Your email signature is the last thing people see before they close your message. Done well, it reinforces your professionalism and makes it easy for people to get in touch. Done badly, it creates clutter, looks unprofessional, or fails to render correctly on mobile.
This guide covers what makes a great email signature, what to include (and what to skip), and gives you concrete examples to work from.
What Makes a Good Email Signature?
A good email signature is short, scannable, and functional. It answers one question quickly: who sent this, and how can I reach them?
The biggest mistake people make is treating the signature as a promotional space. Long signatures with inspirational quotes, multiple logos, and animated banners create noise. They also inflate email file size and can trigger spam filters.
Aim for four to six lines. That is it.
What to Include
Your name - Use your full name. If you go by a nickname professionally, use that, but make sure it matches your other branding.
Your job title and company - Be specific. "Freelance Copywriter" is more useful than just "Freelance." If you work for a company, list your role and the company name.
Phone number - Mobile is fine. If you work across time zones, consider adding your location or timezone so people know when it is reasonable to call.
Email address - This might seem redundant, but it is useful when emails are forwarded and the header information gets lost.
One or two relevant links - Your website, a LinkedIn profile, or a booking link (like Calendly). Do not include every social platform you are on, just the ones relevant to your professional context.
What to Leave Out
- Inspirational quotes or mottos
- Multiple social media icons
- Animated GIFs or moving banners
- Excessive legal disclaimers (unless your company requires them)
- Large logos that render as attachments
- Your full postal address (unless you have a public-facing business that needs it)
The more you strip out, the more professional the signature looks. Restraint is the point.
HTML vs Plain Text
Most email clients support HTML signatures, which allow you to format text, add a small logo, and make links clickable. HTML signatures look polished in Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail.
The risk with HTML is rendering inconsistency. Not every email client handles HTML the same way, and a signature that looks great on desktop can look broken on mobile or in a plain-text email client.
Plain text signatures always render correctly, everywhere. If your audience includes people who use older or stripped-down email clients, a plain text signature is the safer choice. You lose formatting, but you gain reliability.
A practical middle ground: use HTML, but keep it simple. Avoid complex table layouts, custom fonts, or images beyond a small logo.
Mobile Considerations
More than half of all emails are opened on mobile. A signature that works on a widescreen monitor may look cluttered or poorly spaced on a small screen.
Keep these mobile rules in mind:
- Do not use small font sizes. Anything below 12pt is hard to read on a phone.
- Avoid wide banner images. They either overflow or scale down to unreadable.
- Make phone numbers tappable. Most mobile clients will automatically link numbers, but formatting them correctly (with country code if relevant) helps.
- Keep the total height short. Long signatures push the actual email content way down the screen.
Examples
Freelancer
Jane Okafor
Freelance UX Designer
jane@janeokafor.com | +44 7700 900123
janeokafor.com | Book a call: cal.com/janeokafor
Employee
Marcus Reid
Senior Account Manager, Clearfield Agency
m.reid@clearfieldagency.com | +44 20 7946 0123
clearfieldagency.com
Consultant
Priya Sharma
Independent HR Consultant
priya@priyasharma.co.uk | +44 7911 123456
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/priyasharma
Notice that none of these are longer than four lines. They are readable, professional, and give the recipient everything they need.
Creating Your Signature
The fastest way to build a clean, formatted email signature is with a dedicated tool. The Email Signature Generator lets you fill in your details and generates copy-paste HTML that works in Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail without any design skills required.
Once you have a signature you are happy with, make sure you set it on every device you use, including your phone. A signature that only appears on desktop emails but not mobile replies creates an inconsistent impression.
Quick Checklist
Before you finalise your signature, run through this list:
- Is it six lines or fewer?
- Does it include your name, title, and at least one contact method?
- Does it render correctly on mobile?
- Have you removed anything that is not genuinely useful?
- Is the formatting consistent with your other professional materials?
A professional email signature takes ten minutes to set up properly. Once it is done, it works silently in the background of every email you send, which over a year can be thousands of impressions. It is worth the effort to get it right.