To update email signatures after rebrand without a messy fortnight of half-old, half-new mail, treat it as a cutover. Prepare the new signature and its image files first, pick a switch date, move everyone on or around that date, and leave the old image addresses online afterwards so that messages already sent keep displaying properly.
The same plan to update email signatures after rebrand works for an office move, a new phone number or a new registered address. This page gives you eight steps, a table of what else changes, and a close look at the one step most plans forget: the old logo’s web address. Platform details follow Google’s help page on user signatures (last updated 1 October 2026) and Microsoft’s pages on organization-wide signatures (page date 7 May 2026) and disclaimers in Exchange Online, all read on 5 October 2026.
Update email signatures after rebrand in brief
- Find every place the old signature lives before you change anything: admin footers, personal signatures, shared mailboxes and the footers of systems that send mail.
- Give the new logo a new file name and web address. Do not overwrite or delete the old one.
- Pick a switch date. Microsoft 365 rules can start and stop on dates; Google footer changes can take up to 24 hours.
- emailfooter lets you change the design once, but each person must copy and install it again.
Where the old signature lives
Before you update email signatures after rebrand, make a list. The old design hides in more places than the one people think of.
| Place | Who normally owns it |
|---|---|
| Admin footer or mail flow rule | IT administrator |
| Each person’s own signature in their mail app, including phones | The person |
| Signature templates in any tool you use | Signature owner |
| Shared mailboxes and team addresses | Their administrators |
| Automatic replies and out-of-office text | The person |
| Systems that send mail on your behalf, such as a helpdesk, invoicing or booking tool | Whoever runs that system |
| Documents that quote the signature, such as the brand guidelines | Marketing |
The last two rows are the ones that catch teams out. A rebrand can be complete in everyone’s mailbox while the billing system keeps sending invoices with the old logo.
Eight steps to update email signatures after rebrand
- List every place in the table above, with an owner against each.
- Create the new assets under new names. A new logo file, a new dark-mode version if you use one, and a new address on your site or image host for each.
- Build and approve the new design. Preview it on a desktop, on a phone, and in dark mode. Our page on signatures in dark mode explains what to check.
- Update the details that changed. Company name, registered address and number, legal line, phone numbers, website. Wording for legal lines should come from your adviser, and this page is general information, not legal advice.
- Choose the switch date and set it up. The platform notes below show how.
- Announce it. One message: the date, the steps for each mail app, and the date by which old signatures should be gone.
- Test and sample. After the switch, send from each mail app to an outside address, then run a sample check using the email signature audit sheet.
- Retire the old design, not the old files. Remove old templates and instructions. Leave the old image addresses online.
Setting the switch date when you update email signatures after rebrand
Microsoft 365. Microsoft’s admin page, under Mail flow, Rules, lets you pick Activate this rule on and Deactivate this rule on when you create a rule. So the cutover can be mechanical: build the new rule with an activation date, and set the old rule to deactivate on the same date. Set the new rule’s mode to Test without Policy Tips first, as Microsoft recommends testing every mail flow rule before enforcing it. Rules skip a line whose directory field is empty, so if the rebrand adds a new field, such as a new office, fill it in before the date. The steps are in our guide to setting a company signature on Microsoft 365.
Google Workspace. The Append footer setting is under Apps, Google Workspace, Gmail, Compliance. Google says changes can take up to 24 hours, though they typically happen sooner. There is no date field on that page, so you choose which side of the switch you would rather be wrong on. Edit the day before and accept a short overlap, or edit on the day and accept a short lag. Personal signatures in Gmail are changed by each user. Our guide to setting a signature for all users on Google Workspace covers both.
If you use a signature tool. Replace the template in the tool and test it on two mailboxes before the switch date. Ask the vendor how a change reaches mailboxes and how long it takes. We describe only the platforms whose pages we read.
Why the old logo address matters when you update email signatures after rebrand
Most signature images are links to a file on the web. Google’s page lets users add an image from a web address or from Drive, and says a Drive image must be shared publicly to appear. Microsoft’s admin page says images cannot be embedded, and the Exchange page shows an image added with an IMG tag pointing at a web address. In each case, the message shows the picture by fetching it from where it lives.
That has a consequence for mail you have already sent. It sits in thousands of inboxes, and each message still points at the old logo’s address. What happens next depends on what you do to that file:
| What you do to the old file | What old messages show |
|---|---|
| Leave it where it is | The old logo, which is an accurate record of when the mail was sent |
| Replace it with the new logo under the same name | The new logo, in mail from before the rebrand |
| Delete it, rename it, or restructure the website folder | A broken image |
| Make the Google Drive file private | A broken image |
We recommend the first row, and that is why step 2 uses new names. If you overwrite files, old mail quietly changes. If you remove them, recipients see gaps. Neither is a disaster, but a signature with a broken logo in a customer’s archive looks careless.
Two checks prevent this when you update email signatures after rebrand. Open the old logo’s address in a browser now and note that it loads. Then add it to your website migration checklist, because website redesigns are the usual way these files disappear.
What else changes with an office move
| Change | Where it shows up | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Address | Signature, legal footer, map links | Both the visible text and any link |
| Phone numbers | Signature, and the dialable tel: link | The digits behind the link as well as the text |
| Opening hours or booking page | Links in the signature | That the link still opens the right page |
| Website domain | Links, plus the email addresses themselves | That old links redirect |
| Registered office | Legal line | The adviser’s approved wording |
Using emailfooter to update email signatures after rebrand
In emailfooter, the company admin changes the logo, colours, website, address and legal footer once, in the company settings and design pages, and each person’s signature page then shows the new design. People’s own details stay as they were. What the plugin does not do is push the new signature into anyone’s mailbox. Each person must copy it and follow the install steps again, so step 6 matters more than usual. The roster and the analytics page, which counts copies and installs started by person, tell you who has not yet started. They cannot tell you whether a pasted signature is the new one, so step 7 is still needed.
Here is a signature after the change: new name, new logo, new address, same layout rules.
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After a rebrand and an office move: new name, new logo and a new address, in the same layout. The company and person are made up.
Finish the job 30 days after the switch
Keep the old assets online, keep the checklist, and run the audit 30 days later. Stragglers will show up as old logos in received mail, and the cure is a reminder with the steps. Write down the date, the owners and the file addresses, so that the next time you must update email signatures after rebrand or a move, you start from a record. For the wider process of getting one design to everyone, see the rollout checklist, the brand guidelines template to update first, and our guide to company email signatures.
Frequently asked questions
How do I update email signatures after rebrand for everyone at once?
To update email signatures after rebrand in one move, prepare the new design and assets, then switch on a set date. On Microsoft 365 a mail flow rule can activate and deactivate on dates. On Google Workspace the footer can take up to 24 hours. Personal signatures need each person to act.
How do I change the company logo in all email signatures?
Change it where the signature is defined: the admin footer or rule, the template in your tool, and each person’s own signature if they have one. Give the new logo a new web address.
Will old emails show the new logo after a rebrand?
Only if you replace the old file at the same address. If you leave the old file where it is, old messages keep showing the old logo.
Should I update email signatures after rebrand if only the logo changed?
Yes. A logo change alone is enough reason to update email signatures after rebrand. After an office move, update them too if the address, phone numbers or registered office appear in the signature, and check the links behind the text as well as the text itself.
Keep reading
- Email signature rollout checklist: from template to every inbox: An email signature rollout checklist with 20 dated steps across design, data, deployment and testing, each with an owner, plus notes for Google and Microsoft.
- Email signature audit: a 15-point checklist to find inconsistent signatures: An email signature audit in 15 checks: how to sample senders, what to look at in the message that arrived, and what each failure usually means.
- Company email signatures: roll out one consistent signature across your whole team: How to set up a company email signature for every employee: what to fix, what people fill in, four ways to deploy it, a rollout timeline and the limits of each.
- Email signature brand guidelines: a one-page template you can adopt: Email signature brand guidelines you can copy: a fill-in table for fields, fonts, colours, logo, links and banners, with a worked example and a review routine.
Make every signature in your company match
emailfooter is a free WordPress plugin. You design the signature once, and each person adds their own details and installs it in their mail app. Prefer not to run a website? emailfooter Managed is the same software, hosted for you.