How you can turn your email signature into a digital marketing masterpiece

You send tens or hundreds of emails every day, and the odds are that your email signature already has information about who you are, so why aren't you taking this opportunity to market yourself or your brand? You should improve your email signature today.

Here are 5 key points on how to turn your boring plain text email signature, into a digital marketing mona lisa:

1. Make it pretty

We all know that looks aren't everything, but it is looks that catch the eye right? With plain text being a thing of the past, a HTML email signature allows you to use color in your signature. Use this to your advantage by highlighting some key text and matching it to your branding color scheme.

A fantastic example of this is Jake Crowley's signature below which he has branded to the company color.

2. Include your website link

The internet is the most popular method of advertising and marketing today, but with so much information it can be hard for people to find what they're looking for. Having a direct link to your website from your email signature not only drives more traffic to your website, but it also helps to expand your brand awareness.

3. Don't be anti-social

Growing your brand's social presence is key in today's society, be sure to include links to your social media pages.

The email signature below has a great use of links to Jake's company social media pages which helps create more brand presence as well as those pages being a single click away rather than having to search yourself.

4. Promote your brand

Businesses come in all different shapes and sizes, regardless of whether you offer a physical product or a service, you still want to promote your brand and increase awareness, that's why you're reading this after all right?

The main purpose of an email signature is to provide information at the end of an email as a form of contact, let's call it a digital business card. Now in the real world, you likely wouldn't hand someone a flyer for 20% off a photo shoot when you give them your business card, however you may tell them about some of the latest work you've done. So what better way to communicate this digitally than having some images or banners at the end of your signature?

Below are some great examples of how to use banners or images to promote your brand without being in your face.

Thomas Johanssen has hit the nail on the head with his use of images at the bottom of his email signature by displaying some of his latest photography work which also link through to his gallery.

Emily Treacy has designed some navigation like buttons for the bottom of her email signature which link directly to the specific pages on her website. What a great way to promote her online store and create exposure for the products she offers!

There are many ways to promote your brand via the use of images and banners such as the ones above. Here are some strategies for you to try:

• Image gallery
• Discount banners
• Upcoming events info
• Store links
• New products and/or services
• Display accreditation's and awards

5. Track your clicks

Wouldn't it be great if you knew who was visiting your website when you hand them your business card? Unfortunately you can't, however we're talking about digital marketing here so we absolutely can! This final tip is possibly the most under utilized strategy for digital marketing when it comes to email.

Track the clicks on your signature! If you are serious about digital marketing, you will already be using Google Analytics on your website so why wouldn't you track the clicks on your email signature?

Adding Google Analytics tracking to your email signature will allow you to see just how many people use the links in your email and from those statistics you can improve your email signature and brand awareness. Change your banner weekly, see which one gets the best response, run promotions and see how much your CTR (click-through-rate) increases. The power is now in your hands.