What to include in a professional email signature

The core lines

Most good signatures fit in four or five lines plus a logo. In order:

• Full name. The name you want people to use, matching your email address.
• Title. Plain words people understand, such as Office Manager or Loan Officer.
• Company name. Spelled exactly as it appears on your website and invoices.
• One phone number. The one you actually answer. If you list two, label them (Office, Cell) and stop there.
• Website. Written out short, such as yourcompany.com, and linked.

Your email address is optional. The reader already has it in the From line, though some people like it for forwarded emails.

Optional lines that earn their place

• A headshot, for roles where clients meet you in person (real estate, lending, insurance, ministry).
• A booking link, if you schedule meetings by email.
• One or two social icons, only for accounts you keep up and that clients care about.
• A pronoun line or office address, if your organization uses them.
• One short call to action, such as a link to a current event or a review page. Change it when it goes stale.

Legal and license lines

Some professions are expected to show specific information in client email. Real estate agents often need a brokerage name and license number. Loan officers usually show an NMLS ID. Law firms often add a confidentiality notice. The rules vary by state and by employer, so check with your licensing body or compliance team, then put the required line in the signature so it appears every time.

Keep legal text short and put it at the very bottom in a smaller, gray font. It should be readable, not hidden, but it should not compete with your name.

Logo size and image hosting

A logo should be displayed around 150 to 200 pixels wide, and the image file itself should be small (under about 100 KB is a good target). A huge logo shrunk down still downloads at full size and can be flagged or clipped.

The most important detail is where the image lives. If you paste a logo from a file on your computer, many mail apps attach it to every email. Recipients see a paperclip, an extra file named image001.png, or a blank box. If the logo is hosted at a public web address and the signature links to it, it displays inline and does not attach. Use a signature built with hosted images, or upload your logo to your website and link to it.

What to leave out

• Inspirational quotes or verses in a business signature, unless your organization has decided on them. They are personal and can read differently to different clients.
• Several phone numbers, fax numbers nobody uses, and every office address.
• Five or more social icons. Two is plenty.
• The whole signature as one image. It cannot be read by screen readers, the links do not work, and it often lands as an attachment.
• Colored backgrounds, animated images, and tiny text.
• Out-of-date promotions. A webinar banner from last spring tells people the signature is not maintained.

A simple test

Send an email to yourself at a different provider and open it on a phone. Can you tap the phone number? Is the logo sharp and not attached? Can you find the name in under a second? If the answer to all three is yes, the signature is doing its job.

Check your current signature

If you want a second opinion, the free Signature Score from Staff Signature rates a signature on these points and lists what to fix, in about a minute.

Common questions