Create a beautiful custom email signature with Gmail
Having a custom email signature at the end of your emails is a great way to stand out, be memorable and build your brand identity. With an image of you or your logo at the bottom of each email, recipients start to connect with you and your brand at a deeper, more personal level. Add in some social links, and you’ve made it easier for people to connect with you too.
If you use Gmail as your email provider, you’ll have everything you need to design and create your dream signature. All you need is your Google email account, your Google Drive and a Google Doc. With everything saved in one place in your Google account, you can easily change up your design to coincide with special promotions and share new content. Here’s how to set it up.
Prepare Your Google Drive
Log into your Google account and create a folder in your Google Drive to house all the files you’ll need for your signature.
Prepare Your Signature Images
Gather all your images such as your headshot, logo and any social media icons (properly licenced, of course) in the Signature folder you just created.
Make sure your images aren’t too large so they don’t overwhelm your recipients’ email servers. Crop images such as profile pictures to the size you want them to display at. Small images like social icons, and logos with fine details should be cropped at twice their intended size so they’ll display nicely on retina screens.
Design Your Signature in Google Docs
I like to use Google Docs to lay out my signature using the table tool. It helps to get elements lined up nicely, and it’s super easy to use.
Open a new Google Doc and save it to your signature folder in your Google Drive. Click TABLE > INSERT TABLE to add a table to the doc. In this example, I have two columns and one row.
Add the text of your signature in the cell that you prefer. You can adjust the size, colours and fonts as you like. Just be aware that gmail only supports the following fonts: Sans serif, Serif, Fixed Width, Wide, Narrow, Comic Sans MS, Garamond, Georgia, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS and Verdana.
To add images, click in the cell where you want to insert the image, then click INSERT > IMAGE > DRIVE and choose one of the images you just uploaded to your signature folder.
To align the text to the image, adjust the width of the cells by dragging the vertical line between cells left or right.
To change the border around the table, click on a border. Editing options will appear in the ribbon above the table. You can adjust the border colour, width and dashing. If you want a border to disappear, set the width to 0pt.
I’ve decided to remove all the borders except the vertical line between the two cells. I’ve also changed its colour and thickness.
Add hyperlinks to your social icons by selecting the image then clicking the hyperlink icon in the ribbon above and entering the URL for your social account.
You can do the same for your logo or business name, and direct email recipients right to your website.
Transfer Your Design to Gmail
Copy the whole table (Control or Command + C) and head over to your Gmail account.
In Gmail, click the gear near the upper right of the screen and click SETTINGS. In the mail tab, scroll down to nearly the bottom and find the signature section. Paste (Control or Command + P) what you just copied in the box.
Scroll down and save your changes.
Test Your Signature
Send out a few test emails to yourself and/or a friend. Be sure to send it to other email accounts and providers to make sure it displays correctly.
Give it a try. If you need some design inspiration, go check out my Email Signature board on Pinterest. And if you have any questions about this, leave me a comment below.
