What is an HTML email signature, and how do I design one?

Guest post by Robyn Woods-Child, MD of Parrot Digital

While seemingly a small piece of the marketing puzzle, email signatures are some of the most visible branded materials a company can own. After all, every time a customer interacts with your staff via email, they catch a glimpse of your brand – and its quality – via your signatures. But with a quick search you’ll see numerous companies offering different HTML signature generators – some templated, some with drag-and-drop editors, and then companies that offer totally bespoke designs. So what does that mean, and which is right for you?

What are HTML email signatures?

Most major email signature generators provide some type of HTML service. This is because simply building a signature within your email software (i.e. Outlook or Gmail) or attaching an image at the bottom of every email can cause problems. For instance, your signature may display incorrectly in different email clients, the image might cause loading speed issues at the receiver’s end, or buttons that should be clickable (i.e. social media or promotional links) aren’t.

HTML, on the other hand, is designed to work more fluidly across platforms and devices. This is because these signatures are built more like a website than a graphic. They are compressed without sacrificing quality (improving loading speeds), and display correctly across various devices or email clients. Additionally, using a signature generator such as Rocketseed, images can also be stripped from email replies so as to reduce the archive weight of the chain and maintain optimal speeds during those longer conversations.

HTML signatures also incorporate branding, personal images and social media icons, as well as custom links and tracking codes.

Key benefits of an HTML email signature

1. Customisability: HTML is very flexible, allowing you to build a signature that perfectly meets your brand and marketing objectives. Because code is recognised across platforms, it will allow you to embed graphics and images that display correctly on all devices.
2. Easy to update: With the right email signature provider, you can instantly update sender information, promotional banners, link URLs, UTM codes and more with the click of a button – automating the change to all applicable senders in your company.
3. Clickable links: You can make different parts of the signature clickable. Examples include email addresses, social media, website URLs, promotions, maps, or business card downloads.
4. Click tracking: A custom HTML email signature will allow you to track each click by adding a UTM to the URL. Rocketseed has built in analytics to quickly build reports on campaign performance.
5. Reduced email size: By stripping images from replies, HTML signatures can reduce the size of an email chain and improve load speeds.

Our best email signature sizes guide highlights ideal dimensions, the best file formats, font sizes and more for your email banners and signatures.

HTML email signatures: Template, drag-and-drop, or bespoke?

Now that you know the ins and outs of HTML email signatures, you’ll need to decide what type of generator you want to use.

1. Templates: Pre-made email signature designs within which you can make customisations, such as colour, font and images.
2. Drag-and-drop: An app that lets you build your own template using custom modules that fit together into a wider design. Think of it as lots of little templates that you can put together in an order that you prefer.
3. Bespoke: Get the signature that 100% aligns with your brand. Create custom signatures with the perfect style, layout and content.

Parrot Digital is Australasia’s exclusive provider of Rocketseed – one of the world’s leading HTML email signature tools.

With Rocketseed, we can provide totally bespoke, on-brand email signatures that get the right message in the right place at the right time, designed to work perfectly on every email client. Plus, with our one-click Google UTM tracking codes, in-built detailed instant reports and custom promotional banners, you can get more from your emails with Rocketseed.

Are you in Australia or New Zealand? To find out what Parrot Digital can do for your business, or to receive a free quote, get in touch today. Otherwise, book a demo with Rocketseed below.