How to create a minimalist, yet professional email signature
Learn from examples and insider tips how to make the most of your email signature using the bare minimum
The email signature is one of the misunderstood marketing tools in business correspondence. Too many people either forgo this element or misuse it, taking this space to write their entire life story.
For the best results in both your email marketing and general communications, you need to redesign your stamp and adopt a minimalist email signature. Here, I’ll tell you how to do just that.
What is a minimalist email signature?
A minimalist email signature is a perfect remedy for excessive information in communications with colleagues and potential clients. It contains only the most critical information about you and your business:
- Full, legal name
- Workplace
- Job title
- Company logo or a professional photo of you
- Simple contact information
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A well balanced minimal email signature | Made with WiseStamp
A minimalist email signature displays this information succinctly and clearly. So, the person you are communicating with can quickly identify the fundamental means by which to seek your services.
Minimal email signature templates you can use as your own
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Who is a minimalist email signature good for?
Professionals, both new and established across all industries, can benefit from the use of a simple email signature. Why?
Emails are one of the most common means by which we communicate with others in our industry. Whether that be retail, manufacturing, or software-as-a-service (SaaS), prospects and potential partners must have a way to quickly retrieve information about your business.
Benefits of using a minimal email signature design
To the surprise of many, a minimalist email signature is a crucial marketing tool! Emails have been proven to be one of the most effective methods of communication with customers and potential collaborators, so a simple signature is the key to solidifying these professional relationships.
Due to the usefulness of this widely overlooked tool, you may even be able to save some overhead costs on marketing campaigns. How is this possible? According to a 2019 study by MailChimp, average email open rates range anywhere between 15% to almost 29%. By sending emails alone, you’ve already impacted about one-quarter of your target audience at no cost whatsoever.
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Minimalist email signature with call to action link | Made with WiseStamp
You can include a link to your blog, online store, or another form of website in your minimalist email signature, too. This will significantly enhance your lead generation and boost the number of click-throughs for your platform, growing your audience, and improving your site performance.
The applications of minimalist email signatures are virtually (no pun intended) endless concerning the efficiency of your email marketing campaigns and general business communications.
Downsides of using a minimal email signature design
Truthfully, there are not many drawbacks to using minimalist email signatures. These disadvantages tend to arise only when the signature is done wrong:
A lack of optimization for mobile use:
If a signature is too large for the screen, for example, and displays only half of your phone number or website URL, you have failed to appropriately distribute the necessary information for your customers to do business with you.
How to remedy this:
Use Wisestamp’s free online email signature generator to create a professional minimalist signature. Our software ensures that your signature will be presented perfectly on any screen and in any email planform. If you intend to code your signature yourself, test your email signature before committing to a final design and sending it along with your regular correspondence.
Difficulties with display between platforms:
No matter how simplified you make your email signature, it may run into problems between the various email services.
How to remedy this:
Look into the display requirements between the leading platforms, listed below. They each vary in the way they display email signatures, so ensure that your chosen design is optimized across various platforms. Using Wisestamp will allow you to skip all this. When you make your signature with our tool and we take care of fitting your signature design to each platform.
- Gmail
- Yahoo
- Outlook
- MacMail
5 Examples of how to make a good minimalist email signature
Making an attractive minimalist email signature does have to take hours of your time. In fact, it can take as little as 5 minutes with the right tool! As you deliberate on the exact design you wish to see on your signature, consider the following attributes that will transform the effectiveness of your email correspondence:
- Large (NOT gigantic!) font for crucial information, small font for secondary material
- Where possible replace text label (Mobile, Address etc.) with icons or a capital letter
- A simple, yet strong color palette (no more than 2 colors)
- Rounded corners to avoid harsh edges
Let’s take a look at these attributes in action:
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Minimalist email signature for added credibility | Made with WiseStamp
This design uses an incredibly simplified color palette, maximizing white space, so it is not overwhelming to the viewer.
The professional photo is of crucial importance since his work as a freelancer requires a degree of trust before doing business. A picture of you smiling is a great way to create a feeling of familiarity and credibility.
Notice that only critical contact information is included, so others know exactly how to contact him where he’s always available.
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Stacked information example for easier scanning | Made with WiseStamp
This signature maximizes the white space even more than the last, so much that it seems only the left third of the stamp is displayed. This is highly advantageous and critical to a minimalist design – it takes up as little space as possible and utilizes the various font sizes to emphasize Bonnie’s identity.
Notice that she’s using a capital letter to represent a full label. M for mobile. E for email, and W for website. This saves space without loosing clarity.
She also made a subtle use of social media icons to offer her readers extra insight into her repertoire.
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The “minimalest” minimalist signature | Made with WiseStamp
This example is definitely the “minimalest” minimalist email signature you can make. Clinton offers his readers only the essentials that they need in order know what he’s about and how to get ahold of him.
This signature is a good option for CEOs and executives that don’t want to hand out their personal phone number and address (see more tips for CEOs, owners and management here)
A great way to do “more with less ” is to tuck-in your company’s portfolio in simple social media icons for people to learn more information about what you offer. As a CEO adding your company’s social media is the way to go. Adding your personal social media is not a good idea and would not likely generate leads, but for freelancers it could work great.
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Clean and beautiful minimalist signature | Made with WiseStamp
In the last example the user went as far as to remove his image. In case this seems too minimal for you I added an example of the same concept that includes a photo, which is a setup I like better.
This example uses a vertical line divider instead of the horizontal divider in the previous template. This minimal design uses the vertical divider in order to accommodate the left side image, and it look great.
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Cursive handwritten sign-off for a personal feel | Made with WiseStamp
This design makes excellent use of several vital elements in a minimalist email signature. Diana uses icons where text would be unnecessary, and stacks the contact information so that each piece of info takes up a separate line. This allows readers most easily scan her signature for what they need.
The color palette is simple and the splash of pink brings some life into an otherwise flat signature . It also stands out and acts as a focal point to anchor the eye on.
Diana also used Wisestamp’s hand signature maker to add a personal cursive sign-off.
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Add depth to your minimal signature by adding a video | Made with WiseStamp
This is a good minimal example of a small component that adds depth to your signature. For visual products and services, a video is an engaging way to present your work. Especially for artistic professions, it can be a great benefit to be able to present what you do through visuals and sounds.
Adding this small video thumbnail to your signature will lead your readers into a vivid video presentation and help you convey your message in a much more powerful way than any line of text ever could.
Time to create your minimalist signature
By now you probably have a good idea of what a minimal email signature should look like. With as little as 5 lines of text, you can have a signature that makes you look professional and also gives your correspondents what they need to contact you in a matter of seconds.
I hope you now know what you want and feel ready to create your own email signature. All the functionality and designed email signature templates you need are available for you within our email signature generator.
Just add your professional details and we’ll install your signature in your email provider automatically with 1 click, free of charge.