I recently did a post on the anatomy of an email, where Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon summarized all the "chunks" that make up an email. What is often overlooked is what we refer to as the footer, that final bit of content that usually stuffs your company's CAN-SPAM compliant items such as the unsubscribe link, physical address, etc. I would like to commend the folks over at MarketingProfs for the elegant and effective footer they have set up and suggest it as a model for you.

Check out the following screen capture to take a look.



Here's what they did right in my mind:

1. Company physical address - Very important and part of the CAN-SPAM act. You have to have it in there.
2. Identifying sender - It simply merges in the recipients email address (in this case me), letting you know who it was sent to and at what address.
3. Prompt to add to address book or white list - this is important and cannot be understated.
4. Prompt to manage preferences - This little link lets me visit a page to update my preferences and information. This is probably one of the most underutilized tools marketers have available to them. And I am sure you have been a victim to the desire to change your email address, but no way of doing so? Let your subscribers keep their information current and respect they may wish to change which email account you send to them at.
5. Clear opt-out - They've included a clear link allowing me to opt-out.
6. My favorite - Got this as a forward? Signup to receive our future emails. This again seems like a no brainer - we all forward relevant emails to friends and colleagues. Why not prompt them to join your list on their own?

A few things I might tweak. Maybe add the prompt to white list to the header as well, along with a link to a page that shows me how for my email program. It will be more top of mind (and top of email). Put it right next to the "click here to view as a web page".  They might also prompt me to forward it again creating a snowfall of forwarded emails (which is good for any brand). 

Items 1-6 as well as my tweaks suggested above can all easily be created by you in your emails using SendLabs. By dropping in a simple tag, you can merge my email address and identify me. You can easily add a prompt to whitelist if you are not using the standard header that we provide (which already does this for you). You can create a manage preferences center and insert a simple tag letting your recipients visit a web-page to update their profile. You can easily insert an unsubscribe link and have it say whatever you wish (unsubscribe, opt-out, remove me, etc.) You can also prompt them to visit your opt-in web form (which you can create in SendLabs and install on your web site easily), encouraging them to join your list.

So while you spend a lot of time crafting the perfect email campaign, don't overlook a well-crafted email footer. It is full of opportunity for you and your subscribers.