How to Create a Free Email Signature and Boost Your Opportunities as an Artist
By Thea Fiore-Bloom, PhD
Guess how many emails you send out in a year?
If you are like the average working person, it’s a whopping 10,000.
So if you have a decent email signature, you get to multiply your chances of magnetizing marvelous opportunities to your art via email by 10,000 times.
Not bad, right?
What is an email signature exactly?
An email signature is that thingy at the bottom of your emails that tells people what you make, sell, write or do, and how to find you.
But it’s a thingy many creatives forget to add to their emails. And that’s a shame because those thingies are gold for heart-centered artists.
Because email signatures are a form of low-pressure, low-cost, meaningful marketing.
And on top of that, email signature thingies are fairly easy to set up and pour your unique creativity into, if you know the right free videos to watch.
(And I’m going to hook you up with the perfect ones below.)
Here’s Why Creatives Need Email Signatures
Email signatures help artists, actors, screenwriters, and authors boost our chances of making our dreams come true by quietly mentioning what our dreams are at the bottom of every email.
It’s like leaving a calling card to the universe that may get picked up by folks I call potential angel helpers.
Who are your angel helpers?
Your angel helpers might be gallerists, collectors, writers’ agents, clients, journalists, future readers, or colleagues.
And the harder we make it for our potential angel helpers to find our home base in our emails (or the less appealing that calling card is), the less chance any magic will happen.
Let me give you an example.
I’m at my desk, reading an email from a lovely creative who I think I might want to feature on my blog or The Charmed Studio Podcast.
I quickly pan down to the bottom of her email to find the link to their website so I can click on over to it.
But she has nothing at the bottom of their email.
Crickets.
Or her website name might be there, but there is no hyperlink to it.
So, that means I have to get out of Gmail and go into the dangerous, distracting land of Google to find them.
Who knows if I’ll ever make it to their site?
A cute “raccoon befriends a cat” video may ambush me on the way.
So I ask you, what’s currently at the bottom of your emails?
If there is something there, brava!
But could that something use a makeover?
Do you just have a link to your website, but no image of you or your work, or links to your social media?
Let’s look at three solid email signature makeover options that range from coach to first class.
3 Ways To Give Your Email Signature a Makeover
Free Email Signature Option 1
Make a Bare Bones One With No Images
Simple, handmade email signatures with no images are like flying in Economy class on a plane; you don’t get champagne, but you get taken where you need to go, at a great price — in this case, for free.
What To Do:
Here’s a super-easy video by Northern Viking Everyday that will have you finished with your first email signature (complete with logo and hyperlinks to your website) in about 5 minutes.
Here is an example of a free email signature the fab artist and Charmed Studio subscriber, Lola Jovan, made in Gmail after reading this article.
Lola’s email signature has not one, but three, clickable links to her socials.
(The three individual links are not live below, but they do work in Gmail.)
But if you have trouble with tech or want a few more bells, buttons, or tassels, try option two.
It’s like flying business class.
Free Email Signature Option 2
Make a Fancy Pants One on HubSpot or Canva
1. You could head over to HubSpot and use their free software to make a template in about 20 minutes.
Getting your images onto a HubSpot email signature requires some work, though.
You have to grab the URL of your photo from your Dropbox account and paste it into your template. (Hubspot says you can also use Google Drive to upload URL photo links, but users report it’s glitchy.)
2. I chose to pass on HubSpot because I found it more intuitive and enjoyable to make an email signature in Canva.
Watch this video in which Daniela Cervantes will show you how to make a free, fancy-pants email signature in Canva without having to deal with the image URL stress.
Just download your finished template from Canva as a JPEG file (not PNG), okay?
Daniela explains how to easily install it in Gmail and link it to your website in the video below.
If you’re using Yahoo, go here to see how to install your finished signature.
*(If you are using Outlook Explorer or something not named here, check out this article for more options: 15 of The Best Email Signature Generators.)
Now let’s part those curtains and step on into first class.
Email Signature Option 3
$ Buy One
Want to create an image-laden welcome mat for the bottom of your emails that brings in business without having to chip your fab ombré nail polish?
Do your email signature the old-fashioned capitalist way — buy it.
Some companies out there want an insane $60 or more a month to provide myriad email signature templates for you.
But companies like WiseStamp (see image) have template subscription plans for artists that start at $5.80 a month.
So, pick which way you want to fly and give this form of low-pressure marketing a go today.
(And while you’re at it take an additional 5 minutes and add an email sign-up form to your Facebook page and website.)
Email signatures are a low or no-cost way to show people your essence.
And they also act as an organic yet potent call to action at the bottom of every email you send.
What do you think?
Have a question I could help with?
Let me know in the comments below.
If you liked this post, you might also get a lot out of this Charmed Studio post: Turn Your Art Website Into an Attraction Magnet (Without Social Media).
And while you’re giving your marketing a makeover, if you think your blog or website would benefit from some snazzifying, peek at my one-on-one blog and website makeover coaching packages just for artists and writers.
You may also like these Charmed Studio Posts:
How Do I Get More Comments on My Art Blog? 7 Secrets You Won’t Hear Anywhere Else
Zoom Calls For Introverts: The Artist’s Guide to Looking, Sounding, and Feeling Good on Zoom
Transform Your Art Newsletter in 3 Questions
3 Mostly-Free, Fabulous Writing Apps
Don’t Get Hacked on Instagram: 15 Minute *Fix for Artists
How to Approach a Museum Store: 5 Surprising Dos and Don’ts for Artists
This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. This means if you buy books or stuff via my blog I may receive a tiny commission and do a happy dance. There is no extra fee for you. I only link to items I personally use and love; products that I think help heart-centered artists.
Hello Thea,
Great idea to create the email signature in Canva. But how do you use the template in outlook/Gmail? If I import it as an image file, the links are not clickable?
Hi Aruna,
Congrats on making the image in Canvas, brava!
However…
Three part answer on this tech issue:
1.The problem could be Outlook. You may have missed this one line in the post. *(If you are using Outlook Explorer or something not named here, check out this article for more options: 15 of The Best Email Signature Generators.) But it could still work as you have already made it with a few tweaks. Try this article, it might have to do with opening it initially in Word. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-an-email-signature-from-a-template-5b02c5ed-1e85-4d2a-a098-9628fe3231d8
2. I have found in some cases It isn’t always possible to have all the icons in the image be clickable. If you have the image itself be linked to a single URL like your website, that is a thousand times better than having no clickable email signature. People can click on over to your socials via the website anyway. And in my opinion you want potential collectors spending time on property you own (your website) rather than property you rent (instagram, etc.) Because if they are on your website you hopefully have email signup boxes on every page of your site. And having your peeps use those boxes and subscribe to your list is such a gift to you. You probably know all that but just in case you might want more info on the how’s and why’s of sign up boxes go here:How Do I Add a Subscribe Form To My Website? (In Just 10 Minutes) Great for Artists Who Want a Larger Mailing List and More Sales
3. Option 3
Hire someone at a super reasonable price to figure this out for you. In 10 minutes probably. And have your signature up and running by going to Upwork.com or Fiverr.com. I also found a wonderful tech person who makes house calls on Taskrabbit.com. I mentioned this on the podcast version of the post. Somethings are not worth the stress. One great thing I find about getting older is I freak out (as per usual) but then I cut myself a lot of slack on things like this and hire someone.
Hope that helps 🙂
This is great and very helpful Thea! Thank you for sharing these resources!
Nice to see your name pop up Aruna. Your work is so beautiful I look forward to seeing one of your beautiful shores scapes on the bottom of your emails. I appreciate you taking time to comment! Thanks.
Great information! Thanks Thea!
My pleasure Trish, glad I could help.
I LOVE THIS!!! I just added my ‘head shot’ (sounds weird) to my email signature, and I’ve always had all my contact info there, too. It will be intriguing to add another little signature piece to my…er…signature…so I’m grateful for the deep digging you did to provide us with all the options. THANK YOU!!!!
Headshot does all of sudden sound weird to me too no Luann, how violent, lol. Congrats on adding an image to your signature and thank you for the idea for the post initially. Appreciate you.
Thank you so much. What a great article. I googled how to do this for my iPad and it was easy. I followed the gmail dude, sent my self a blank email, copied the signature and pasted to my iPad “signature” in mail settings. Now if I can think of a more clever description beyond “landscape painter”. ☹️
Hi Janet! So happy to hear that it worked for you. Your art is so stunning, it can speak for itself if you include a painting of yours in your signature. But I hear you about tag lines. Tag lines seem simple but they are such a bear to write. That would be a good topic for a post someday….I will consider that. For now I would say if you are looking for an adjective or a few words to add to “landscape painter” to zip it up, look at how clients and friends have lyrically described your work in past. Take something from there. Do you ever keep a Feel Good File? That kind of file would contain those kinds of words you are looking for. Here is the post I wrote on that. https://thecharmedstudio.com/artists-writers-need-feel-good-file/
Yay Thea! This is timely and so helpful! I’ve had “email signature” on my to-do list for literally years, but I just never got around to it. Now with your examples and tutorials, I’ve got an incentive to actually do it, because I get to make a pretty thing and use it on a daily basis 🙂 I already use Canva for other stuff, so I think I’ll go that route. I love its ease of use and how customizable their templates are. Not sure if I can use that on MS Outlook or only on Gmail webmail? And on my dedicated website email? Will give it a try.
So glad that I could help. I’m sure your email signature will be stunning, please send me an email when you have it done. I did a little research for you and it seems that it won’t be a problem to add a canva signature to MS Outlook, just save it as a jpeg or IMAGE file. Here is a link with more details.
https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/outlook/1299-outlook-add-image-signature.html
Thanks so much Thea, that worked! If I’d known it was this easy, I wouldn’t have waited years to do this… I’ll send you an email 🙂
I love this thank you so much. This is great information and I absolutely love your signature. I love, artist like you who want to feel, write, and sell better by being yourself. That is wonderful.
OK….so you really nailed it. Now my signature looks all dinky and sad. Your fault! Thanks eh?
LOL. But I can’t wait to see what you come up with. I bet it will be so beautiful.
This information is very timely and was totally off my radar. I immediately updated my signature to include a hyperlink to my website which I had never considered. Thank you. I will watch the videos you have recommended and make more additions. Especially interested in building my email list on my website.
Hi Linda, What a great idea to build your email list via your email signature. I may have to put that in the post somewhere or do more research on it and make a different post on it. You got me thinking. One reason I love to blog and receive comments is I learn from my smartina subscribers like you. Were you thinking of putting a hyperlink to your newsletter itself?
Wow! Thank you so much Thea for this useful information! I really needed to renew my signature on emails and make it more professional! I can’t wait to put your instructions into practice! ❤️
Oh I bet your email signature will be even more gorgeous. If you remember to, pop me an email with your new one on it when you get around to it okay? And thanks so much for letting me know via the comments that you appreciated the post, you made my day-again. 🙂
Hi Thea, thanks for reminding me to set this option up on our artist website!
You are so welcome. I wrote this in part because I knew it would get me to finally remember to take care of this for myself. Thanks for commenting, made my day.
Thea, you have been working hard! I had no idea you can create an e-mail siggy with Canva or that you can purchase one! I found Hubspot frustrating! This is so awesome! Way to go!
Yay! I am overjoyed it helped you.You inspired me to press publish on this piece. I was researching it and found it wasn’t just you and I that had trouble with Hubspot. If you try the video and template for Canva let me know. I would love to see the result. So show me your email signature if you do it. Sending a hug.Thea
I would love to try it out but it would not work for me since I don’t have gmail! Thanks for sharing this amazing resource,Thea.I shared your blog in my FB group
Thanks for sharing Sylvia, you always give me new visitors, so nice of you. Okay so what I don’t get is that if you can do a hubspot signature in yahoo why cant you add a canva one? You added the hubspot signature one as an image file right? Or did you input the code? Because if you were able to add it as an image you should be able to add the Canva image (email signature) that you create with no problem….. I think.
I know Yahoo used to give people problems if they tried to add a profile photo down at bottom of page but no longer right?
Thank you,Thea.I assumed that I could not use it since it said ‘gmail’. I will give it a try and let you know.
No thank you, you made me realize I need to amend the post to include other email service providers. And also wanted to say I love that you wisely included a way to build your email list into your email signature. I want to look into that more for myself and my readers.