While it may come at the end, your email footer shouldn’t be an afterthought.
Email footers need to check certain boxes, but a well-crafted footer goes beyond. It contributes to your brand and engages your subscribers.
The goal is to provide essential information, adhere to regulations, and make sure your emails end on a high note.
You want to optimize every element of your email campaigns. These email footer examples will help you get the most out of any template — down to the last word and pixel.
Understanding email footers
First, let’s cover the role of an email footer — where to find it and why it’s important for email marketing.
What is an email footer?
An email footer is a dedicated space at the bottom of your emails. It’s like a digital business card and includes crucial information such as contact details, legal disclaimers, unsubscribe links, and social media icons.
What is a footer example?
This footer from the brand Supernotes is a short and sweet footer example. It gives you an address, social links, and an opportunity to unsubscribe.
Why do email footers matter?
Email footers serve three primary purposes: communication, branding, and compliance.
An email footer delivers necessary information and helpful links in your brand’s established aesthetic, demonstrating your professionalism and boosting brand recognition.
Footers also help you meet legal obligations for email when you provide an unsubscribe option and state your business address.
Essential components of an Email Footer
There are several non-negotiable elements for an email footer as well as some strongly encouraged components.
Legally required footer elements
Certain elements are legally required to comply with laws like the CAN-SPAM Act in the U.S. or GDPR in Europe. Make sure the following items are easy to find:
Company information
Your company’s physical address is a must-have element in your footer. This could be your current street address, a P.O. box, or a private mailbox registered with a commercial mail-receiving agency.
Unsubscribe link
An option for recipients to opt out of your emails is also mandatory. Let uninterested parties go, abiding by regulations and improving email list hygiene.
Consider unsubscribe best practices, and make the process straightforward and user-friendly.
Suggested elements
These aren’t necessary for compliance, but it’s a good idea to include them regardless.
Preference center
Maintain a clean, engaged subscriber list by directing subscribers to a preference center.
Preference centers empower users to control what kind of emails they receive from you and how often they receive them. You can reduce unsubscribes and increase engagement with better-tailored content.
Social media buttons
Add social media buttons to your email footer, connecting your email strategy to social media marketing.
This encourages your subscribers to interact with your brand on various platforms, strengthening your online community.
App download links
If you have a mobile app, include a download link in your footer to drive more installations and engagement.
Unlike open marketplaces — where you compete with over 7 million apps — your email is a dedicated space for your content and products.
Interactive or dynamic content
Leave your audience with a personalized recommendation or update using dynamic content. Or solicit their opinions with interactive content such as a poll or a link to a survey.
Awards or credentials
Brag away! Remind your audience about why they trust you with identifiable award icons or listed qualifications.
The cruise line Royal Caribbean incorporates many of the above features:
- Awards
- Trademark information
- Links to unsubscribe or update email preferences
- Main address
- Link to customer support
- Privacy policy
Royal Caribbean is a great source of email header and footer examples because of the way the two elements work together in this message. A phone number and trackable navigation links are provided up top, supplementing the content in the footer.
How to Optimize Email Footers for Engagement
Here are a few tips to use as you optimize your email footer to increase engagement and conversions.
Encourage readers to add you to their address books
Ask readers to put you in their list of contacts or approved senders. This ensures that your emails don’t end up in the spam folder and increases the chances of your emails being opened and read.
Promote offers and update subscribers
Think of your footer as an additional chance to communicate with your subscribers and drive more traffic to your website.
Try including links to your latest products or services, sharing discount codes, or providing updates about your business operations.
Optimize for mobile devices
Almost half of all emails are opened on mobile devices.
Every aspect of your email design needs to be mobile-responsive. Consider using larger fonts and more spacing between lines and links to improve readability.
Any images or graphics used in your footer should scale correctly and links should be easy to click on a mobile screen.
Periodically update footer content
Your footer content should be fresh and relevant. This could mean changing the offers or updates you’re promoting, updating your contact information, or refreshing the design.
Designing your email footer
Creating an effective email footer requires strategic planning, thoughtful design, and creativity. Pay attention to these considerations and best practices.
Best practices for creating an effective email footer
Your footer is a regular feature of your emails and should be clear, attractive, and true to your brand personality.
- Organize content for clarity. Arrange your information logically and use dividers or white space to separate different sections.
- Stay on brand. It’s hard to overstate the importance of brand consistency in developing audience recognition and loyalty. Use imagery, fonts, and colors that are consistent with your brand identity.
- Keep it simple. Avoid clutter and ensure your footer is easy to navigate.
How do I create an email footer?
Create your email footer in two easy steps:
- Outline the content you wish to include. Make a list of all legally required information and note optional links, information, and CTAs.
- Design your email fodder or choose a layout. Create your own custom email footer or simplify the process of creating email footers by using an email marketing service, like Constant Contact, which offers professional email templates.
Inspirational examples from top brands
Learning from successful brands often provides valuable insights. Here are some examples of top-tier email footers.
Apple: More is more
While Apple’s general design principle might be minimalist, its email footer takes a different approach.
Apple provides one of the best email footer disclaimer examples. It demonstrates its commitment to transparency here. No matter what piques your interest in the body of the email, you can find all the legal qualifications and provisions below.
Takeaway: If your service or product is complex and requires legal disclaimers, adding this information to your footer can foster trust in your brand.
Patagonia: Share your values
Patagonia’s footer focuses on its commitment to environmental responsibility. Its centerpiece is an invitation to read an updated mission statement reflecting high-level changes to its business model.
As business email footer examples go, this approach stands out for the way its design creates a visual hierarchy that reflects the brand’s central values.
Takeaway: Your email footer is an opportunity to highlight something central to who you are and what you do.
Dutch Bros Coffee: Negative space is your friend
This email from Dutch Bros. Coffee celebrates recipients by offering them a free drink on their birthdays and is one of the best marketing email footer examples I’ve seen.
The footer is extensive, including:
- Dynamic content — a personalized reminder of the recipient’s current loyalty status
- Fine print for the terms of the offer
- Social icons
- The privacy policy and terms of use
- A link to their website
- A request that readers add the rewards program email address to their address book
- An invitation (and link) to email them with feedback
- The business’s physical address
- The logo
- A clear unsubscribe option
That’s a lot to ask of a footer, but clear organization and ample spacing keep it easy to read.
Takeaway: Don’t underestimate the power of a clean and clear design.
Technical tips for email footer design
Keep a few crucial technical considerations in mind when designing a footer.
Compliance
I repeat myself, but you must comply with email marketing legal standards. Include all necessary legal information, such as your company address and an unsubscribe link.
Accessibility
Follow web accessibility standards. Use a font size that is easy to read on both desktop and mobile and choose a color scheme with high contrast so text stands out.
Create alt text for any images in your footer, too. This ensures users with visual impairments can understand your content using screen readers.
Testing
Testing allows you to identify potential issues for readers.
Read a sample email on different devices. Ensure your footer displays and functions well on various screen sizes and check the links to make sure they work.
Overcoming common challenges
Good business email footer examples incorporate solutions to overcome common email marketing challenges.
Address high unsubscribe rates
There will always be a few people who choose to unsubscribe. The worldwide average unsubscribe rate is about 0.2%, but you’re doing fine if you can keep yours at or below 0.5%.
Here’s to use the email footer to combat a high unsubscribe rate:
- Offer a preference center. A preference center allows subscribers to modify their email preferences instead of opting out completely.
- Provide value. Use your footer to provide additional value to your subscribers. This could be in the form of useful links, social media buttons, or even a sneak peek into upcoming products or events.
- Ensure easy unsubscription. Ironically, making it easy for users to unsubscribe lessens the chance they will, giving them a positive impression of your brand.
Enhance email deliverability
Across Constant Contact clients, the average bounce rate is 10.28%, meaning that almost 90% of emails should reach the audience’s inboxes.
Hit or exceed this benchmark with the aid of your email footer. Including necessary legal information in your footer helps you avoid spam filters and reports.
Invite your audience to add you to their list of known contacts to guarantee that your biggest fans will receive your marketing.
Maintain brand consistency across devices
Build trust and awareness. Consistent logos and other style elements should appear in your footer across all emails, reinforcing your brand identity on all devices and with every send.
The significance of email footers
Your footer can play a pivotal role in shaping your brand’s image, building trust with your audience, and ensuring your emails reach their intended recipients.
The best email footer examples end a message with invitations to engage and opportunities to manage email preferences. They impact your brand’s professional reputation with leads and customers.
Take control of yours with a fresh design or update. Cover the essentials, and decide what else to add to provide additional value to your audience.
For more tips on crucial email components, check out these related posts:
- 12 Tips for Creating the Best Email Subject Lines (with Examples)
- Call to Action Ideas: Get Clicks — and Results
- Email Capture Landing Page: Your Conversion Blueprint
- How to Create Email Content That Gets Results
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