What to include in an email signature depends on who you are, but the core is short: your name, your job title, your company and one way to reach you. Everything else (photo, booking link, social icons, address, legal line) is a decision, and the right answer changes for a freelancer, an employee and a regulated firm.
This page settles what to include in an email signature by rating twelve common elements for those three situations, then explains the two costs that are easy to miss: images that never load, and a signature that gets too long to save.
What to include in an email signature: the short answer
- Always: full name, job title, company (if you have one), one phone number or one link.
- Usually: a logo set by the company, a website link.
- Sometimes: photo, booking link, one social profile, postal address.
- Check the rules first: registration numbers and confidentiality notices.
- Leave out: quotes, awards banners, long disclaimers, “sent from” lines.
What to include in an email signature: the 12 elements, rated
Read across the row for your situation. “Keep” means include it. “Optional” means include it only if the reader would use it. “Cut” means leave it out. “Check rules” means your country, regulator or employer may have a requirement, so ask before you remove it.
| Element | Solo worker | Employee | Regulated firm | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Keep | Keep | Keep | A forwarded message needs to say who wrote it. |
| Job title | Keep | Keep | Keep, with credentials | A title tells a stranger why you are writing. |
| Company name | Keep, if you trade under one | Keep | Keep | The name people recognise, not an internal team name. |
| Phone number | Keep one | One direct number | Office line first | Two numbers make people guess which to dial. |
| Email address | Optional | Optional | Optional | The reply button has it, but it helps when a message is printed or pasted. |
| Website link | Keep | Keep | Keep | One link, to the page you most want read. |
| Logo | Optional | Keep, set by the company | Keep | It makes the message look official, but it may not load. |
| Photo | Optional | Optional | Usually cut | It is personal, so it suits sales and advice, less so formal work. |
| Booking link | Keep, if you take calls | Sales roles only | Cut | It saves a round of “when are you free” emails. |
| Social links | One at most | Cut | Cut | Keep only a network you really use for work. |
| Postal address | Optional | Optional | Check rules | Useful if people visit or post things to you. |
| Legal or confidentiality line | Cut | Follow the company | Check rules | Short, small and identical for everyone. |
What to include in an email signature when you work alone
A freelancer or sole trader has no company to hide behind, so the signature carries more weight. Keep your name, a one-phrase description of what you do (“Bookkeeper for small shops”), one phone number and your website. A booking link earns its place if you spend time arranging calls. If you trade under a business name, add it; if you do not, the description does the job.
Skip the logo unless you have a proper one. A text-only signature with a clean line between name and details beats a blurry self-made logo every time. The freelancer email signature article has four worked examples.
What to include in an email signature as an employee
When you work for someone else, the company decides most of it. The logo, colours, font and any legal line should come from one shared design so that fifty people do not produce fifty looks. Your part is the personal block: name, title, department if it helps, a direct number and, for sales or support roles, a booking link.
Two judgement calls come up often. First, whether to add a mobile number: do it if clients really call you, otherwise the office line is enough. Second, whether to add social icons: for most employees the answer is no, because the company’s own profiles belong on the company’s website and not in every employee’s footer.
What to include in an email signature at a regulated firm
Law, accounting, finance and healthcare firms often have extra lines to show: professional titles, a regulator, a registration number, a confidentiality notice. The details differ by country and by body, and we do not guess them. Our pages for the United Kingdom and Nigeria say only what an official source we read states, and the pages for law firms and accounting firms show how a restrained layout carries them. Ask your compliance officer or lawyer what applies to you. This is general information, not legal advice.
The practical rule is the same everywhere: write the required line once, keep it short, and make it part of the shared design so no one can delete it by accident.
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Aligned layout: name and credentials, one direct number, one office number, one website, one short footer line. The firm and person are made up.
What to include in an email signature: the cost of each element
Every extra line costs the reader attention, and a few cost something more concrete.
Images may not show
Microsoft says classic Outlook is set by default to block automatic picture downloads, so a recipient may see a placeholder until they choose to download pictures (Microsoft’s page on picture downloads, read in October 2026). Gmail shows images by default but can hold them back when it thinks a sender or message is suspicious (Gmail Help). Plain text goes further: Microsoft’s page on message formats says plain text does not support showing pictures inside the message.
So treat the logo and photo as decoration. Anything a reader needs, like your name, title and number, must be real text.
Length limits
Google’s Gmail help page says you can put up to 10,000 characters in a signature, and that an image counts toward that limit (Gmail Help, read in October 2026). The count includes the code behind the layout, so a heavily styled signature uses it up faster than you expect. Fewer elements means fewer characters and fewer places for the layout to break.
What to leave out
- Quotes and mottos. They read well to the person who chose them and oddly to a client.
- Banners for old campaigns, and animated images.
- A paragraph of legal text where one sentence would do.
- “Please think before printing” lines.
- Every phone number you own.
- Titles from internal teams that clients will not understand.
A five-question test
Before you save the signature, ask:
- Could a stranger tell who I am and what I do from the first two lines?
- Is there one clear way to contact me?
- Does it still make sense with every image missing?
- Is it shorter than a typical reply?
- Would I be happy to see it forwarded to someone I have never met?
If the answer to all five is yes, your idea of what to include in an email signature is sound. The email signature best practices article covers the format and the complete guide shows the whole picture, including how to share one design across a team with emailfooter.
Frequently asked questions
What to include in an email signature for work?
Your full name, job title, company, one phone number and a website link. Add a logo if your company supplies one, and a legal line only if your business has to show one.
Should I put my email address in my email signature?
It is optional. The reply button already has it, but it helps when a message is printed or copied into another document.
How many lines should an email signature have?
Four to seven lines of text is normal. If the signature is longer than a typical reply, cut something.
What to include in an email signature besides a photo or logo?
Your name, title and number, as real text. A photo and a logo are both optional, and both can fail to load.
Should every email have a signature?
Business email should, though a shorter version on replies keeps long threads tidy. Gmail and Outlook both let you choose a default for new messages and another for replies.
Keep reading
- Email signature: what it is, what to put in it and how to set it up: Everything about the email signature: what to include, how big it should be, design rules, legal lines, examples and how to set it up in Gmail and Outlook.
- Email signature best practices: 15 rules that hold up in every inbox: Email signature best practices as 15 numbered rules, each with a bad and a good example and the Gmail or Outlook limit behind it. Read in October 2026.
- The parts of an email signature, labelled with an annotated example: The parts of an email signature, labelled on one drawn example: 12 elements, each marked required, recommended or optional, plus the parts you cannot see.
- Free email signature templates: ten layouts you can copy: Free email signature templates in ten layouts, from classic and executive to compact and wide, with advice on choosing one and how to get it into your mail app.
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.