Best options for managing email signatures for Microsoft Office 365

Entrepreneurs know how important it is to establish a consistent and professional image. Part of that image contains your email signature.

Email signatures are a great opportunity to highlight every message you send when communicating with customers, prospects and suppliers. A cohesive email signature leaves an impression and helps develop brand recognition and long-term trust.

But managing email signatures for your entire company can be difficult without some help from technology. Manually checking it gets old fast and it’s a recipe for non-conforming email signatures from every employee.

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) lets you create organization-wide email signatures and disclaimers, but that may not be enough. Allows you to display the exact same standard information on every email (e.g., company address, logo, legal disclosure, etc.), And each individual is still responsible for managing their own contact information.

Fortunately, there are a few tools that can help you keep your company’s Microsoft 365 email signatures accurate and consistent for every employee.

Sigstr

Sigstr is a best-in-class tool for managing and marketing email signatures. It was recently acquired by Terminus, a leading provider of account-based marketing software.

It is a powerful tool with numerous customization options. It can dynamically change the email signature banner it displays to your recipients based on your relationship with that contact.

For example, if you are emailing a potential customer, you can set it up to display a specific signature with information about your next webinar. Or if you email a customer, it can display the latest promotion you are running.

Sigstr offers three different service layers for their email management system: basic Core, mid-range Advanced and a robust Enterprise layer. All tiers offer convenient features such as a dedicated customer success manager, quarterly business reviews, ongoing administrative training and more.

Their dedicated manager is great for small business owners who may not be very tech savvy and want personal assistance to guide them through the various steps, from implementation to their first campaign strategy.

The Core layer includes useful analytics tools such as real-time campaign performance, click-through reports, data sharing with CRM platforms and marketing automation. Sigstr’s Advanced tier includes all the features of the Core tier, along with useful integration with other platforms such as Salesforce CRM and integration with other tools in marketing, sales, ABM (account-based marketing) and more.

Sigstr’s most robust tier, Enterprise, includes all the features found in their Advanced tier, plus features such as multi-domain set-up, a single sign-on with SAML (security assertion markup language) – among several other features.

Sigstr works with human resource systems supporting thousands of employees and their software works with multiple email clients including Outlook, Office 365, Gmail and iOS. Their system also works on multiple types of devices.

Sigstr is committed to delivering excellent levels of security and recently received their SOC 2 Type II certification.

They even offer a free demo and will work individually with companies to personalize pricing. Prices are not currently available on their website, but previous conversations tell us that it is a more robust tool than others compared in this article and the prices reflect that.

If you are just looking for something to provide consistent email signatures, this is probably overkill. But it can be a powerful marketing tool if you are ready to take that step.

Crossware

With Crossware, small business owners can create and maintain compatible, personalized email signatures along with targeted useful content. It supports multiple platforms, including Office 365 and Microsoft Exchange.

Crossware Mail Signature for Office 365 is actually hosted in Microsoft’s data centers. This provides an additional layer of security because emails with a Crossware-created signature are never routed through a third-party infrastructure. This seamless integration also allows users to send an email with a Crossware-designed signature from any device or email client without additional steps.

One of the most important aspects of any email signature management system is to provide business owners with the ability to send important advertising messages designed to increase interest in their products and/or services. Like Sigstr, companies using this tool can customize their ads based on sender and/or recipient data.

There are flexible features that give designated users full creative control, such as creating an email signature based on a template or starting from scratch. Crossware also allows companies to assign editing rights so that only designated users are responsible for designing and maintaining signature and ad content.

Crossware’s prices are very reasonable, calculated per user (any email file that requires a signature). The fee for each user is $1 per month. For example, a company with 70 users would have to pay a fee of $70.00 per month, which would then be billed annually.

In addition, Crossware offers a free trial for companies using Office 365 or Exchange.

Exclaimer for Microsoft Office 365

Exclaimer’s email signature management system features an easy-to-use web portal that allows companies to create their own signature designs or use a ready-made template. The user interface is designed for everyone, including those with little to no technology experience.

The design environment allows you to insert employee photos, email disclaimers, social media icons and promotional banners into email signature content. The designer can also run targeted marketing campaigns based on criteria such as department, individual sender or date range.

Their Office 365 version offers full integration with the Office 365 contact folder.

This email management system also provides support for all types of devices (including mobile) and email clients. In addition, Exclaimer has received ISO 27001:2013 certification, reflecting their commitment to a high level of security and control.

Exclaimer offers a free 14-day trial for their management system. After upgrading to a full license, they charge $1.25 per unique email, per month – this fee can also be paid annually.

CodeTwo

CodeTwo is another cloud-based option that gives you complete control over your Office 365 email users through the centrally managed web service.

Source: CodeTwo

Their service offers easy installation guided by automatic wizards – a built-in signature template editor that intuitively speeds up the signature creation process, so you don’t have to rebuild your email signature from scratch (although you have the option) for faster deployment.

You can also use your email signatures for marketing and track the results with CodeTwo’s Signature Template Editor to advertise promotions and marketing campaigns and track the results. You can even take advantage of client-side signature mode and let your users choose the right, custom template every time they draft an email in Outlook.

CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365 comes with technical support and secure monitoring, developed and delivered under the ISO certified management system. Emails are not stored or read and your login information is protected by OAuth 2.0.

You can choose to enroll monthly or annually. Prices are dynamic based on the number of mailboxes, but you can expect somewhere around $1 per user when paid monthly – annual rates start around $10 per user. They offer a free 14-day trial so you can make sure it suits you before you buy.

If you are switching from Exchange Server to Office 365, you can get CodeTwo email signatures for Office 365 at a lower rate. Contact CodeTwo for more information on these discounted rates.

Compare email signature management solutions

All four product lines offer an easy-to-use interface, making creating and maintaining professional-looking business email signatures a breeze.

• They all include the ability to customize ad campaigns, as well as details such as who is sending them, date ranges of sales campaigns, etc.
• They all work exceptionally well with Microsoft Office 365, as well as other popular office productivity tools like Gmail.
• They all support multiple devices for emailing on the go or in the office.

For business owners most concerned with integrating their email system with other tools, Sigstr has additional levels that integrate with different types of platforms, including those focused on sales, marketing, hr and more.

If prices are an important factor in your choice, Crossware and CodeTwo offer the lowest rates with a price tag of about $1.00 per user or less versus Exclaimer’s rate of $1.25 per user. Sigstr could possibly beat or at least match the prices, upon inquiry.

If you are an Accent customer and would like to learn more about which email signature management option is best for you, please contact your Technology Advisor. We are happy to help you evaluate your options.

Not yet using Microsoft 365 for email? Contact us today to learn more about Microsoft 365 and how an IT partnership can be exactly the solution your business has been looking for.

Source: accentonit