Pilot with a small group first

You do not have to switch signatures on for everyone at once. A pilot lets a handful of people send with the new signature for a few days while you check how it looks to real recipients. This article shows a simple way to do it.

How a pilot works

Footer365 only adds a signature when a rule matches the sender. Anyone who matches no rule sends their mail exactly as before, with nothing added. See How signature rules work.

So a pilot is just a rule for your pilot group, with no All users fallback rule yet. The pilot group gets the new signature and everyone else is unaffected.

1. Create a pilot group

In Microsoft 365, create a group for the pilot, or pick an existing small one, and add the people who will take part. Choose people who send plenty of external mail and who will tell you what they see.

Wait for the group to appear in Footer365. Groups and memberships arrive with the directory sync. See How directory sync works.

2. Add a rule for the pilot group

1. Open Signature rules.
2. Select New rule.
3. Enter a Rule name, such as "Pilot".
4. Choose the template you want to try.
5. Under Who sends it, choose Group members and tick your pilot group.
6. Select Save rule.

Where your organisation has the rule wizard, New rule opens it instead: choose the template, then A group and tick your pilot group, and select Make the rule at the end. See Make a rule with the wizard.

Do not add an All users rule yet.

3. Check who is in and who is out

Select Test a rule and try two people:

• A member of the pilot group. You should see Rule matched: with your pilot rule.
• Someone outside it. You should see "No rule matched for" that person, which confirms their mail is left alone.

See Test a rule.

4. Deploy the Outlook add-in to the same group

If you are using the Outlook add-in, you can pilot that too. When you deploy it from Settings > Integrated apps in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, Microsoft asks who should get it: all users, specific groups or specific users. Choose your pilot group.

The add-in can take up to a few hours to appear in Outlook. See Deploy the Outlook add-in.

5. Try it out

Ask the pilot group to send their normal mail for a few days, and to send a few test emails to personal addresses so they can see the result as a recipient would. Things worth checking:

• Every merge field shows the right detail, and nothing is missing. See Merge fields and empty fields.
• Logos and images show without being attached. See Images as attachments.
• The signature looks right in dark mode and on a phone. See Dark mode and email client preview.
• Nobody gets two signatures because their own Outlook signature is still switched on. See Signature twice or stacking.

6. Roll out to everyone

When you are happy:

1. Add a fallback rule for All users with your company template. See Add a fallback rule.
2. Make sure it sits at the bottom of the list.
3. Delete or disable the pilot rule if the pilot group should now get the same signature as everyone else. If you keep it, it stays above the fallback and the pilot group keeps its own template.
4. If you deployed the add-in to the pilot group only, change the deployment in Integrated apps to cover everyone.

Good to know

• You can pilot a campaign banner the same way, by aiming the campaign at your pilot rule. See Schedule and target a campaign.
• A Specific users rule also works for a very small pilot, but a group is easier to grow.

Related

• How signature rules work
• Target by department, group or domain
• Keep or turn off Outlook signatures