• by Ray Schultz , June 12, 2020

Brands have added email signatures to both their corporate and marketing emails, but they still face challenges, according to The State Of Business Marketing, a study by NewOldStamp.

Of the companies surveyed, 62% are using email signatures for marketing, 45% regularly and 18% occasionally. 

And 82% say branding is their main objective in using signatures at all. Announcing new products is a distant second as a goal, cited by 22%. 

Email still leads in business communication—66% of firms use their corporate email for interacting with customers and prospects, while only 11% use social media and 10% the phone.

In addition, 46% use corporate email for workplace communications and 25% employ instant messaging. Only 9% communicate by phone.

In addition, 41% regularly utilize email signatures for branding and viability. Another 18% deploy them in an effort to standardize sign-off across the company.

Also, 17% use signatures for sender identification and 14% for personalization.

Email signatures typically contain these pieces of information:

• Name—98%
• Company name—92%
• Title at the company—91%
• Business website—91%
• Phone number—89%
• Email address—83%
• Social links—80%
• Logo—70%
• Physical address—33% 
• Call-to-action button—29%

The biggest challenge when launching email signature campaigns is generating traffic and leads—29% say so. Next are performance (28%), KPIs (16%), targeting (13%) and signature generators (9%).

Among small businesses and solopreneurs, the main reason for not using signatures is lack of resources. 

The main metrics for users are:

Clicks—79%

Emails sent—40%

Leads generated—25% 

Website traffic—30%

Impressions—32%

Leads generated—25%

CTR—19%

Revenue generated—10%

Demos/calls booked—15%

Of the companies polled, 45% update their signatures two to four times a year, 35% once in a few years, 12% every month or two and 6% one or times per month. In addition, 2% change them weekly or monthly. 

NewOldStamp, an email signature platform, surveyed over 750 marketers last November. The study was highlighted on Thursday by KoMarketing.