It’s easy to give advice on how to make your signatures effective and beautiful (and below you will find our tips). But anyone who has tried to use automatic signatures in Outlook or Gmail knows it’s rather hard to implement. Keeping this in mind, the EmailTray development division has created a smart email client for Windows and Android that is great in email sorting and notifying, protects you from spam and phishing, and also lets you use automated signatures easily. Use the EmailTray email client for Windows to create and use different signatures for your replies and forwarded emails as well as for newly composed emails. EmailTray will add them automatically.

1. The first advice is to use different signatures for newly composed letters and for replies and forwarded emails. It’s better to keep your signature as short as possible: two or three lines with a maximum of 80 characters per line (most email clients have a maximum width of 80 characters, so limit the length to avoid unsightly wrapping). Use the full signature for a new message to tell your recipient who you are, and a short one with your replies.
2. Make sure to include your name, your company, your position and how to get in touch with you.
3. Add personal Skype, IM, home phone, etc. ONLY if you really want to be contacted via them. Do include relevant corporate Twitter, Facebook and Google+ profile URLs.
4. Never use random quotes in your business emails. They may be good and funny for your friends and family, but you risk offending business associates with whom you don’t have a personal relationship.
5. Carefully use logos or other images. If you do use one, make it small and make it fit in aesthetically with the rest of the signature. Remember that most email clients store images as attachments or block them by default so think twice about whether you really need any.
6. With certain types of recipients, be careful of sending messages with HTML formatting because you’ll likely have problems with images and divider lines when the message is rendered in their email clients. With such people, it’s better to keep your signature as plain text.
7. Separate your signature from the message body with a line of —–, ======, or _______ or just a few spaces. This will visually separate your signature from your email.
8. Never include a legal disclaimer unless you are required to do so. If you do, keep it as short as possible.
9. Avoid including a line that your message was checked for viruses.
10. Remember that not every email user knows what a vCard is, so use one in your signature only if you tend to mail IT professionals. Recommend to your friends and colleagues that they use the EmailTray email client so they will always have a senders’ photo and info without having to also send a vCard.

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Aliona Vozna, the EmailTray Evangelist
www.emailtray.com