Marketing
March 23, 2021

Why are email signatures an effective “touch point”?

By
Amandine Fernandez
Head of Acquisition
Each day, employees receive an average of 121 emails, and send about 40. With an open rate near 100% and an unrivalled ROI, the email signature is the best place for Call-to-Action Marketing. Email remains the preferred channel of communication for speaking directly with prospects, customers, partners, and colleagues—even if a conversation tends to develop further on tools like Teams or Slack. E-mail is the undisputed winner when it comes to 1-to-1 professional exchanges outside of the company.

Employees send an average of 40 a day, and (almost) all of them are opened. In the age of social media and video, mobile first and voice assistants, email has never been more popular—though its demise has been foretold many times, it's still going stronger than ever. The first email was sent in 1971, and though much evolved, this platform has experienced a revival in recent years, thanks in large part to Substack's reinvention and monetization of online newsletters. So much so that, according to a recent study conducted by Twilio’s Send Grid, 95% of Millennials (25-35 years old) and members of Generation Z (18-24 years old) say that email is essential in their everyday lives.

Choosing the right “touch point”

A "touch point" is a moment of interaction between a brand and an audience. Even a few decades ago, these interactions could be counted on one hand. This isn't the case today. Banner ads, TV spots, packaging, point-of-sale marketing, brand websites, social networks, email, in-store purchases...the list grows as communication channels increase. But now, it's become a major issue for brands to ensure consistency across all these "touch points. "And though there are a whole host of interaction opportunities, a brand can't leverage them all equally. Hence, the interest in focusing on the most effective—email. Of course, each "touch point" has its own functions and objectives, and each corresponds to a particular stage of the marketing funnel. For example, banner ads might be better for awareness, and social networks for nurturing. From this perspective, email is also used for nurturing, reaching out to audiences already familiar with the brand. This channel allows for very precise targeting based on audience data. Thanks to its ease of use, it offers endless possibilities for personalization and creation. And it's a particularly effective tool for directing a prospect to another "touch point" using CTAs.

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…and choosing the right CTA

Mass emailing is widespread, but it's professional 1-to-1 emails that have truly fantastic reach. To illustrate—while the average mass-email open rate is about 23%, the average open rate for 1-to-1 professional email is almost 100%. So even with an equivalent click-through rate (usually around 4%), the total number of clicks is at least 4 times higher. But business emails aren't supposed to introduce marketing content too quickly or too obviously. The majority of the content is practical, commercial, or relational. The point has to be clear—let your content speak for itself. The only part of an email that lends itself, even a little bit, to brand content is the signature.

Email signature communication campaign - marketing

In this section, the writer reveals their identity and title, but the signature has also become the preferred place for a company to express its creativity. In the form of a banner showing their brand's visual style, a company can present its offers, achievements, and news. By using an email signature management solution like Letsignit, you can customize the banner for individual recipients and include a CTA linking to a web page. Well-conceived, well-placed, and clearly identifiable, this CTA can generate huge traffic given the number of emails sent every day. It's the perfect place to reach a familiar audience. Even though it's a 50-year-old marketing channel, email has never been better for generating traffic. Professional 1-to-1 emails generate the highest opening rates—more than email campaigns, more than newsletters. Email marketing has managed to make a place for itself thanks to signatures and well-placed CTAs. The user hardly has to think about it. This mode of communication is simple, free from algorithms, and allows you to establish close, authentic, and direct communication. In short: it's in tune with the times.

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Sources: https://www.benchmarkemail.com/blog/why-email-marketing-is-your-most-valuable-brand-touchpoint/sengrid.comhttps://www.salecycle.com/blog/featured-en-us/18-essential-email-marketing-statistics/

About the author
Amandine is the Head of Acquisition at Letsignit! Initially a content specialist, she now actively contributes to the profitability of acquisition channels: SEO, SEA, SMA, SMO... Amandine is also one of the pillars of Marketing at Letsignit! For more than 5 years, she has been participating in and initiating marketing projects and campaigns that systematically reflect her vision, writing style, and creativity (which can also be seen in all of her colorful outfits that brighten up the day of everyone she meets).
About Letsignit
With Letsignit email signature manager, connect with your audience in a way that's on-brand and personal, while driving quality lead generation.
Frequently
asked questions
1
Is it possible to track the number of clicks on email signatures?

Yes, with the 'Campaigns' offer, it is possible to track the number of clicks on the email signatures of all your employees in the 'Statistics' area of the platform.

You can then access a detailed or global view of the number of clicks on the email signatures of each employee. You can use the search option to target a specific signature or a given period. Finally, you have the possibility to export all statistics to an Excel document.

If you launch campaigns with banners inserted in your email signatures, you can also access their performance via this same space.

2
Can we add links to social networks, our website, and appointment-setting applications such as Calendly?

With Letsignit, you can easily add social network icons in your collaborators' email signatures and link to your company pages. Also, our "attributes" feature allows you to manage personalized URLs for each of your collaborators such as their individual LinkedIn profile.

And that's not all: you can add links to an appointment-setting application, allow your customers to leave reviews easily, and integrate our 'Chat on Teams' widget to let anyone start a discussion via Microsoft Teams chat.

3
Can employees update their signature information themselves (number, function, etc.)?

It’s up to you! As an administrator of the Letsignit platform, you choose whether or not to grant modification rights to your employees. These permissions are managed on an attribute-by-attribute basis, which means that you can decide to allow the employee to change their phone number, but not the address of your premises, for example.

This feature applies to all attributes in your directory, including custom attributes created on Letsignit. When your employees change one or more attributes, your directory is obviously not affected.

4
Why it is important to standardize our email signatures on a large scale to ensure our identity and brand image?

It often happens that employees make their email signature their own: custom format, bad fonts, colors inconsistent with the brand standards... all of this has an impact on your brand!

A consistent visual identity is considered authentic and outperforms a perceived weak one by 20%. And, your customers are 2.4 times more likely to buy your products.

With Letsignit, take back control over your brand identity by standardizing all your email signatures. Our tool has many features that allow you to customize your signatures by department, by audience or by subsidiary. Not to mention the possibility of carrying out campaigns within your email signatures thanks to our Campaign offer.

5
What is the user experience like for our employees?

What is the user experience like for our employees?

  • If you opt for the Letsignit Add-in for Outlook, they will have a dedicated space in their Outlook account where they will be able to view the signatures and campaigns assigned to them.
  • If you opt for the Letsignit Desktop APP, they will be able to preview all their signatures and campaigns in this space. If they want to change their default signature to another one when sending an email, this will be done in their signature library in Outlook.

In both cases:

  • They preview their signature before sending an email and choose from signatures assigned to them.
  • Based on the permissions granted, they will also be able to modify their personal information such as their name, position, or address in these spaces.

In short, they have autonomy in their email signature, but you keep control on the field, signatures, and banners they can edit or use.

6
Can my employees have multiple signatures available to them?

With our "multi-signature" feature, your employees can benefit from multiple email signatures. No technical manipulation is required. Thanks to our Add-in for Outlook or the desktop app, they can change their email signatures as they wish with just a few clicks.

Regarding the creation of email signatures, you can make several variations such as:

Everything has been thought of to go further in the personalization process based on the recipient of your emails.

7
Regarding “Green IT,” have you implemented measures to limit the digital footprint of email signatures?

If sending emails has an impact, non-optimized email signatures also have an impact. An unsuitable format or an image that is too heavy considerably increases the size of your signatures... and therefore, your emails.

As a responsible economic actor, we contribute to reducing our CO2 emissions and those of our customers in several ways:

  • Optimization of the weight of signatures and campaigns in emails.
  • Green features: lightening of signatures during response/transfer emails, possibility of not embedding images, implementation of lighter signatures for internal exchanges.
  • Integration of a 'Switch to Teams' widget to encourage your employees to continue their exchanges via chat, rather than email.

As we are increasingly involved in sustainability initiatives, our priority in 2023 is to develop even more green IT functionality.

8
Regarding “Green IT,” have you implemented measures to limit the digital footprint of email signatures?

If sending emails has an impact, non-optimized email signatures also have an impact. An unsuitable format or an image that is too heavy considerably increases the size of your signatures... and therefore, your emails.

As a responsible economic actor, we contribute to reducing our CO2 emissions and those of our customers in several ways:

  • Optimization of the weight of signatures and campaigns in emails.
  • Green features: lightening of signatures during response/transfer emails, possibility of not embedding images, implementation of lighter signatures for internal exchanges.
  • Integration of a 'Switch to Teams' widget to encourage your employees to continue their exchanges via chat, rather than email.

As we are increasingly involved in sustainability initiatives, our priority in 2023 is to develop even more green IT functionality.

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Looking for a tool to manage your email signatures?

Letsignit allows you to create, manage, and deploy email signatures for all your employees in just a few clicks.
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