A note on email signature do’s and don’ts
An email signature is a bit of content at the end of your email that identifies you and has some other helpful information in it. This text, like all text, should abide by standards.
Don’t put the content in an image. This makes the text inaccessible. Even with alt text, people can’t copy and paste the phone number or mailing address.
In fact, avoid images altogether. I know the fashion of putting logos and icons and such in your email signature is widespread. Resist.
Just type out your company name. Put in a hyperlink if you want! But by the time your email finds its way through a wide variety of platforms and software, your logo has equal chances of looking like a squished bug.
If you feel absolutely compelled to squish your logo into your email signature, please send your email to as many people and systems as possible to test it.
The challenge with email is that it’s an old part of the internet. Also, there are so many different kinds of email software systems and they all treat your content a little differently. So it can be a real challenge to get things like images in signatures to act predictably.
Coloured text is another widespread feature to avoid. Remember that lower contrast is less readable. Just use black text.
Don’ts
My professional recommendation is to avoid the following in your signature:
- coloured text, grey text
- fancy fonts
- images
- links to social channels
- prefixes for phone numbers or other redundant information
- your email
- QR codes
Signature do’s
A functioning, well built email signature is a stronger brand statement then a fancy image with colours and flashing lights. Some features that a signature could could include are:
- Full name and credentials
- Pronouns
- Name pronunciation guide
- Title
- Organizational name
- Phone number
- Website URL
- Mailing address
- Indigenous land name