Live in ten minutes: the Footer365 quick start

This is the short version. Everything here has a fuller guide if you want the detail, linked at the end of each step.

1. Start your free trial

Go to Start free trial and select Continue with Microsoft. Sign in with your normal work account.

Then:

1. Choose a term. Every feature is included, from signatures, rules and the Outlook add-in to banner campaigns, A/B tests and analytics. You do not enter a number of users: Footer365 counts your mailboxes from your directory.
2. Add your contacts. The technical contact receives the setup link and must be able to approve apps for your Microsoft 365 organisation.
3. Add your company details. A payment card is optional during the trial.
4. Read the agreements listed, tick the box and select Agree and create account.

The trial is free and does not need a card. It starts when Microsoft 365 is connected in step 2, not when you sign up, so you get all of it. More about signing up

2. Approve Footer365 in Microsoft 365

Open the setup link (it is also in your technical contact's email). The first step is Grant directory access. Select Continue to Microsoft, check the permissions on Microsoft's screen, and select Accept.

This lets Footer365 read your users and groups so signatures can carry each person's own name, job title and phone number. Footer365 does not keep the content of your email. It reads a message only while it adds the signature and, as your Long conversations setting says, tidies the earlier signatures and banners it added that a reply or forward quotes. What each permission is for

3. Choose how signatures are added

Still in the setup wizard, the second step is Choose how Footer365 adds signatures. Pick one and select Continue. The price is the same either way.

• Outlook add-in and mail flow, marked Recommended, signs every message, from any device or app. The next step is Grant the Exchange Administrator role: select Continue to Microsoft again, and if Microsoft asks you to approve once more, select Accept. Footer365 then sets up Exchange Online on its own: two connectors and two transport rules. You will see each one tick off in the wizard, usually within a minute or two. There is nothing to type and no PowerShell to run.
• Outlook add-in only changes nothing in Exchange, but signs only mail written in Outlook with the add-in. Mail from phones' own mail apps and other programs goes without a signature. Using the Outlook add-in only

The wizard then asks two quick questions:

• The Outlook add-in. It lets people see their signature while they write. With mail flow it is optional, and you can skip it for now with I will do this later. With the Outlook add-in only it is what adds every signature, so deploy it now. How to deploy it
• Everyone's own Outlook signatures. Choose Let my people keep their own signatures or Turn their own signatures off. If people keep theirs, their emails will carry both their own signature and the Footer365 one, so most organisations turn them off. Be aware that turning them off clears the signatures people have already saved. With the Outlook add-in only, Footer365 cannot turn them off for you, and the wizard shows the steps to do it yourself instead. Which to choose

4. Pick a signature

Open the Footer365 portal and go to Signatures, then Templates. Select New from library, find a design you like, and select Use this template.

The template opens in the editor. Put your logo in and change the colours to match your brand, then select Save. You do not type anybody's name: the template fills in each person's details from Microsoft 365 when they send an email. If somebody has no mobile number, that line simply disappears. Using the editor

5. Give it to everyone

Go to Signatures, then Signature rules, and select New rule.

1. Give the rule a name, such as "Everyone".
2. Choose the template you just saved.
3. Under Who sends it, choose All users.
4. Select Save rule.

Where Footer365 has given your organisation the rule wizard, New rule opens it instead: choose the template, then Everyone, and select Make the rule at the end. Make a rule with the wizard

That is it: with mail flow, the next email anyone sends will carry the signature. With the Outlook add-in only, so will the next email anyone writes in Outlook once the add-in has reached them. How rules work

6. Check it works

On the Signature rules page, select Test a rule, pick yourself, and check it names the rule and template you expect.

Then send an email from your own mailbox to an address outside your organisation, such as a personal email account. With mail flow, the signature is added as the message leaves Microsoft 365, so you will see it on the received copy. With the Outlook add-in only, write the email in Outlook: the signature appears as you start writing.

One more thing: your SPF record

If the portal shows Action required: update your SPF record, copy the suggested record it shows you and give it to whoever manages your domain's DNS. It adds Footer365's mail servers to the list of servers allowed to send for your domain, so receiving servers keep trusting your email. The message clears itself once the change is detected, usually within an hour. It never appears with the Outlook add-in only, because your mail does not pass through Footer365's servers. Updating your SPF record

You are live

From here, everything is optional:

• Use a shorter signature on replies
• Give different teams different signatures
• Add a banner under everyone's signature
• Let colleagues help manage signatures
• Choose what happens to plain-text email from iPhones: with mail flow, it is converted so it gets the full signature from the start, and this is where to change that

If anything does not look right, start with The signature was not added.