (CTA)
- Test different versions
- Use tracking and analytics tools
- Keep it up to date
If you're looking to get the most out of your email footer, then optimizing it is key. Here are some best practices that will help ensure your email footer looks its absolute best:
Feature your logo
Your logo should be front and center in every outgoing email to reinforce your brand's mission and identity. Make sure the graphics look sharp and high-quality. They should be sized properly for whatever device it's viewed on.
Keep it simple and consistent
The design of your email footer should match up with the rest of your company branding - use the same fonts, colors, and imagery across all of your email footers. Keep in mind that a limited color palette or simple pattern makes relevant links or text stand out more clearly.
Make it easily viewable on mobile devices
Make your email footer mobile-friendly. Since most people open emails on their smartphones, it's crucial to make sure that all email content is displayed correctly, no matter the phone screen. Avoid using small text or images, and use responsive layouts. Utilize tel:links for phone numbers, which enable easy dialing directly from smartphones.
Be mindful of hierarchy and spacing
Organize the content in your email footer by utilizing different sizes, colors, and formatting to create a hierarchy. By providing adequate spacing between individual elements, your customers will be able to scan through essential information quickly and effortlessly. This makes essential details like the unsubscribe button, contact info, and privacy policy easier to find.
Include a Call to Action (CTA)
Enhance your email footer even further by including CTAs that relate directly to your company's campaign objectives. Invite your customers over to your social media platforms, ask them for feedback, or redirect them to product pages. You can even ask them to view a popular blog post on your website, or update their email preferences through a visible email preference center.
Test different versions
Ensure success through A/B testing. Use A/B testing to discover which types of email footers] work best for your email platform. Test button placements, colors, and CTAs for better performance.
Use tracking and analytics tools
To gain valuable insights into your website's traffic sources and user behavior, make sure to enable tracking tools and trackable links. This information can guide your future marketing decisions and help you understand your audience better.
Additionally, closely monitoring key metrics in your marketing emails, such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and bounce rates is critical to making data-driven adjustments and improving your overall performance.
Keep it up-to-date
Stay on top of the ever-changing email marketing trends and meet the needs of your customers by ensuring your footer information is up-to-date. Whether it's your company address, logo, or legal notices, your footer should reflect current email regulations.
3 exceptional email footer examples
A professional email footer is crucial when it comes to your email marketing campaigns. As mentioned previously, not only does it provide essential contact details and legal information, but it can also act as a great branding tool. Here are four well-designed email footer examples from different industries that demonstrate email footer best practices.
Airbnb's email footer example
Airbnb's email footer is a great example of effective design. It not only looks visually pleasing, but it's also optimized for mobile and easy to navigate. The primary goal of this email footer is to encourage users to download the Airbnb app, and it does this seamlessly with quick access to both the Apple Store and Google Play shop.
WeWork’s email footer example
WeWork's email footer exemplifies the importance of hierarchy and spacing in design. By grouping information into easily digestible chunks, customers can quickly find the specific information they are looking for. Additionally, the footer prominently displays the company's slogan, providing customers with a better understanding of WeWork's mission and values. The strategic placement of the slogan reinforces brand recognition and helps establish a deeper connection with the customer.
Have you checked out National Geographic's email footer example?
Not only is it modern and stylish with their iconic black and yellow color palette, but it also aims to engage with their customers. The email footer encourages you to share your thoughts in a survey through a bold CTA and even provides easy-to-find links to their social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Plus, they thoughtfully highlight the unsubscribe link, making it hassle-free for anyone who wants to stop receiving emails. After all, leaving a good impression means never frustrating your users.
Take your email marketing campaigns to the next level
Optimizing your email footer is a key component of any effective email communication strategy. From featuring your logo prominently to keeping it simple and consistent, there are several email footer best practices that can help you achieve better branding, engagement, and conversion rates.
If you're looking to harness the benefits of effective email marketing and a well-designed email footer, Mailchimp is the perfect solution for you. With Mailchimp's email marketing software, you'll have access to a robust set of tools for creating and delivering personalized welcome emails and other targeted messages to your audience.
To get started, take a look at our comprehensive email marketing guide.