Custom Branded Email Signatures Made Simple (sort of)

Fastspot is a huge proponent of having a consistent brand and presence in all arenas.  As such, we have implemented custom branded email signatures.  Our preferred email client is Mac Mail app and we’ve found that, while these signatures are professional and polished-looking, the process of installing/implementing them is nothing sort of a multi-step nightmare.  We’ve switched up our signatures around five times in the last couple of years, so I’ve become the unofficial Fastspot e-signature expert.  Here is the process, broken into as few steps as possible (bear with me):

1. Create an HTML signature.  Our goal was to integrate our logo and the color scheme from our branding while also adding links and icons to our various social media outlets.  We experimented with background images vs. in-line images and ended up finding that in-line images are more compatible across the various email clients and Web mail services, such as Gmail.
2. Open the HTML signature file using Safari.
3. Choose Save As… from the Safari File menu.  Save the file as a .webarchive format.  This is the format Mac Mail app uses for signatures.  For the sake of these instructions, I will call this file “signature.webarchive”.
4. Open Mail Preferences.  Choose the Signatures panel. All Signatures is the default view; you will see your email account(s) and various numbers of signatures assigned to each listed below that.  I have four different email accounts filtering into Mail, so I have four signatures total and one default signature assigned to each account.
5. Click the plus sign to add a new signature and title it whatever you like.  I will call this file the Mail signature file.
6. Close the Preferences window and Quit Mail.
7. Copy your signature.webarchive file.
8. Go to your Library>Mail>Signatures folder in Finder.
9. Paste the signature.webarchive file into the Signatures folder.
10. Find the new signature file you created in Mail Preferences, the Mail signature file.  Mail creates signatures with non-sensical alpha numeric names.  To find the file you just created, find the one whose creation date is “Today”.
11. Copy the alpha numeric name of the Mail signature file. Rename that file whatever you like.  I tend to use the keystroke Command+X to cut the title and then rename the file “X”, as well.  You can delete this file if you like; you will not be using it again.
12. Rename the signature.webarchive file to the alpha numeric name you just copied.  Just paste the name in place.
13. Open Mail Preferences. Go to the Signatures panel.
14. Click and drag the new signature to your email account in the left column. This assigns the new signature to that email account.
15. Click the email account in the left column. Use the Choose Signature drop down at the bottom of the window to assign the new signature as the default for your account.
16. Close Mail Preferences.
17. Open a new email message.  The new signature should appear automatically in the new email composition window.

Simple, right? Only 17 steps for a professional and cohesive look for your company. Okay, so it’s not “easy”, but when the majority of your communication happens via email, it is fully worth the effort.

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