How to apply a reply signature using server-side signature rules – Exclaimer Knowledge Base

Scenario

When you start a new email conversation, you want your signature to be as complete as possible with all your branding imagery, contact details, social media links, legal disclaimer, and perhaps even an advertising banner.

Once your recipient has replied to you, any subsequent replies from you will start to appear cumbersome if you keep adding the full signature each time - so you want to add an abbreviated version of your signature to these replies.

Resolution

When Exclaimer Cloud receives an email for processing, it adds the first signature that is applicable. However, you can configure the system to scan the body of the message and avoid re-adding the same signature if it is already present. You can then force it to skip to the next applicable signature.

To do this, you need to create two versions of your signature: the full signature version and an abbreviated (reply) signature version. Then, you need to configure the full signature to only be applied once per message, while the abbreviated signature to be applied on each subsequent reply.

For example purposes, let's assume that you already have a single signature for all your users, similar to this one:

Please click on the required options listed below to see how you can resolve this issue:

Step 1: Create an abbreviated 'reply version' of your full signature

Evaluate your signature after you create your full signature.

All signatures are displayed on the All Signatures screen in the order they are evaluated (top to bottom). You can easily change the evaluation order using the Re-order option.

Example of an abbreviated signature:

Step 2: Identify the unique string of characters in your full signature

Identify a short, unique string of characters in your full signature that would not usually appear anywhere else in the email.

Some examples of a short, unique string of characters include the Company Registration Number, part of an office address or part of your legal disclaimer. Make sure the string is no more than 20 characters.

If you have identified a short, unique string of characters, then proceed to Step 3: Configure your full signature to only be applied once per message.
If you cannot identify a short, unique string of characters in your full signature, then you can modify your signature to include it.
Please see the tips below on what you can insert as a unique string of characters.

Tips!
Some ideas to incorporate a unique string of characters into your email signature:

Signature versioning: In some departments, such as Marketing, there are periodic changes to email designs. In such cases, you can insert a small, subtle version number into the design as a unique string. So, every time the design changes, the version number is incremented. As the new version number will not be present in the previous replies - the new full signature (with the updated version number) will be added to the next reply.

In the example below, a date-based signature version number has been added to the Legal Disclaimer block:

Text embellishment: You can add a decorative horizontal line at the foot of the signature, which can be made up of a sequence of characters. This will improve the visual appearance as well as give you a unique string to insert.

In the example below, a repeating pair of characters have been added to a text field at the end of the signature design:

Step 3: Configure your full signature to only be applied once per message

Follow these steps to configure the full signature to only ever be added to a message if it is not already there:

Log into your Exclaimer Cloud subscription.
From the All Signatures tab, select the required signature then click MANAGE.

The selected signature window is displayed.
Select the Advanced Rules tab to set conditions for server-side deployment only.
Select Do not add signature if message contains to enable the textbox.

This option is helpful in scenarios where you want to add an abbreviated version of your signature to your email 'replies' (as your initial email conversation had your full signature complete with all the brand imagery, contact details, social media links and legal disclaimer - if you keep adding your full signature to the subsequent replies then your emails will look cumbersome).
- In This Text, enter a word or phrase that triggers an exception and causes this signature NOT to be applied. In this case, enter the unique string you identified.

- From In, select Anywhere in email trial - this will ensure the email signature is not processed in the reply emails.

- From If this signature is not applied, select Process the next signature - this will ensure that no subsequent signatures are processed.
Example: