You may think that the footer is one of your design’s least visible or essential parts. However, it is an element that will add professionalism and confidence to your brand. The footer is part of email marketing best practices.
The email footer is the last piece of information your contacts will see in your email.
Most emails include:
Last CTA
Website link
Social media buttons
Disclaimer
Contact information
Unsubscribe link
Reconfirm link
Manage subscription link
Report abuse link
Physical mailing address
Anti-spam and privacy laws
Company policies
Green email disclaimer
Badge
Although the footer may look cluttered or busy each link has specific a function to help your email.
An example would be the Manage Subscription link. Removing this option may cause your contacts to unsubscribe instead of editing their subscription options. As a result, you could see an increase in unsubscribes. As a GDPR requirement, we provide a field for your subscribers to request, see or change their contact information. If your contact submits a change request, a system email is sent to you to inform you of the contact’s request. You must take appropriate actions based on this notice.
IMPORTANT
Due to the CAN-SPAM Act legislation, the Unsubscribe link and the physical mailing address are mandatory in the email footer. The email footer block can be customized to your preference but not deleted.
The View this email in your browser link allows your contacts to view your email on a browser window as if it were a website. This link belongs to the permission reminder block and is optional.
The Permission reminder text is a short message that reminds the contact why they got your email in their inbox. Even though this is not mandatory for CAN-SPAM law, we don’t recommend you delete this text. The most common reason people mark a recipient as spam is because they don’t remember the sender or why they choose to subscribe in the first place.
The sent information option is part of the footer block, as are the Verified unsubscribe logo, the manage subscription, and the report abuse links. Including those in your email layout is optional, but removing them could affect your email performance and GDPR compliance. When clicking the footer block, the options to customize are displayed on the left.
SUGGESTION
To guarantee compliance with all anti-spam laws, we encourage you to keep all footer links on your layout. Learn more about the Manage subscription link.
The company’s physical address is required to comply with the CAN-SPAM law. The company address is pulled from your Benchmark account settings. If there is no physical address in your account settings, you’ll need to enter one in the editor before scheduling an email.
You can add other information in the address box, such as your company’s full name and telephone number. Hyperlinks are not supported in the address section.
To change a specific email address:
Click on the footer block.
Select the Content tab.
Write the information needed.
The unsubscribe link allows Benchmark Email to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act, where recipients must be given at least one unsubscribe link in every email correspondence sent. The unsubscribe link is mandatory and can not be removed or modified. To learn more about the unsubscribe link, click here.
The Benchmark Badge informs recipients that you are using Benchmark to send emails and that they can trust your content.
To change the logo in all your future regular or RSS emails created with the Drag & Drop or Code Editor see the steps below.
This action will not affect past emails, templates, or emails in draft mode.
In the user menu, select Account Settings.
Scroll down to the Footer Badge Options dropdown menu and click on it.
Select one of the badge options, then scroll up and click on Save Changes. All future emails created in the Drag & Drop or Code Editor will have the selected badge.
The following footer examples were recreated with our email Drag & Drop Editor; they are based on actual emails to show you the design possibilities with our platform and provide ideas for your emails.
Encouraging good practices: This is a physical store, and sharing where they can find a store near them, so the map is a great idea to keep in every email footer. Then and before unsubscribing, they encourage users to manage their email preferences.
Footer with branding: The footer is longer than expected, but this company has a lot to say. They provided links recipients may be interested in and encouraged the recipients to update their preferences. We loved the let’s be friends message with the logo as a reminder of the brand.
More options than the usual: Anti-spam compliant with the first link being the Unsubscribe link. We want to highlight that the company offers links to join their community or donate. Short and to the point.
Simple but clear: This company adds to its footer, not just the address but also social media and one more CTA to their website through their logo. The disclaimer is clear and concise.