Footers are an essential part of email design and user experience. They support navigation, compliance, and trust by appearing consistently at the end of all communications.
Footers help people:
- Identify the agency or department sending the message
- Find contact and support information
- Access related services and policies
- Build confidence through privacy, legal, and compliance content
- Connect to social media or related resources
To ensure accessibility and clarity, the footer must be clearly separated from the main content with colour, spacing, or borders.
When to use
Include a footer when you need to:
- Identify the sender (agency or department)
- Provide contact details, postal address, or support links
- Link to privacy statements, legal disclaimers, or compliance text
- Offer navigation to social media channels or related resources
- Display unsubscribe or subscription preference options
- Ensure content is concise, accessible, and meets readability standards
When not to use
Avoid using footers for:
- Campaign or program content (these belong in the main body)
- Decorative or distracting imagery
- Excessive navigation links – keep it simple and scannable
Variations
The NSW Email Toolkit supports several footer layouts, from content-rich formats to minimal options:
Logo left, socials right
Footer with a left-aligned logo, social icons on the right and full supporting metadata.
Logo left, address and links right
Formal split footer that keeps agency identity and utility links clearly separated.
Centred logo, split metadata
Centred-logo footer with address and links split across the row.
Two-column compliance
Two-column footer for compliance copy, contact details and required links.
Minimal left, socials only
Lightweight footer with a left-aligned logo and social links only.
Minimal right, socials only
Mirrored minimal footer with the logo on the right and socials on the left.
Minimal left, socials and links
Minimal footer that keeps socials prominent while retaining core links and metadata.
Minimal centred
Centred footer with a simple link stack and supporting agency details.
The lightest footer option for service emails that do not need logo or social treatments.
Socials and legal menu
Comprehensive footer with socials, legal links, subscription messaging and NSW branding.
Design guidance
- Always include the NSW Government logo unless using the minimalist text-only option for transactional emails.
- Place compliance information where required by law or policy.
- Keep navigation concise— no more than 4–6 links.
- Test across clients to ensure alignment and spacing are preserved.
Accessibility
- Provide alt text for the NSW Government logo and all social icons.
- Maintain strong contrast for text links against the background.
- Use semantic markup for address and contact information so assistive technologies can interpret them correctly.
- Ensure that text links remain legible if images or icons are blocked.