Footer and email

Good foot as an eye as they say!

The footer is the end, the footer of the email. Never easy to end a message, or how to say "goodbye" properly.
The footer will be your last impression to the reader. It is also the last area where you can hang a possible click if the rest of the email has not done the job.
Voluntarily, there will be no footer illustration because there is no will to influence, to designate good or bad students.

Beware of the lexicon!

Be careful that "footer" does not become a derivative of "mess"!
Let's go to our site, we put our contact, social networks, legal notices, the link of desabo, the last news of Tata Josiane and an animated gif of the coloring of the last one...
In short, we stack up!

As you can see, we often fine-tune the header of the email and the body of the email. The footer is a critical area as it is good practice to keep it small and give as much information as possible.
A thoughtful layout and a few tests later, and you'll have a great email footer!

What to put in fact?

A footer is not even mandatory in itself. You can almost do without it. But if you're reading this, it's because you want to know more. So here are some keys to have a concrete footer:

• First of all it all depends on your sector of activity. Indeed, a part of your job will determine certain mandatory boxes to fill.
  Example: a banking or insurance service will necessarily have more legal mentions and small lines imposed by the legal service and the legislation.
• It depends on the type of message sent.
  Example: A welcome email will have a more simplistic footer than an online sale with purchase confirmation.
• Who do we send it to? B2B, my loyal customers or prospects.

These 3 parameters being the most important, I invite you to list everything you could put in the footer of your email.

• My logo?
  • To position my brand and link to the site
    
• My customers need to be reassured?
  • Some pictos/texts with a few selected links that will lead to a purchase/delivery/square service
    
• Am I present on social networks?
  • We add the pictos with the links. Be careful, if I don't animate my facebook or my insta regularly, is it worth it to make a link to something that will eventually cause more harm than good.
    
• Show your credentials?
  • My identity, address, contact... Yes, it's always useful to put your cards on the table. Clarity and honesty must pay off.
    
• What are the mandatory legal mentions?
  • It's hard to avoid it with the rgpd and the obligations of your activity. Be careful that legally this point is not underestimated!
    
• A last reference to my site?
  • It's up to you to see if it's useful.
    
• A listing of everything on my site: menu, products, sections, blog, ...
  • It's up to you to see if it's useful and if it's not too spacy.
    
• An unsubscribe link?
  • last item on the list but oh so important. If there is only one thing to put, it is this one. Whether you manage it yourself or your routing platform puts it there, make sure that the unsubscribe feature is present, functional AND HIGHLY VISIBLE. This affects your deliverability in a direct way. Yes, it always hurts to end up in the spam box or to stay at the door of webmails. I advise you to read the article by our Sébastien Fischer on the unsubscribe process.
    And test this link... because by dint of seeing it every time, you add it mechanically and you only test the rest of the email. But if the unsubscribe is ko, it can make you blacklist sympathetically and you rot your future sendings. And then a customer who does not unsubscribe, will report your campaign as spam. And nobody wants that!

Ok it's only a footer, what else is there to say? On the design of the footer in emailing, can we know more?

• Also be careful not to write in 6px. A block of indigestible and too small texts is not optimal.
• And what about the mobile?
  Who says mobile says scroll. Who says big footer, says big scroll... Think carefully about your responsive version. We can certainly clean up and get to the point.
• Be careful with the quality of the pictos / images. Often we will leave low quality and we see not pretty and pixelated things. We take care of everything until the end!
• Will the footer design be in the color of the emailing frame so that it stands out a bit or fully integrate it right after the body? It's up to you.

What is the difference between a good footer and a bad footer?

Sober, discreet, with just the right touch, that's what a good footer design is in an emailing! That's my opinion! Sorry? Yes it is subjective, absolutely.
If you are reduced to hoping for a maximum of clicks there, I invite you to review your message as a whole and have interesting content above.
Remember only what is mandatory: the desabo and being in line with the law.
Everything else is up to you. Don't forget to test! These are the click zones that will speak for your footer. We often stay on anecdotal % (1% or less). Except sometimes the link of désabo if we floppe the campaign. Afterwards, even if you don't get many clicks in the footer, this is no reason not to put in certain information that you consider essential: for the image of the company, the design, the coherence of the communication, the usefulness for the client, etc.
And if you want to go even further, here are big references in emailing that will help you decide on the subject: an article by Emailonacid as well asan article by Litmus.

To conclude: do not neglect what may "seem" the least important. And always end on a high note if possible!