Email signature examples for small business owners

A business email signature sounds a bit technical. And it is especially compared to a personal email signature that has little to no branding involved. In a business, every email signature must appear professional. That’s because a professional email signature for small business owners signals what you value and, by extension, what your business values.

A small business’s email signature is more than a sign-off; it is a vital branding tool. WiseStamp is renowned for simplifying the creation of impactful email signatures, allowing small businesses to maintain professionalism and integrate marketing seamlessly.

Key takeaways

• Always keep your business email signatures mobile-optimized since most emails today are opened on smartphones.
• Smart business owners have several email signature templates for users’ needs and preferences.
• The easiest way to create professional email signatures for small businesses is with a dedicated email generator.

Examples and templates of email signatures for small businesses

Looking for inspiration for small business email signature templates? You can find some of our attractive examples below.

The impact of a templated email signature for small businesses

A templated email signature has a structure that every employee in the business uses. It includes all the essential branding and marketing information of the business, including company logo, colors, promotional banners, and disclaimers.

All the employee has to do is get the template and personalize it by filling in their name. If you’re using an email signature manager like WiseStamp, employees’ details are filled automatically, saving everyone time.

Depending on size, a business can have one template or several templates that cater to different departments, roles, or employees’ needs. However, the essence remains to ensure all business email signatures look professional and deliver the same branding and marketing messages.

In short, a template promotes compliance while helping you make the most out of your business email signatures.

How to create the right email signature template for small businesses

You can create an email signature for a small business manually or automatically using a signature generator and manager like WiseStamp.

Using a signature generator

WiseStamp’s email signature management platform will be your best bet if:

• You lack the time to set up all employees’ signatures one at a time.
• You don’t have advanced HTML and design skills to create a professional email signature from scratch.
• You want the flexibility of customizing email signatures according to different departments’ or users’ needs.
• You want to be able to scale email signatures across the team with ease.

With WiseStamp, you only connect the tool to your email provider. Doing this will import all employee details, enabling you to apply their signatures to their emails.

There’s no limit to how many business email signatures you can create using WiseStamp. And the best part is that you can group your employees however you want, whether by department, role, office location, etc.

Read this article or watch our video for more information on how it works.

Coding your business email signature

The main advantage of coding your small business owner email signature is full control over the design and element. You can customize the layout, style, fonts, and spacing without any limitations.

Follow these basic steps to create an HTML email signature from scratch:

Step 1: Structure your HTML layout properly using tables.

Step 2: Add your contact details inside the table cells.

Step 3: Insert images using absolute (not relative URLs). Ensure the images are hosted on a reliable hosting service.

Step 4: Add styling. Using inline CSS, adjust colors, font sizing, and spacing.

Step 5: Add social media icons with links, ensuring balanced spacing.

Step 6: When you’re done, copy the entire code and paste it into your Outlook email signature settings. For Gmail, you’ll need to paste the code into an HTML online editor and copy the rendered signature. Next, go to your Gmail settings and paste the rendered signature into the signature editor box.

As you can tell, creating an email signature by coding takes time. That’s because different email clients interpret HTML differently, so a lot of testing across different providers and devices is necessary to ensure consistency.

Also, if you choose this route, you’ll most likely have a single signature copied and pasted across the business. Employees can accidentally alter fonts, colors, and spacing, leading to different email signatures from the original design.

Employees can also knowingly or unknowingly modify tags (such as banners and CTAs), leading to lost marketing opportunities.

Tips on crafting the perfect email signature for small businesses

1. Use templated email signatures

Have a policy that requires all employees to use a pre-designed email signature template.

This is important for ensuring that everyone uses business-branded email signatures with the correct logo, contact information, seasonal branding, and marketing information.

To enforce compliance, use a dedicated email signature manager. A tool like WiseStamp that lets you create a list of branded email signatures that your employees can choose from, depending on their needs, will make more sense.

2. Keep it clean and readable

The best email signature for small business is designed to communicate essential information without overwhelming the reader. This requires limiting your elements to only what is necessary for your recipients.

Professional small business email signature examples use these elements:

• Name
• Title and company name
• Logo/headshot
• Contact information
• CTA
• Clickable social media links

3. Stick to your brand guidelines

Every email that’s sent from your business reflects its professionalism and credibility. A poorly designed, off-brand email signature will only damage the brand image you’re trying to create or protect.

Have a unified email signature template with your business logo, colors, fonts, and tones that you use in all other corporate communication channels. This consistency helps increase recognition in overcrowded inboxes.

4. Optimize for mobile

Most people today open emails on phones and tablets rather than on desktops. Thus, it’s only sensible that your business email signature templates look good on smartphones.

If you’re not sure how to optimize email signatures for mobile phones, use a dedicated professional business email signature tool.

5. Don’t use image-only signatures

Using a full image as a signature might seem like a quick design shortcut. But it’s one of the mistakes you should avoid if you want to create professional email signatures for your business.

For one, a solid image email signature has a low image-to-text ratio. This triggers spam filters easily, meaning your email will likely end up in the junk folder.

Second, using an image for a signature means that elements, such as banners and CTAs, won’t be clickable, leading to lost opportunities. Also, updating the signature requires creating another image and having it copied and pasted across the business, which can be time-consuming and chaotic, to say the least.

Final thoughts on email signature examples for small business owner

An email signature for a business owner should balance looks and practical use. While less is more, you don’t want your recipients to wonder how else they can contact you apart from emails. On the other hand, you don’t want an email signature so long that it takes up more space than the actual message.

Ready to create your small business email signature? WiseStamp offers the easiest way of whipping up the best HTML email signatures in minutes.

Using our advanced editor, you can choose a template and change the layout, colors, elements, fonts, and more until you get a signature that best suits your business.