How to Change Your Email Signature During a Corporate Rebrand

Your email signature may seem like an insignificant part of the corporate rebrand process. After all, you're looking at the big picture stuff, changing how your company is viewed by all of your contacts in the industry. On second look, however, you'll discover that your email signatures play a big role in the way your customers, vendors, and contacts view your company, and changing your signature at the right point in the process can have a big impact on the success of your corporate rebrand. 

How Should You Update Your Email Signature?

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Your email signature likely includes several key elements that relate to your company's brand. These items might include:

• Your company's logo
• Your company's mission statement or a quote from the founder
• Colors or images in keeping with your usual company communication processes
• Your position within the company
• The same typeface used for other company communications

As these things shift, it's important to change your email signature along with it! Your email signatures can be an important vehicle for communicating these changes to your customers, partners, prospects, and contacts at large, so ensuring that you make the right changes at the right time is a critical part of your company's rebrand. 

When Should You Change Your Email Signature?

Your email signature is a great way to start communicating with clients early in the rebranding process. You might, for example, include a quick line about the coming rebrand as soon as you have all the necessary information from corporate about how the brand will change. There may be several times throughout the rebranding process when your email signature changes, such as:

Change your signature prior to the official rebrand. Keep the familiar information that customers associate with you, but add in the new information. For example, you might say, "Big change is coming to Company X! As of this date, we will be known as Company Y. Stay tuned for more information!"

Change your signature during the rebrand. Are you clearing out inventory or offering discounts on services in order to help make the rebranding process move more smoothly? Your email signature is a great way to let customers know more about that process and drive new business. One example might say, "During our rebrand from Company X to Company Y, we're discounting all of Z merchandise. Learn more here!" You also can use this space to include a banner that incorporates the new rebrand style or drives readers to a dedicated landing page. 

Change your signature when the rebrand is complete. This is the most critical time for making sure that your email signature matches with your company's new appearance to reinforce your brand. Check your email signature when the rebrand is complete to ensure that you have the new company logo, any changes in name or mission statement, and any other information that has changed during the rebranding process. A great email signature used across the organization will allow you to maintain brand consistency and ensure that your brand alignment is on point. 

Why Does It Matter?

Your email signature is a relatively small part of your overall email, but it's the part that customers turn to when they look for contact information, to check out more information about the company, or to confirm who you are as a company. Not only that, it's a great place to offer incentive to learn more. You can promote your existing marketing campaigns, help drive registrations for an event, or bring them in to check out your new website in greater detail.

There are several key reasons why it's important to be sure your email signature is consistent to protect your brand:

You represent your company. Every time you communicate with customers, vendors, or industry contacts, you're serving as a representative of your company, and you want to be sure that you're doing it according to the new branding standards. 

Your customers want consistency. You've worked hard to create a consistent experience for customers no matter where they interact with your brand, and that includes your email signature! They want the same experience whether they're getting a personal email from the CEO or a reply from customer service. 

Your signature can prevent (or cause!) confusion. Your email signature is an important element of your customer communications. If an announcement has been made already about rebranding and your email signature fails to follow suit, customers may be confused about the changes the company is making. Keeping the same email signature long after the rebrand, especially if it contains old logos or information, can be particularly confusing for customers. On the other hand, clear information in your email signature can smooth over the process and make it less confusing for everyone.

Customize your messaging based on who's sending the message. Customer service, for example, might add a sentence to their signature about what the rebrand means for customer service, while the sales team might add the opportunity to modernize their offerings or offer a great discount during the process. Highly targeted messaging based on your department or group can help better shape your overall marketing efforts, all from your email signature. 

Corporate rebranding is a complicated process, but it's one that's often well worth the effort. By making sure your email signature falls in line with new company policies and considerations, you'll find that you're better able to keep up with the needs of your customers through this critical form of communication.