How to Send Professional Looking Emails for your Business

January, 2021

When you’re getting ready to send a business email, have you ever stopped to think about whether or not it looks professional? Believe it or not, there is more to sending an email than just checking your grammar, confirming it’s going to the right person, and crafting a relevant subject line.

While you do need all of those things, that’s not enough for your emails to look and feel professional. To take your email game up a notch, there are five components of an email that you and your team need to get right.

In this article, we will dive into each of these components and give you tips along the way so you can transform your everyday emails into a branded experience that helps you grow your business. Let’s dive right in.

1. Email Header

The header of your email is not only the area that displays who the message is from, the subject line, date, recipient, and return-path. It’s also a space at the top of the email where you can include your logo or some other image that enhances your branding efforts.

Simplicity is paramount with your email header, so don’t overthink it or get too fancy. The idea here is to help your recipient recognize your brand, and cement it in their minds. That’s why we strongly recommend that you only include your company logo in your email header.

2. Professional Domain

The most professional looking emails come from a custom domain, rather than from a Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail account, or similar email provider. It’s worth investing in a custom domain for both branding purposes, and to establish credibility.

3. Email Signature

Most people understand that they should have an email signature, but don’t understand just how impactful their email signature is. Hence why so many people put minimal effort into setting up an email signature that doesn’t even help their emails look and feel better.

The email signature is the most important component of a professional looking email, it’s where your recipients can get to know a little more about the person behind the email.

We will share more about how to perfect this crucial element in a future article, but for now, here’s what you need to know. Your email signature area should include things like:

The picture of the sender – Having a picture is great because it lets your recipient know what the person sending the email looks like and reminds them that an actual person is contacting them. The human element can go a long way in building your know, like, and trust factor. If you don’t have a picture ready to be used, then the logo of your business can serve as a placeholder until you do get a professional picture.
Personal details (i.e. phone number, office address, your email address, etc…)
Link to your Website – Most commonly this link leads to the home page, but this link can lead to anywhere inside of your website too. Think of a “How it works” page, or a “Features” page, or a page displaying all of your case studies and testimonials.
Social icons of the platforms you would like to be followed on online (i.e. LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc…)

Now you might be thinking that you’ve done most of the things we mentioned around your email signature, but what we’re going to talk about next is the biggest differentiator between a boring looking email and a professional looking email.

Most people don’t even know about this secret weapon, so implementing it will guarantee that your emails stand out from the thousands of emails your recipients already get.

What’s the secret weapon? Banners in your email signature.

4. Email Signature Banners

This is another area we plan to cover in greater detail in a future post, but the gist of what you need to know regarding email signature banners is that your emails should have one!

They make your emails stand out from the rest, look more professional, and can turn your everyday emails into a powerful marketing channel that grows your business.

Email signature banners should be simple, aligned with your brand, and have a clear call to action.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to your call to action. For example, you can have your banner display a special offer you want to promote, or an eBook guide your customers would want to learn more about, or you could even showcase some testimonials of previous customers.

Your email signature banners should also be trackable, letting you know if anyone clicks them. This allows you to test what banners are getting you the best results and identify which recipients are interested in your offers. Knowing more about how people are engaging with your emails is money in the bank!

For some excellent email signature banner examples, make sure to check out our Banner Gallery. You will be able to see different use cases, styles, and animations that could serve as an inspiration to create your own.

When you set up email signature banners you turn every email into a marketing opportunity that helps you qualify leads, get new customers and upsell current customers. All through the emails that you were going to send anyway.

5. Email Disclaimer

Regardless of the business that you are in, you may want to consider adding some type of email disclaimer to your emails to protect yourself and your company’s assets. This is especially critical nowadays due to things like GDPR, the California Privacy Act, and other privacy acts that are likely to follow. As Cenkus Law explains, email disclaimers can help you do things like “communicate and protect the confidential nature of the email”, “communicate that the email may be privileged (subject to attorney-client privilege)”, “assert a copyright in the email contents,” and more.

The Easiest Way to Improve The Look & Feel Of Your Emails

The easiest and best way to make your everyday emails stand out from the rest is to connect your G Suite (Google Workspace) or Outlook (Microsoft 365) email accounts to an email branding software like Black Pearl Mail.

Black Pearl Mail is the software you need to create professional looking emails for you and your team. We make it easy to:

Quickly improve the branding of your emails
Manage email branding of all team members with just a few clicks
Create custom banners with your brand’s colors, fonts, and even GIFs
Track and analyze data regarding your signatures
Get real-time notifications when someone opens your email or clicks anything in it
Customize email signatures for specific recipients or departments
Add social media icons for email signatures
Protect yourself with email disclaimers
And so much more