Do you wish to learn how to create a professional email signature in Office 365? If yes, then this article is for you. Email signatures are an integral part of the business environment. They serve to enhance trust in your brand while providing useful information to your contacts. We have previously highlighted how to add social media links to your email signatures. That’s only one aspect of the kind of information that you can include in yours. In this post, we are focusing on the creation of a professional email signature. What is it and how do you create it in Outlook 365?
What is a professional email signature?
A professional email signature can be thought of as the digital version of your business card. Like all other email signatures, professional email signatures are placed at the bottom of your email. The aim is to give the people who are receiving your email as much information as possible about you as an individual.
What information should be included in a professional email signature?
Information on a professional email signature is usually more or less similar to what is found on a business card. The following is some of the information that should be included in every professional email signature;
- Your first name and surname
- Your photo
- Professional information
- Company name
- Job Title
- Photo or company logo
- Phone number
- Social media links
- Physical address
- Banner image
- In some instances, you may need to include a disclaimer in your professional email signature
Your full name
A professional email signature needs to have your full name. In fact, this should be the first item on the signature. We have already noted that a professional email signature should be formatted more or less in the same way that you would a business card.
Your photo
A professional email signature also needs to have your photo. Make sure the photo looks professional. That’s not to say only a photo of you wearing a suit will do. If you are into construction, your photo can feature you at one of your work sites, wearing your work clothes.
Professional title
You can also include your professional titles as part of your email signature. As an example, if you are a Doctor or a Professor, then this is something that you will mention as part of your name.
Company name
Your professional email signature should also have your company’s name. The idea is to promote your brand as much as possible.
Company logo
The company’s name can be replaced by a logo. Or the two can go hand in hand. The logo is particularly useful in that it helps cement your company’s profile in people’s minds. The next time they see that company’s logo, they will be able to easily identify who it represents.
Job title
The job title should be the other item on your email signature. It tells the people to who you are reaching out with the position that you hold within your company.
Phone number
Aside from the aesthetics, professional emails are there to generate leads for you or for your business. What you need to do is to make sure that the people who read your signature have ways of reaching out to you. The most obvious of these ways is the phone number. Make sure that the number that you put on there is easily reachable. You can also include multiple numbers.
Email address
Along the same vein, you should also include an email address as part of your professional signature. Email is one of the major communication tools within the business world. Here, it pays to have an address that’s hosted on your company’s domain. Having a Gmail or a Yahoo email address is all very well, but it doesn’t seem that professional.
Social media links
Social media has become an important part of the business world in today’s environment. Most businesses now have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other platforms. You will need to include links to your social media pages as part of your professional email signature. This allows people to further explore your company and to share the information that they gather with their peers.
Your website’s URL
This is an optional component within a professional email signature. If you are creating one as an individual, then you may not have a website. However, you may wish to include the URL to your company’s website. Again, the idea here is to get people to further explore your brand by visiting all of its digital representations.
Banner Image
Utilise the empty space in your emails to have a signature that not only helps with Branding and Marketing but supports your current Sales campaigns. Create a beautiful banner image that supports your marketing campaigns and take advantage of the untapped opportunity.
Your physical address
Most people are wary of dealing with companies that do not have physical offices. As such, you should include your company’s actual address as part of your email signature. This should be an address where people can send you items via traditional mail.
Disclaimers
Email disclaimers are there to protect you from the legal ramifications of having the contents of your emails seen by unauthorized people. You have the option of including a disclaimer as part of your professional email signature.
How to add a professional email signature in Office 365
Those are some of the things that you need to include on a professional email signature. But how do you add one in Office 365? The following is how to do it;
- Choose a preferred template for your signature from the Microsoft Templates library. These templates are free.
- Once you have downloaded the template, you will need to sign into Outlook 365.
- On your dashboard, click on the Settings gear.
- Search for signature and open Email signature.
- You can now create a new signature.
- Upload the template that you downloaded.
- Edit the template to feature your own details.
- Click on Save.
Make sure your email signature looks professional
So far in this article, we have shown you how to create a professional email signature. We noted that the easiest way of doing this is by downloading a template and then updating that with your own information.
The reason why we went the template route is because a lot of email signatures that people create on their own end up appearing unprofessional. That can be a huge disservice to you and to your brand. Your email signature needs to be impeccable.
It’s something that we know very well at Crossware. We are one of the few companies out there that specialize in the provision of professional email signature solutions. With our software, you can create email signatures that work well both on desktop and mobile devices.
We also give you the ability to centrally manage email signatures for your Organization. Our focus is on Microsoft 365 and on Microsoft Exchange and HCL Domino. With us, you can create consistent email signatures, including professional email signatures.
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