Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare via emailShare via Facebook Messenger

This Is What a Perfect Professional Email Signature Looks Like

Updated on June 2, 2022Emailing

Before email was a fact of life, a business card or letterhead served to showcase a person’s professional or personal brand. Now, your email signature has to deliver that payload. Is yours doing the job?

The average worker sends about forty business emails each day. That’s two hundred emails in a typical work week, and a whopping 10,400 per year. Each email is an opportunity to share a little information that helps build recognition and trust. And when you have a good signature, you can promote yourself, your services, the company you work for, or all of the above.

Your emails matter
Be the best writer in the office.

How to Create a Professional Email Signature

Your signature doesn’t need to be flashy to be effective. In fact, the best email signature is often simple. Here are a few do’s and don’ts.

  • Do keep it short. Use no more than 3-4 lines of text.
  • Don’t throw in the kitchen sink. Prioritize rather than including every social media or website link.
  • Do include an image. Your corporate logo or a simple, professional headshot can add authority and build trust.
  • Don’t include your email address. Although it seems like a no-brainer, lots of people add their email address to their signature unnecessarily.
  • Do be careful with contact information. You don’t want everyone you email to have your mobile phone number.
  • Don’t promote a personal agenda with a work email signature. Sure, you’re proud of your cat’s Instagram. But it’s not related to your professional life, so it doesn’t belong in your professional signature.
  • Do use color. Match the color scheme and typeface to your company’s marketing materials.
  • Don’t go font-crazy or use animated gifs. Two fonts, max. No flashy blinky things, please.
  • Do optimize for mobile. Send yourself a test email and check your signature on your mobile device to make sure it looks good.

Here’s how to set up your email signature manually in different email platforms.

Write your best, wherever you write.
Grammarly can help.

Three Signature Generators to Try

Signature generators let you create a dazzling signature with a few clicks and keystrokes. A drawback to using them is that most will require you to populate the email address field, hence adding your email address to your signature (redundantly so) whether you like it or not. They’ll also include a bit of their own marketing, such as “Get your own free email signature here,” with a link to their product. You’ll have to weigh the benefits of having a robust, attractive signature against the downsides of including extraneous info.

HubSpot’s Email Signature Generator

HubSpot offers a signature creator that lets you play with layout and colors and add an image. You’ll also be able to include social media links, certifications, and a call-to-action.

You’ll have to include your email address and phone number to use this signature generator, and HubSpot will also prompt you to answer a few questions about your company.

HubSpot | Free Email Signature Generator

Exclaimer’s Free Email Signature Creator

This signature creator allows you to include a logo, banner, social media links, and even a company disclaimer. As with HubSpot, it will make you populate the email address field. It will also add a bit of promotional language in tiny text below your sig. Bonus: If you share Exclaimer on your social channels, they’ll remove the branding from your signature. Score!

Exclaimer’s FREE Email Signature Maker

WiseStamp

WiseStamp puts a lot of signature-generating power at your fingertips. Use it wisely. (With great power comes great responsibility, after all.) You can do anything from requesting support for a charity to showing off your latest YouTube video. Just make sure your signature remains professional and doesn’t get overloaded with too much (or work-inappropriate) information.

You can upgrade to a monthly plan to get even more options and remove the company’s branding from your signature.

WiseStamp

4 Signature Examples

Here are some ways to use signatures to leave a lasting impression.

Plain and Simple

Keep it simple, silly! Often, your name, title, company, and contact info are all your business context need. When that’s the case, a simple signature like this one will do the trick.

Email signature with a photo of a dog and text that says: Doge McFluffbottom, Outbound Barker, Woofums Imports, Inc.

Showcasing your social feeds

If you want to boost either your company’s or your personal professional brand, include your top social media links in your signature.

Email signature with a photo of Inigo Montoya and text that says: Inigo Montoya, Master Swordsman, Six Finger Productions, Revenge Division. Logos for social media links are below the text.

Promoting a newsletter

Every newsletter subscriber is a potential lead or contact. Collect them when you can! Adding a newsletter subscription link to your signature will help.

Email signature with a photo of a hippo followed by text that says: Fiona, baby hippopotamus, Cincinnati Zoo. A subscription link for The Fiona Show is below the text.

Just text

Sometimes plain and simple is the best option. There’s nothing wrong with a text signature. In fact, it’s an easy, mobile-friendly format.

Joe Otter | Chief Executive Slider
Riverside Water Slides, Ltd.
W: riversideslides.ott

Other ways to leverage your email signature

Don’t be afraid to get a little creative. Just make sure to choose one or two angles that will do the most for your business or personal brand. The goal is to make it easy for your contact to interact with your signature, not to slam them with a wall of links and social icons.

Ask yourself, What do I want my contact to do when he or she sees my signature? It might be simply to recognize your name, title, and company. Or it might be:

  • Connecting with you on LinkedIn
  • Visiting your website
  • Reading your blog
  • Checking out your YouTube channel
  • Registering for an event or webinar
  • Responding to a specific call-to-action

No matter how you use your signature, keep it clear and concise to make the best closing statement.

Your writing, at its best.
Works on all your favorite websites
iPhone and iPad KeyboardAndroid KeyboardChrome BrowserSafari BrowserFirefox BrowserEdge BrowserWindows OSMicrosoft Office
Related Articles