What to put in an email signature: a practical checklist

A signature has one job: tell the reader who you are and how to reach you, without getting in the way. Here is what belongs in it.

The essentials

• Your name, written the way you want to be addressed.
• Job title, in plain words.
• Company name, linked to the website.
• One phone number, the one you actually answer.

That is enough for most people. Everything else should earn its place.

Worth adding when relevant

• A headshot, if you work with clients in person or over video. It helps people put a face to the name.
• A logo, sized modestly. It should support the name, not compete with it.
• A booking link or button, if meetings are part of your job.
• Two or three social links that you keep up to date. LinkedIn is the usual first choice.
• Pronouns, if you choose to share them.
• A banner, for one current campaign, event or offer.
• A disclaimer, if your industry or employer requires one.
• Licence or registration numbers, if your regulator requires them.

Leave out

• Inspirational quotes.
• Every social network you have ever joined.
• Your full postal address, unless people really post things to you.
• An email address that duplicates the one in the “From” line.
• The whole signature as a single image: it is blocked by default, unclickable and unreadable to screen readers.

Keep it consistent

If you work in a team, your signature should match your colleagues’. The same template, fonts and colours make the company look organised, and central management means nobody’s signature quietly goes out of date.

Check before you send

Send a test email to yourself in Gmail and Outlook, open it on your phone, and switch to dark mode once. If it reads well in all of those, it is ready.