Your company has decided to get an email signature software solution to manage all employee signatures across the business – and eliminate any homespun versions of email signatures once and for all. Now you’re tasked with finding the right fit for your needs. In addition, you need to outline the implementation process to present to the involved parties and decision-makers. But where do you start?
At Xink, we have worked with all types and sizes of companies for more than a decade. Therefore, we know the pitfalls and struggles when it comes to getting all parties in the company on board for a new software solution. A lot of questions appear from different stakeholders: Why should we have it in the first place? What value will it bring? Who will be responsible for the daily running? How long will it take to roll out and get employees on board?
Let us help you answer the most pressing questions right now!
Why get an email signature software solution in the first place?
Email signatures are seen by every recipient. Use that precious 1:1 communication channel to leave the best and most professional impression in every email! You want to aim for a unified look and feel across all departments, geographies, and devices. We all know that when you free your employees to manually update their signatures, they all have different tastes, preferences, ideas, etc. That’s why you need an email signature software like Xink, where all information is updated centrally and automatically.
What value will an email signature software solution bring to my business?
First of all, you never have to think about how your employees sign off in email correspondences again. Your employees will never again have to modify any information in their signatures – nor spend any time on this. It will be the same across the company in terms of style, branding, design, etc.
Secondly, everything will be centrally managed by a dedicated team in your company. Often these tasks sit well in the Marketing/Communications department.
Thirdly, signatures are automatically updated around the clock. When new information is updated in your company’s Active Directory, Google AD, or other HR systems, the signatures are updated accordingly. For example, when Marketing wants to run campaigns below the contact details, the information is pushed automatically to all selected recipients. The signatures will maintain a well-branded look, no matter the device your emails are being sent from and to.
In conclusion, your email signatures will never again leave inconsistent, unprofessional, and badly designed impressions in the inboxes of your customers and peers.
Who needs to be involved in the process?
This is all a matter of how things are done in your company. We recommend that you start the process by getting the relevant stakeholders together. This is usually representatives of management, IT, HR, and Marketing/Communications. Let’s take a look at the typical concerns from each stakeholder:
- Management wants to know about the costs, the value, the timeframe and to oversee the right responsible persons are appointed, etc.
- IT will focus on what technical issues they should be aware of, and how they need to be involved. They also have the knowledge of where the employee data is held (Active Directory or other data source).
- HR is already responsible for updating the HR system when employees come and go. They need to know about the sync to the HR system and what happens to an employee’s email signature when they update contact details, titles, addresses, etc.
- Marketing/Communications has a great stake in the project. They aim to streamline the branding efforts across the company. Perhaps they also want to use signatures as a new channel for news, branding campaigns, marketing deals, etc. They are also responsible for the design and graphic content. The design process can be quite detailed as many questions need to be answered: Do you need different designs for different employee groups, departments, or countries? Do you want different signatures for reply/forward emails? How should the signature look across devices? Do you want to include links, social media icons, campaigns, logos, pictures of employees, etc.?
Who will be responsible for managing email signatures across the company?
As mentioned above, it is typically the Marketing/Communications department that manages email signatures in Xink. Already, they’re responsible for the company’s branding and marketing efforts, and email signatures are a natural part of this. You don’t need any technical skills to use Xink!
What is the expected timeline to deploy the software across the company?
If you already have your email signature design in place and it is ready to upload to Xink, you can normally have everything up and running within a day or two. IT only needs to be involved in the initial set-up of signatures which takes approx. 45 minutes. This includes the sync with your company’s Active Directory or HR system. When the deployment has taken place, the email signatures are automatically pushed to all employees across the business.
Some companies spend a couple of weeks getting everything ready. If you don’t have a design ready or someone in your company to prepare the email signature design, the Xink design team can help you get everything properly done. You can book a session with a Xink designer.
The employees will automatically see their new email signatures when they compose/reply to/forward an email. They don’t have to touch or modify anything in the email signature field. On the other hand, it is an option to allow the employees to personalize some parts of their individual signatures.
Check out our new timeline guide for an email signature software solution project:
What are the costs of an email signature software?
If you choose to go with Xink for managing your company’s email signatures, you only per a small fee per license (number of employees with emails). You can choose between two pricing plans:
- Xink Brand, which covers the creation, sharing, and managing of signatures via the web portal – including rule-based control and assignment of signatures.
- Xink Campaign, which has all of the capabilities of Brand, combined with a powerful campaign module that allows marketers to create, schedule, and measure marketing campaigns in conjunction with the email signature block.
Read more about prices on our Pricing page.
Try Xink for FREE
We understand that choosing the right email signature software solution for YOUR company is not necessarily an easy job. Therefore we invite you to book a FREE 1:1 intro to Xink – it only takes 30 minutes and our support staff is happy to answer any questions to help you decide if Xink is the right fit for you – no commitments.
Lastly, we want to highlight our extensive Help Center with 5000+ articles and our live support, where we can assist you with any email signature need. We can’t wait to hear from you!