A good quality email signature banner can make a huge difference to your overall marketing or branding strategy. Whether you’re looking for a banner to promote your products, or just want to wish your email recipients a happy holiday, we’ve got it here.
In this article, we will show you how to create an email signature banner and explain what exactly makes a banner work for your company.
What Is an Email Signature Banner?
An email signature banner is an image at the end of your email signature which is usually about 700px (width) x 200px (height) in size. It allows you to promote your company or products to any recipients who receive your email.
Banners have been used in email signatures since email clients started supporting HTML signatures. Since then, they have been heavily used by marketing teams as they can yield a huge CTR when done correctly.
How Do Email Signature Banners Work?
An email signature banner works by enticing your recipients to click on the link in your banner. That is why you have to make a really attractive banner that defines a problem and provides a call-to-action (CTA). They also bring more public awareness to your product offering.
Implementing a thoughtful banner in your company-wide email signature that points to your website, will likely see an increase in traffic. Furthermore, that should hopefully convert to more sales.
If you don’t already use an email signature, now is the perfect opportunity to create one for free.
Download Free Email Signature Banner Templates
Using a Banner to Advertise Your Products
You can use banners to advertise your most popular products or even just products that are currently in season (such as Christmas trees, Halloween costumes, etc). You should already know what products sell the most and the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of those products.
To successfully advertise your products in a banner, start by crafting the USP clearly in the banner, and add a call to action. Don’t forget to include different varieties of the product, such as different colors, styles, etc.
When advertising your product in an email signature banner, it’s always best to offer a discount code with a time limit. This makes your customers feel like you are taking care of them and they might even get the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) syndrome with the timer ticking.
Promoting an Event With a Banner
Letting people know about an upcoming company event or product launch is a huge task. It often involves many hours spent on phone calls to gauge interest. Well, it’s not such a huge deal when promoting your event via an email signature banner.
When creating a banner for an event, you should consider details such as:
- Date and time of the event.
- Where it will be held.
- Any guest speakers that will be there.
- Key points about the event – eg. “Food and drinks provided”
- Cost of attending the event.
When you create your banner with a well-researched CTA, link the CTA directly to an RSVP or booking platform. That way, you’ll know exactly how many people have RSVP’d to your event, and you can accurately organize catering.
Showing Reviews in Your Email Signature Banner
In the last 10 years, the world of customer reviews has blown up completely. Many studies show the huge impact that reviews have on people when making a purchasing decision (especially a large one).
Why not share your reviews with your existing customers? Let them know they aren’t the only ones that love your products and services. This creates a positive affirmation with your existing customers so they feel like they have made the right decision choosing your company over the others.
Reviews also do wonders for prospective customers that are looking to sign up with you. There is no better way to earn the trust of your customers than to hear good things from other people.
Add New Videos to Your Banner
If your company regularly uploads video footage or has a big following on Youtube, then maybe you should consider letting your recipients know when you publish a new video.
Advertising new videos in your banner shows your customers that you’re putting effort into your business and aren’t just coasting along.
Simply place a description and link to the video in your banner. It’s an easy way to get a few more views on your video, and not much effort to implement.
Get More Visitors to Your Blog With a Banner
A blog is boring without an audience. What better way to get an audience than to engage with your existing clients and provide them with good quality content that they will enjoy reading.
Similarly to the videos, you can just insert a link to your latest blog post into your banner – it’s as simple as that.
As a bonus, you can also track the clicks on your banner by creating a UTM link and using that instead of the normal link. Then, you will be able to see exactly how many people clicked on the CTA in your banner from your Google Analytics.
Show Off Your New Products to Existing Customers
Businesses are constantly innovating and making adjustments to their product offering. Sometimes the adjustments are good, and sometimes they’re bad.
Placing a banner asking for participants to test your new product works well if you have an established customer base. In fact, you really want existing customers to test your new product, because they will know how it compares to the old product. And because of this, they should give you accurate feedback.
In fact, you can also offer an incentive for them to do the beta-testing for you. For example, give them 25% off the new product when it launches if they participate. It’s a quick way to get quality feedback on a new product.
Utilizing a Banner for Holiday Wishes
The most commonly used email signature banners are ones wishing their clients a happy holiday season. Whether it’s Christmas, Easter, or any other holiday, a nicely-crafted banner can show compassion and care.
Using a holiday banner is a good gesture and shows your customers that you care about them.
To add a holiday banner to your email signature, simply select from one of our templates above, and hit download. You can personalize them for your business.
How to Add a Banner to Your Email Signature
There are a few ways to add a banner to your email signature all with varying degrees of difficulty. We’ve listed 3 ways below, starting with the easiest option.
Add a Banner with Gimmio (recommended)
The easiest way to add a banner is to use an email signature generator. It should only take about 1 – 2 minutes to add your banner.
Step 1
Head over to Gimmio and log in.
Step 2
If you have an existing signature:
Expand your group, click on your signature, and skip to Step 5.
If you don’t have a signature:
Click on New User, fill in the required information, and then click Create User.
Step 3
Select and apply one of the email signature templates.
Step 4
Fill in your information such as name, position, and phone numbers by clicking on the fields.
Step 5
Click on Layout, scroll to the bottom and click on the + symbol to add a new row.
In the new row, click the + symbol to add a new field.
Step 6
From the dropdown list, select “New Custom Field”.
Type in a field label (eg. “Banner”).
From the Field Type dropdown select “Image”.
Click Add Field.
Step 7
Click on the new banner field you have just created to head over to the Details section.
Step 8
Click on “Choose an Image” and then “Choose a local file” to upload your banner.
Crop the banner if needed, and click Done.
Step 9
Adjust the size of the banner as required by sliding the Scale up and down.
You can also add a hyperlink for your banner here too. When people click on your banner, it will take them to the link you put in here.
Step 10
Once you’re happy with the placement of your banner, click to install your email signature.
Note: If the banner is too close to the bottom of your email signature, you can adjust the spacing by clicking on any element above the banner and changing the bottom spacing from there.
Add a Banner Directly in Your Email Program
Most of the time, you can add your banner directly in your email program under the signature settings. However, some email programs don’t support this, and in these cases, you will need to either modify the HTML of your email signature or use Gimmio to add your banner.
Select your email program below for instructions on how to add a banner.
Add a Banner Manually in Your Signature HTML Code
Adding a banner manually can be quite complex as you have to create new HTML tables and ensure the alignment is correct. You can read more about that in our article about creating email signatures. This should only be done by people who have a good understanding of HTML.
Email Signature Banner Examples
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the recommended banner size for email signatures?
The recommended size for an email signature banner is 700 pixels (wide) x 200 pixels (high). However, it’s important to note that this is the most common size of the banner image itself, not the displayed size in the email signature.
Since email signature images are usually 2 times bigger (for retina display scaling reasons) than the rendered size seen in a signature, the actual size of banners seen in an email signature is usually about half of the image size. So, around 350 pixels (wide) x 100 pixels (high).
How do I add a banner to my email signature?
The easiest way to add a banner to your email signature is to use an email signature generator. Alternatively, if you are experienced in HTML coding, you can also directly edit the HTML of your signature to add the banner.
How do I add a hyperlink to an email signature banner?
The quickest way to add a link to your signature banner is to use a tool like Gimmio. If you created your own email signature, you will need to edit the HTML to add the link.
When should I use an email signature banner?
You can use an email signature banner all year round if you want. However, it may lose its effect if your recipients always see the same old banner.
Generally, the most popular times to use banners are:
- Christmas
- New Years
- Easter
- Black Friday
- Cyber Monday
- Halloween
- Valentine’s Day
What are the benefits of using an email signature banner?
Depending on the type of banner you use, you will see different benefits.
For example, if you’re using a banner for advertising an upcoming new product, the benefit is that you’re building anticipation and awareness by showing it to your recipients.
Likewise, if you’re showing customer reviews in your banner, this builds trust and reassures your recipients that your customers love your business.
How can I make my banner more effective?
Making your banner more effective should be part of your continuous improvement strategy. You should be split-testing banners to see which design gets better results and then improve from there.
To make your banner more effective, review all the different elements such as the graphics, the message you’re sending, and the call-to-action to see if they all align. Often, you’ll be able to notice something missing.
Another way is to ask a friend or colleague to look at it and share their opinion.
