Email Signature Management Solution Buyer's Guide

Every company goes through the exact same issues as they grow – initially, everyone uses their own email signature template. At some point in this growth, an executive decides everyone needs to have a uniform signature. IT then provides documentation on how to set up the organization’s standard signature. This kind of one-off, manually-accomplished signature – despite the end result being a pretty uniform template across the company – fails to meet the needs of organizations with far more complex signature needs.

You’re reading this Buyer’s Guide because you already know you have several departments that have specific signature needs. Marketing likely has some branding guidelines and leaving it to the individual employee is no longer either feasible or reliable.

So, you need an email signature solution – one that not only automates the process of deploying signatures, but also simplifies their creation. More advanced solutions will even go as far as to actually empower email signatures to be a tool that enhances customer relations, increases prospect engagement, and improves corporate communications.

The question then becomes, how do you select the right solution that meets your specific needs? In this Buyer’s Guide, I’ll cover the critical (and not-so critical) email capabilities found in today’s email signature solutions and provide worksheets that will help you determine which of the solutions on your shortlist are right for your organization.

How to use this Buyer’s Guide

Conversational Geek Buyer’s Guides help you assess and choose the right solution for your organization.

We do this by breaking the guide into two parts.

Buying criteria

We first provide you with a number of important buying criteria to consider here in this PDF. Each criteria section focuses on a particular set of features and capabilities available by solutions today. Those capabilities are then broken down into two distinct categories:

• Required: The capabilities listed in this criteria category are those that are fundamental for purchase consideration. Any solution you consider on your shortlist should have the capabilities listed at a minimum.

• Optional: The capabilities listed in this criteria category are features that will enhance your use of the solution but aren’t part of the core required capabilities. An optional capability might be considered innovative in nature or simply be of value but only to organizations with specific needs.

Evaluation worksheets

We then provide you with a URL that points to an online Evaluation Worksheet designed to let you evaluate each solution you are considering – and determine a winner.

Email signature content

The value of any email signature solution is going to be first measured in what content can easily be added to the signature itself.

This criteria section focuses on both how signatures can be created, as well as what types of details can be added and where the details are sourced.

Required features

• Support for common signature elements: Being able to utilize address fields, embedded or linked images, text, tables, and hyperlinks to signatures, all using desired fonts, sizes, and colors is required to ensure consistent branding while allowing for signature customization.

• Tailored social media support: Every organization needs to include some reference to their presence on social media. Signatures should be easily able to include desired social media icons or references.

• Legal disclaimers: Because of their importance to legal and regulatory compliance, this signature element is called out specifically as a requirement. Multiple disclaimers should be supported to accommodate regional regulatory compliance mandates.

• Directory-based detail population: Common fields such as first/last name, title, email, and phone should be populated by a directory service such as Active Directory, Azure AD, or Google Directory. This ensures consistency and up-to-date details within signatures.

Optional features

• Custom fonts: Having the ability to upload fonts outside of a default set allows signature text to match corporate branding.

• Matching social media icon colors to branding: Icons can be presented in custom colors that align with corporate branding.

• Signature integrations: Signature content can take advantage of functionality either built-in or through integrations with third-party solutions that offer in-signature features such as taking one-click surveys or scheduling meetings, making signatures interactive and actionable.

• Directory-based secondary detail population: There are additional custom attributes within a directory that fall here as optional, such as pronouns and profile picture.

• Support for multiple banners and links: Banners can be scheduled to be presented within a signature for specific durations, with an ability to rotate through all selected. Banners with multiple calls-to-action within a single banner may also be supported.

Read the rest of our buyer’s guide, written by Microsoft MVP Nick Cavalancia, by filling in the form opposite.

About Nick Cavalancia 

Nick Cavalancia has over 25 years of enterprise IT experience, is an accomplished consultant, speaker, trainer, writer, and columnist, and has achieved industry certifications including MCSE, MCT, Master CNE and Master CNI.

Follow Nick on Twitter @nickcavalancia, @Techvangelism, or @ConvGeek.