An email signature should be considered as a part of your branding initiative. Each component part, from your name to your address, from your website to color and type of font you use, should be thought about and arranged appropriately to communicate who you are to world. Everything should have a consistent look and feel. And, most importantly, it should contain a variety of ways to contact you. Make it easy on your email recipients. People are busy; when they need or want to contact you, make sure they can find information quickly and effortlessly. Otherwise, you risk possibility that they will close out your email thinking they will get back to it at a future time which ends up never materializing. Or even worse, they will contact someone else who has provided their information in a more useful presentation. Consider some of these features which make for an effective email signature and make sure yours passes test.

1. What’s your name?

Put your name first. Use your first and last name as people usually address you, using any nickname between two, if appropriate. For example, one might write, Nicholas “Nick” Parker. Include any titles that you might use either before or after your name. You might want to include initials of any professional designations that you have like CPA or CTM, which stand for Certified Public Accountant and Competent Toastmaster. Avoid putting initials that represent your masters or bachelor’s degrees as these are names of degrees not professional designations and it makes you appear unprofessional. The only exception to this is if you have a PhD. Even with that designation, you can precede your name with Dr. and eliminate PhD after your name. If you have a number of professional designations, only include most relevant ones. Too many initials can detract from your name and make presentation appear tacky. You might also want to include your email address directly below your name. While most people will merely respond to your email by hitting reply, others will want to click on an email link. And, sometimes, your email might be sent out under another name (alias), but any replies should be made specifically to you. In that case, it’s important to make sure that recipients can contact you easily and directly.

2. Who do you work for?

Make sure you include your company name. It’s amazing how many emails I receive that have a name and contact information, but they fail to list their company name. While I could search around for company’s name or figure it out from email address, its not always that straight forward or obvious. Don’t make readers guess at who you represent or work for. People are busy and they can easily receive hundreds of emails per day. If you want them to know you, then make it easy by providing information in your email signature.

3. Where are you from?

The Internet makes this easy and accessible. In another business, for instance, you would have to take real effort to find out what competition is doing. One of jobs of marketing department of a property management firm, for instance, is to call around and go visit other apartment complexes to see what they offer, for how much, what specials they’re having, how their staff behaves, and what amenities are. If suddenly everyone is offering ceiling fans and you’re not, this is not good.

If you’re an Internet business, it’s fairly easy to check out another business’ website to see what’s going on. Google your product or field and find names of others doing same thing you do. If they rank high enough to place on first couple of pages of a search engine, they’re worth taking a look at.

Visit at least 10 websites. Here are some of things to look for: