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Like many small business owners, you likely spend hours coming up with thoughtful content to make up the bulk of your email newsletter. And while that content is certainly the most important aspect of any newsletter, it is not the only important aspect.

Similar care should be given to the footer of your email. Why?

First, recipients expect to see a professionally crafted footer where they can find pertinent information about your business. Not having one—or having a poorly organized footer—gives the impression that your business is unprofessional. Second, a well-written footer can reduce the risk of your newsletter getting flagged as spam.

But what information belongs in an email footer? We’re glad you asked! We’ve created a list of our 5 favorite things to include in an email footer and can’t wait to share them with you!

1. Contact Information

Providing basic contact information is a great way to let readers know yours is an actual business that wants to hear from its followers and is happy to make that process as easy as possible.

The footer is where readers are accustomed to finding contact information, so be sure to include your physical address, phone number, and email address. You can make things even easier for readers by including a hyperlink that will take them to an email template with your address already filled in. Whatever you can do to make the “getting in touch” process easier for your readers…do it.

2. Social Media Links

If your business has a social media presence (and it absolutely should), you should include the logos for each platform with a hyperlink that takes readers to your social media pages (and if you’re wondering whether social media really matters, you can read our thoughts on the topic by clicking here and here).

A word of caution—don’t include every link to every social media account you’ve ever had. No one is interested in your old MySpace page and seeing too many logos can feel overwhelming to recipients…which means they likely won’t click on anything.

Choose two or three logos for the platforms on which you are most active. You may want to also include a few images from your Instagram page or a link to a recent video you posted to Facebook or LinkedIn to create visual interest and further entice readers to click through.

3. A “Why am I receiving this email” reminder

Recipients often forget that they signed up to receive emails from you, so it’s always a good idea to include a reminder in your footer. Be sure to make it specific. You can create different groups based on how readers joined and send customized reminders.

Examples of reminders are:

• You are receiving this email because you opted in when you placed your online order. Thank you!

• You signed up to receive our emails while visiting our social media page.

• You chose to receive our emails while donating to our fundraising event.

Having this statement above any “unsubscribe” button reduces the chance that they will, in fact, unsubscribe.

This brings us to…

4. Unsubscribe option

Do we want readers to unsubscribe? Absolutely not. Should we make unsubscribing as easy as possible? Absolutely.

No one wants to take time out of their busy day to email your company requesting to opt-out of emails because you chose to omit an opt-out button from your newsletter. Having the option readily available lets readers know you care about them and builds trust.

We love a witty unsubscribe option. Consider something like “We get it…it’s not you, it’s us” or “We don’t want you to go, but if you must, click here to unsubscribe”. Adding a touch of humor to the process often results in readers deciding to stick with you and your business.

5. Manage Preferences

While this should not be used in place of an “unsubscribe” button, having a “manage preferences” link is another way to reduce the likelihood of readers unsubscribing altogether.

When clicked, the “manage preferences” button will take readers to a pop-up window that should remind them how often you are currently contacting them and offer them options to modify that contact. For example, your pop-up might read like this:

We know you’re busy and it’s easy for inboxes to fill up quickly. You currently receive our monthly email newsletter and occasional product updates from us (no more than four emails each month). How often would you like to hear from us?

• Keep our contact as is…I love hearing from you!

• No product updates…I only want to receive the monthly newsletter.

• I don’t want to receive any further emails (we’ll only email you order updates)

And so…

If you’d like a little help crafting footer perfection, contact us at Digital Canteen. We’ll help you create a killer footer that will reduce your unsubscribe rate and increase your engagement…and that is always a good thing!

Thanks for reading,
Digital Canteen Team
02-9025-4304