Email Footer Examples + Best Practices

Hook, line, and sinker. 

You’ve likely heard this phrase in different contexts before.

It’s also applicable to email marketing. It’s how you can capture your recipient’s attention with an email.

The hook is your subject line, grabbing your recipient’s attention and prompting them to open your message.

The line is your email body, reeling them in with compelling content.

The sinker is… your email footer. Yes, you read that right! 

The email footer is an often overlooked and underutilized aspect of an email but it is just as important as the glamorous subject line and email body.

Just as a fisherman needs all three to make a successful catch, your email needs all three.

The footer carries details readers may need after reading the message, including sender information, unsubscribe controls, and support links. 

What is an Email Footer

An email footer carries your brand identity, the legally required sender details and unsubscribe link, and any extra links or calls to action. 

It is the final aspect of your email that your reader will see, putting a close to your message. 

Email Footer Best Practices

• Keep It Concise and Relevant: Overloading the email footer with too much text or too many links can be overwhelming and reduce its effectiveness.

• Include Contact Information: Provide your company’s contact details for easy communication.

• Unsubscribe Link: Include a clear and straightforward way for recipients to opt-out of future emails. It is also a legal requirement for marketing email in the US, the UK, and Canada, among other jurisdictions.

• Legal Compliance: See the requirements in the next section.

• Branding Consistency: Ensure that your footer reflects your brand’s visual identity, using the same colors, fonts, and style as the rest of your email and other marketing materials.

• Social Media Links: If applicable, include icons or links to your social media profiles to encourage further engagement.

• Mobile Responsiveness: Design the footer to be easily readable on mobile devices.

• Update Regularly: Keep the information in your footer up-to-date. No one wants to click on a broken link.

• Test and Optimize: Regularly test your footer’s layout and links to ensure everything works as intended and make adjustments based on recipient engagement and feedback.

Every email footer has different needs, but these basics cover most of them.

Email Footer legal requirements

Legal requirements for email footers will vary depending on the country and the nature of the email, especially for commercial or marketing emails. 

Here are some key legal aspects to consider in email footers:

• Identification of the Sender: The footer should clearly identify the person or company sending the email. This usually includes the full name of the entity or individual, physical address, and contact information.

• Unsubscribe Options: Laws such as the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States, PECR in the United Kingdom, and CASL in Canada require that marketing emails give recipients a clear and easy way to opt out or unsubscribe from future communications.

• Disclaimers: These can include confidentiality notes (stating that the email is intended only for the intended recipient and may contain confidential information), liability disclaimers (for any errors or omissions in the email content), and legal disclaimers (relating to the content and any attachments).

• Regulatory Information: For certain professions (like legal or financial services), specific regulatory information may need to be included.

Note: we are not lawyers so it’s important to consult a legal professional of your own to ensure that your emails are in full compliance with the specific legal requirements applicable to you and your business. 

Email Footer examples

It’s easy to overlook the footer — both as an email marketer and as the reader. Lucky for you, this is likely the case for your competitors as well. 

Here are 12 email footer examples worth borrowing from. 

1. Polywork

Polywork keeps their email footer simple while letting readers know that they should stay tuned for more “exciting” news from them.

The addition of social media icons makes it easy for readers to also follow them on their favorite platforms to stay as up to date as possible.

2. Opal Camera

Opal Camera also keeps their email footer clean and simple while directly linking to their Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. For a company that sells a physical webcam, putting the privacy policy one click away is a sensible choice.

3. Morning Brew

Morning Brew has a lot going on in their email footer — but that isn’t a bad thing.

They start it off by offering every social media channel they’re on as an icon. Readers who like the newsletter get an easy path to the same team elsewhere.

Next, they give credit to every author who played a part in the edition of the newsletter you just read. It is a small touch that puts names on the work.

Finally, they offer links to valuable pages like their podcast, careers page, and advertising page.

If you enjoy enough of the content they put out there’s a good chance you might consider advertising with them or even applying for a job. 

They take advantage of this prime email footer real estate opportunity.

4. Product Hunt

Product Hunt has always been a community-first platform and that doesn’t need to stop at their daily newsletter.

They use their email footer space to ask readers for feedback through a simple survey by asking the question “What do you love? How could we do better? All feedback is helpful.”

A standing feedback link is a cheap way to find out whether readers still want what you send.

5. Medium

Medium uses their prominent email footer space to encourage readers to download their app on the Apple and Google app stores. 

As a publishing platform, it’s important that they keep readers in their orbit. By converting email readers to app users they can begin to push additional content outside of their typical publishing cadence. 

6. Dense Discovery

Dense Discovery sells sponsorship slots in their newsletter. 

Every so often they will send an email that announces new sponsor openings. This footer gives longtime readers a way to reserve an upcoming Dense Discovery sponsorship slot.

7. Vrbo

Vrbo does a great job of staying on brand in their email footer.

They have their logo front and center and immediately follow it by offering readers a link to their help center for additional information and FAQs.

They make this feel welcoming with the words “We’re here to help”, important for a vacation rental business. 

8. Robinhood

Robinhood includes regulatory information in their email footer. 

They place it directly under social media links and other important information (Help Center, Contact Form, Privacy Policy) in a text that is still legible. It identifies the company’s regulatory status.  

9. Pipe

Pipe helps businesses connect with capital needed to run their business.

They also run a newsletter.

They take up space in their email footer to disclose the difference between the two communications and that the newsletter is for informational purposes only and that Pipe itself is not associated with the multiple sources included in the newsletter.

They also then link to each of the sources mentioned one by one below the disclaimer. If you were seeking out the sources it would be impossible to also miss the disclaimer. 

10. Substack

Substack has one of the simplest email footers out there. And it works.

Their email footer gives you two options. Get the app or Start writing. Both are crucial to their business.

As a newsletter platform they hope readers stay in their ecosystem with their app (similar to Medium above) and they also want readers to try writing their own newsletter.

They use this prime real estate to offer large buttons for the two calls to action that are most crucial to their business.

11. Amazon

Amazon keeps their email footer (surprisingly) bare. They offer three calls to action. Update your preferences, Unsubscribe, and a link to their Privacy Policy.

This is proof that just because you can link to everything A-Z (couldn’t help myself), doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.

12. The Ringer

The Ringer opted for some brand consistency with their email footer and it works great. 

Their bright green brand color stands out and draws attention to their main calls to action of their social media channels. As a website and newsletter they are hoping you also follow them on other channels so that they can continue to give you other forms of content outside of the typical email newsletter.

Conclusion

There you have it… email footers! 

Check that your footer identifies the sender, provides the required unsubscribe options, and links to useful destinations.

Treat it as an equal to your subject line and email body.