A footer is the last block of the email template, which usually contains contacts, unsubscribe buttons, and other information not included in the main part. There are no fixed rules or design layout requirements for that part of the email template. However, some elements like the company address or opt-out options became obligatory for legal reasons.
The footer is the place where users go to get contacts, manage subscription preferences and learn more about your company. Therefore, keep this block simple and clear with an easily scannable design. Note that some states establish legal requirements concerning commercial messages, as well as anti-spam laws. For example, the US CAN-SPAM Act stipulates that commercial messages should be clearly identified as such, and have location information (a valid physical postal address), an opt-out option with unsubscription to be put into effect within 10 business days, and many other provisions.
An email footer is the most suitable block to include legally required information in accordance with local legislation. So, always check the requirements of the country you are operating.
A few most common items in your footer are as follows:
Additionally, you may include many other elements in the email footer. For example, a suggestion to rate the email, browser or mobile view options, a referral link – keep reading to find details about each of the options.
There are two basic ways you can craft your email footer: as a plain text signature or HTML signature. Let’s figure out the differences and benefits of both of them.
As the name suggests, the email template in this case ends with a simple text signature. And it doesn’t look poor: first of all, such footers will always render correctly, and secondly, an email with a text signature or an email avatar looks more human-like and personalized.
HTML signature showcases your business in the best way: unlike plain text, this type of footer may include fancy fonts, colors, icons and images. If you add a few social media icons, they can direct your customers to your social media profiles. Same is about the privacy policy or website or other clickable items in the footer.
Well, this is the right place to let your creativity run free: you may stuff the email footer with logos, background images, surveys and rating buttons, social media icons, maps and whatever else you need to design a great email. But, of course, we recommend you to keep balance and not overstuff it – the next parts will be specifically about it.
Mind that the more images you have in your email template, the more chances that your email will land in the spam folder. We recommend limiting the email size to a maximum of 100KB so that the email providers do not have to resize it automatically and cut out significant information that way.
As you see, there are several items that you may incorporate in the footer, however, some of them are optional. Think of the ones that are particularly important for businesses or brands. Look at the example below: underwear brand MeUndies includes in the footer funny icons with pants and emojis. It is nice, but this concept is hardly applicable to, for example, a serious scientific outlet in terms of style and tone of voice.
This is a definitely must-include button for any marketing email. An option to unsubscribe is stipulated in many legislative acts across the globe, such as the US CAN-SPAM Act, EU GDPR, and many others. The absence of the opt-out button may result in big fines: for example, each separate email violating the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of over $46,000 or even imprisonment.
Note that the unsubscribe button should be easily scannable. Here it is separated by gaps from other text.
You may also include an option to manage the subscription: to change frequency, topics, language, etc.
In addition to a company’s registered name, office address, contacts, the email footer may include a privacy policy, terms of use and copyright information.
Sometimes you can come across a lengthy disclaimer in an email footer. Legal opinions differ on whether it is legally binding and necessary, especially when it comes to a very long piece of information. Anyway, contact your in-house attorney to decide which information is critical for your business and reputation to include in the email footer, taking into account that your emails are for customers first, not lawyers.
As a follow-up to the issue of a disclaimer, you may add any significant details in the footer that specify the content. For example, an e-commerce email campaign with a competition or giveaway should attract participants and not tire with a long list of restrictions and details. Therefore, these details are sometimes hidden in the footer, as in the example below.
Social media accounts are no longer optional for companies. Over the past decade, they have become an essential way to reach your customers, just like a phone number before.
You may add hyperlinks to your accounts in the email footer or buttons with logos – this variant will be more recognizable and professional.
Branding is vital for business. It helps you to stand out among your competitors, build corporate identity and brand loyalty among your customers, which is of prime importance for e-commerce marketing. You may see logos almost everywhere, and the email footer should not be an exception.
Depending on your email template and the content of your message, you can add a logo in the footer along with other icons and contact information, even if you have already used it in the template.
If you have your own app, do not miss a chance to advertise it in the email footer. You may add hyperlinks or well-known App Store and Google Play icons, the example below has both variants.
One of the most effective CTAs is encouraging referral programs. It allows you to boost your customer list with the help of your existing customers’ recommendations. Referral offers should be attractive, convincing, easy to find, and have an eye-catching design. It should be easy to click the link and button to share the content of the offer with friends. Therefore, you can place it in the email footer. People usually scan through the email and if they get interested in the offer, they scroll down to the bottom part, as it always has brief and essential information.
You may also offer to share your newsletter by adding the corresponding button in an email footer, as in the screenshot below. This is a common practice for news agencies.
Hopefully, your email campaigns will never be flagged as spam. However, it can happen for various reasons. If you, as a sender, are concerned about it, include a link to whitelist instructions in the email footer. But if you want to be protected against unwanted worries, you’d better use ESPs, which offer combined email marketing solutions and reduce risks of being caught by spam filters.
We have analyzed plenty of ideas on how to design an email footer. There is no ideal formula because it should meet the needs of your particular business and email marketing strategy, so that is why email footers are so different. But we can figure out a few tips that will make any footer more effective. Let’s check them out.
Are sure that your subscribers need to know all the background information about your company’s foundation year, its legal structure, dozens of your social media accounts, phone number, etc.? Think of what is really important in terms of contacts and legal information related to your company. Perhaps, you can put some pieces into hyperlinks leading to the website with all the detailed information. Mind that a footer should be designed with space so that users’ eyes can easily scan and find the necessary information.
Analytics is everything! Your email newsletter can be a source of data that can bring actionable insights. Make the hyperlinks and buttons in the email footer trackable, and you will be able to measure the performance of automation campaigns.
UTM parameters are a clear and reliable tool to track traffic. With the help of automatic UTM builders, you can put down the parameters, get a ready-made link, which allows you to see in an analytics report where each of the visitors came from and what they did on your website.
The percentage of mobile email viewers is growing: the first half of 2021 showed mobile’s share at 44.7%, with webmail at 36.3%, and desktop at 19.1%, Litmus says. Therefore, every message you pass on should be mobile-friendly, because a positive mobile experience makes users come back. Make sure that all the blocks of the email template are optimized for smartphones, especially the footer. If it fails, a user won’t be able, for example, to find contacts and reach you.
There are many different options and designs that you can choose for your email footer. Follow these simple rules when creating one:
We hope that this guide will help you to create a clickable email, and you can try your hand in creating an outstanding email template with our free email template builder. It offers a template structure with ready-to-use modules, where you can add text, images, buttons exactly where you want them to be by drag-and-drop.
All newsletter examples are credited to Really Good Emails.
