Your Cold Email Signature Is Important

Hide and seek is great for kids. But it’s not much fun for prospects. 

So today let’s look at a silly cold email trend that’s on the rise, and what you should do instead. 

Last week I got a cold email that looked interesting. So I did what you might expect. I went to check their website for more information.

Except they didn’t have a website listed in the email. Their signature was just their name – not much else.

So I checked their email domain to see if it redirected to their website. No luck there, either.

This is absurd. The sender contacted me so we can work together. But they won’t give me the information I need to make an informed reply. 

If I’m interested in your solution, of course the first thing I’m going to do is check your website. And maybe your social profiles, too.

With that in mind, here are a few elements you should be sure to include in your cold email signature..

Don’t ignore them because they’re key to getting higher conversions and better delivery.

 

Why Do Cold Email Signatures Even Matter?

You might be wondering why cold email signatures even matter. It’s a fair question, so let’s look at a few reasons why you should care.

Brevity

The best cold emails are short. And a robust signature actually saves you words that aren’t otherwise necessary. 

Here’s what I mean.

Say you start your message with:

“My name is Matthew and I’m the Managing Director at Sales Higher”

That sentence required 11 words but only repeated information that should already be in your signature.

So if you want to keep your outreach concise then you need a cold email signature that provides the information your potential customers can refer to easily. 

Compliance

Your cold email signature contains elements that are required to be CAN-SPAM compliant. For example, your postal address is required to be included in emails. And that element is typically found in your signature.

If your contact information isn’t compliant your delivery will plummet.

Improved Delivery

Look at your email from the ESP’s point of view. Are you 100% transparent about who you are and where you’re sending from?

Does your cold email signature contain all the elements that they’d expect to see in a regular professional email?

If the answer is yes then congratulations! Your email delivery score just improved. And your odds of being penalized by spam filters decreased.

ESP’s expect to see typical signature elements in your email. If they don’t they’ll wonder why not.

More, Better Replies

A full cold email signature shows you are transparent and authentic – which are elements of building credibility. 

This is important because more people will reply to your messages. If they don’t think your message is a good fit they’ll respond to tell you why not.

And if they’re potentially interested then they’ll have the information they need to do research.

When your emails get lots of engagement, this shows the ESPs that you aren’t a spammer. And your messages should be directed to the inbox.

Now You Know

“And knowing is half the battle” – G.I. Joe

So now you know why you should care about your cold email signature. Here are a few elements to consider when putting it together.

Use Your Real Name

I shouldn’t have to say this, but use your real name.

Several years ago someone figured out that women get higher positive reply rates than men. So guess what some lead generation ‘experts’ insist on doing?

Yup, they invent women to ‘take lead’ on the outreach. They fabricate entire people right down to their AI generated images and fake LinkedIn profiles.

Please don’t do this. Business is about trust.

Include Your Photo

Consider including an image of yourself in your cold outreach signature. We’re visual creatures so a picture makes you appear more authentic and less transactional.

We all value human connection and a photo encourages the recipient to think of you as an individual. And it’s SO much better than a faceless company logo. 

It’s easy to dismiss a random message that forces its way into your inbox. But new contacts deserve an extra few seconds of consideration. 

Put another way, junk emails go in spam. But people with unwanted offers get a polite refusal.

Redirect Your Mailing Domain

OK, technically this isn’t part of your signature. But it’s related.

When you send a cold email it won’t be via your main email address. If someone hits spam it could cripple your entire company’s email delivery. And you don’t want that!

Instead, you’ll register new domains that are used only to send out cold emails. 

But what everyone forgets. The new domains need to be redirected to your primary domain. 

To illustrate, one of our mailing domains is sales-higher.com. If you visit that domain you’ll be redirected to saleshigher.com.

Domains that aren’t redirected appear a bit dodgy, if someone bothers to check. It only takes 5 minutes so don’t skip this step. 

It’s a small thing but it builds continuity, which builds trust.

Share Your Company Website 

A lot of cold email delivery gurus will tell you to avoid putting links in your cold emails. 

For the most part this is good advice.

But ESP’s expect to see a website URL in your signature. It doesn’t look out of place at all.

If you really don’t want to add a link, then put your company website in your outreach email signature. But leave the text non-hyperlinked.

This gives your readers the information they need to learn about you before they reply.

Share Your Social Media Links 

Be sure to share your LinkedIn link in your signature (and other social media accounts). You can even use it as a call out with an invitation to connect.

Why bother? Especially if you’re not very active on social media?

Again, transparency and authenticity are building blocks for trust. If they’re interested in your solution then they may want to get to know you better before replying to your email.

Include Your Phone Number (optional)

Normal business communications include an full contact information. And there’s no reason your cold email should be any different.

You may have concerns about this. When I started adding my phone number to my email address I thought I might get lots of replies via phone. I’m on the other side of the world from the people I contact so I was worried I’d be getting calls in the middle of the night. 

Eleven years later I’m happy to report I’ve gotten only ONE unexpected call. And that was from a hyper-motivated buyer.

Avoid Image-Based Email Signatures

These days, many people use an image as their email signature. 

It’s ‘OK’ for cold email, too. But I generally recommend against it.

Cold emails with too many HTML and image elements can bump into deliverability issues. Simple is better.

More importantly, many email clients don’t load external images by default. Which means that your lovely sales email signature won’t be seen by a lot of people. And all the effort you’ve made to be transparent won’t be appreciated.

What Do You Add To Your Cold Email Signature?

I realize cold email signatures are a pretty bland topic. But they have a big impact on your delivery and response rates. 

So you need to give some thought to how you want to structure your sales email signature to get the best results possible for your outreach efforts.

Are there any elements you include that I didn’t mention? I’d love to hear from you.