Email signature marketing campaign: a banner plan for your whole team

An email signature marketing campaign puts one banner and one link under the emails your team already sends. It costs no ad spend, and its reach is capped by how much email your people send to customers and prospects, which is usually less than you hope. This page gives you a seven-step plan, a way to estimate volume before you start, and an honest account of what free tools can and cannot do.

The platform notes follow Google’s help page on user signatures (last updated 1 October 2026) and Microsoft’s Exchange page on disclaimers, both read on 5 October 2026. The tagging advice follows Google’s page on URL builders.

What an email signature marketing campaign can deliver

Start with arithmetic, not hope. A banner appears on each message that carries it. The number of appearances is the number of people carrying it, times the external emails each sends in a working day, times the working days in the campaign. Replies in the same thread repeat the banner, so appearances are not people reached.

As an illustration only, with assumed numbers: if 12 people each send 10 external emails a day for 20 working days, that is 12 × 10 × 20 = 2,400 appearances. Replace those inputs with your own, taken from your mail logs or a sample week. We have no click rate to give you, because we have no source we could verify. Treat your first campaign as the baseline and write down what it produced.

That is why the goal matters. A banner for a webinar that 40 people might attend can work with small volume. A banner meant to move a national brand will not.

Seven steps for an email signature marketing campaign

1. Set one goal and one action. “Book a demo”, “register for the open day” or “download the price list”. Choose the single link the banner points to.
2. Choose who carries it. Client-facing staff first. Decide whether internal mail should show it. On Google Workspace, the footer is added by default only to messages to recipients outside your organisation, and you can tick a box to include internal mail.
3. Make the banner. For a Google footer, the page recommends an image 70 to 100 pixels high and 300 to 400 pixels wide, with a maximum of 100 pixels high by 1000 pixels wide. Keep the file small and the text readable on a phone. Add words around it, because some mail apps do not load images by default. See our notes on email signature banners and signature size.
4. Tag the link. Use utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, all lowercase, plus utm_content if the banner and a text link point at the same page. Our page on email signature analytics has the naming table.
5. Set the dates. Write the start, the end and the person who removes it. More on the platform differences below.
6. Test before it goes live. Send a message from two mailboxes to an outside address, open it on a phone and on a desktop, and click the link once.
7. Take it down and read the result. Remove it on the end date even if the campaign continues, record the visits in your sheet, and keep the banner image online for the old messages. The reason is covered in our guide to updating signatures after a rebrand.

Run an email signature marketing campaign with built-in tools

You do not need signature software to put a banner under every outgoing message. Both big platforms have a footer feature, and both have limits.

Google Workspace. The setting is under Apps, Google Workspace, Gmail, Compliance, Append footer. Google says users cannot change or remove it, and that changes can take up to 24 hours, though they usually happen sooner. The page describes no start or end date for a footer, so retiring a banner means editing or removing the rule yourself. Put the end date in a calendar with a name next to it. Allow a day for the change to spread, so the banner does not run a day late. The steps are in our guide to setting a signature for all users on Google Workspace.

Microsoft 365. The rule is under Mail flow, Rules, Add a rule, Apply disclaimers. Its settings include Activate this rule on and Deactivate this rule on, which suit a timed campaign. Microsoft’s Exchange page even gives an example that adds an advertisement for one month by setting an activation and expiry date. Microsoft’s admin page lists limits: the text cannot be inserted directly under the latest reply, users cannot see it in their Sent Items, and images cannot be embedded. The Exchange page shows an image added with an IMG tag, so read the two together as: host the banner at a web address and refer to it. Use Test without Policy Tips first. Our guide to setting a company signature on Microsoft 365 has the full steps.

Neither route gives you per-person targeting by customer, rotation of several banners, or reporting. For those, you are looking at a tool.

What signature tools say about an email signature marketing campaign

These are statements from each vendor’s own pages, read on 5 October 2026. We have not tested these tools, and the plan names and limits can change.

• Exclaimer. Its campaigns page says campaign banners sit alongside the main signature, that you can set start and end dates, and that you can target by sender, recipient or HubSpot and Salesforce lists. Its pricing page lists campaign management and standard scheduling from the Standard plan, and advanced scheduling and an engagement dashboard on Pro.
• Letsignit. Its campaigns page describes campaigns assigned to a team, department or individual, with scheduling and click tracking. Its pricing page shows $2 per user per month for the signatures plan, on an annual subscription.
• WiseStamp. Its pricing page puts campaigns, described as targeted banners, on the Grow plan at $49 a month plus $1 a month per employee, billed annually.
• NewOldStamp. Its pricing page lists signature banner campaigns, with scheduling and segmentation, among the features of its one public plan.

For the cost of each at your headcount, see our page on email signature software pricing.

What emailfooter does and does not do for an email signature marketing campaign

emailfooter is not a campaign tool. It has no banner scheduling, no rotation, no targeting and no click analytics. The company admin designs one signature, each employee fills in their own details and installs it themselves, and nothing is pushed into a mailbox. The analytics page counts copies and installs started, not clicks.

You can write your own HTML template, so a banner could be placed in the design by hand. The cost is that when the banner changes or ends, every person has to copy and install the signature again, and nothing reminds them. For a short campaign that is the wrong tool. A better split is to keep the personal signature in emailfooter and let your platform’s footer carry the timed banner underneath. We have not tested a server-side footer on top of an emailfooter signature, so try it on two mailboxes before you roll it out.

Here is the permanent part of the plan, the personal signature that would sit above any timed banner.

The permanent signature. A timed banner would be added below it by a footer rule, not by this design. The company and person are made up.

Plan the end of an email signature marketing campaign first

The step people skip is the last one. Before you launch, put three things in writing: the date it ends, who removes it and where the result will be recorded. Then run it for the whole planned period and compare against your baseline. If the numbers justify a second campaign, change one thing at a time, such as the banner or the link, so you know what made the difference. The wider question of who may change a company signature belongs in your signature policy.

Frequently asked questions

What is an email signature marketing campaign?

It is a banner and a link added to the signature on your team’s outgoing emails for a set period. The aim is one action, such as booking a call or joining an event.

Do email signature marketing campaigns work?

They can, within the limits of how much external email your team sends. We have no verified click rate, so measure your own with tagged links and treat the first campaign as a baseline.

Can I run an email signature marketing campaign for free?

Yes, with a Google Workspace footer or a Microsoft 365 mail flow rule, plus tagged links and Google Analytics. You give up per-person targeting, rotation and built-in reporting.

Does emailfooter support an email signature marketing campaign?

No. It has no banner scheduling, targeting or click analytics. It handles the personal signature, and you can pair it with your platform’s footer for a timed banner.