Does the size of your signature matter?

August 19, 2007 by
Filed under: technology 

Mitch Wagner, over at InformationWeek.com, says that the size of your email signature is inversely proportional to your importance, i.e. “If you’re a billionaire, you write your e-mail entirely in lower-case and sign it with the one-syllable nickname you had in prep school”.

I still go by the old-fashioned email “rules”, that your signature should be no more than three lines, each of 72 characters max. but then I also believe “styled text” (fancy fonts, colours, backgrounds etc.) have no place in email (professional or otherwise), and that anything bigger than 2Mb shouldn’t just be attached to your empty email and then fired off to everyone on your mailing list.

If the purpose of email is to convey a message, then the content (i.e. your message) should be the focus – don’t distract your recipients with a font size that means they either have to sit with their nose pressed to the screen or push themselves away from it to avoid being blinded. Equally, try to remember that not all your readers are on Windows and even those that are may not have the same fonts installed, so while your email might look very pretty on your screen there’s a fair chance that it will be illegible on someone else’s.

Anyway, back to signatures – their purpose is to give the reader a clue as to the identity of the originator of the email, so include enough information to be helpful. I don’t include my name at the end of an email so it’s there in my signature, along with my job title, company name and phone number. Including your email address is just redundant because it’s in the From: and Reply-To: fields; the URL for your company website can be handy if it’s not immediately obvious from your email address.

If you’re emailing someone for the first time, attaching a vcard can be helpful (as long as it’s properly populated with your information) but please don’t send it to me with every email!

Not having a signature (or not having the right information in one) can be an oversight but if it’s a deliberate choice then it’s usually an arrogant one – it’s like people who, when you answer the phone, say “hi, it’s me” because clearly they’re so important you should recognise them even though you’ve only spoken to them once before, about 3 months ago. Give the other person (me!) a chance, just a hint!

For companies that feel the need to add a 26 line “legal disclaimer”, I wonder how many have actually checked their validity? Clearly they don’t understand that email is the equivalent of a postcard – it’s not a sealed letter, so if you’re that paranoid that someone else might read your message, don’t send it by email! (Or fax, in case you misdial.) (Or telephone, in case you get a crossed line.)

As much as I’ve rambled on about keeping it brief and useful, some people go too far – fortunately I haven’t had to deal with anyone who refers to two.sentenc.es :)

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Comments

One Comment on Does the size of your signature matter?

  1. PM Hut on Thu, 27th Mar 2008 11:20 pm

    2. I’ve seen marquee, h1, red, you name it… signatures and I really never thought it was very lame.

    I only sign with my name, sometimes I include the phone number in case I feel that a phone call can help for a better communication, but that’s it.

    Including the email address in the signature sometimes has its merit, as, let’s say you’re forwarding the email to someone else, who, in turn, forwards to another person, the original sender’s email, at one point or the other, will not appear as a hyperlink. Thus I think it’s actually a good idea, but I never do it.

    I wouldn’t say that not signing an email is arrogant, but I would consider it as unprofessional if it’s an external email, and casual if it’s an internal one.

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