In sales and marketing, we spend a lot of time thinking up click-worthy subject lines and compelling introductions.
But what about the other end of your messages? A good email signature can convey professionalism, build trust, and even drive conversions.
Obviously, crafting a signature that delivers all these benefits is no easy task.
To help point you in the right direction, we curated a list of email signature examples that should provide some inspiration — and added in some top tips for building the perfect signature.
Why Your Email Signature Matters
When you set up an email app, your provider usually gives you a very simple default signature. Basically, it’s your name at the end of the message.
However, an email signature can be so much more.
The Key Benefits of Using a Good Email Signature
By adding contact details, links, and media, you can turn the end of every message into a mini profile. This alone can make a big difference as to how your emails are perceived, and how people interact with them.
Get it right, and you should unlock several major benefits:
- Better response rates — A highly professional email signature will earn the trust of more recipients. Including relevant contact details will encourage them to respond.
- Improved brand awareness — Adding your company logo to your email signature is a great way to improve brand awareness and affinity.
- Build relationships faster — Putting a profile photo in your email signature allows you to introduce yourself to potential clients, even before you have met.
- Increased conversions — Include a call to action for a promotion or standout product, and you could even see an uptick of conversions directly from your messages.
Building an Email Signature: 5 Key Elements
Clearly, it’s worth putting some time into creating an email signature. But what exactly should you include?
The possibilities are almost endless, but there are essentially five key elements that you will find in the best email signatures.
- Your name and job title — Along with your name, it’s a good idea to include your job title so that prospects know who they are talking to.
- Your company name and logo — Just as potential clients want to know who you are, they also need to know which company you work for. Including your company logo is a great way to apply professional polish, and it can help with brand recognition.
- Your contact information — Providing a phone number and your social media links allows prospects to get in touch through their preferred channels.
- Your website — Potential customers often want to do some background research before they reply to a cold email. You might as well make it easy for them.
- A call to action — As we discussed above, putting a relevant CTA in your signature turns every message into a sales opportunities.
15 Email Signature Examples to Copy (or Avoid)
Now we know the recipe for a great email signature, it’s time to look at what other people have cooked up.
In the list below, we have picked out some email signature examples to learn from — both good and bad!
1) The “Marketing Manager” Email Signature
This classy yet eye-catching signature includes all five key elements, along with a prominent profile photo that introduces the sender.
The bold CTA at the bottom should drive clicks, and we like the hand-written font chosen for the sign-off — it adds a more personal touch.
2) The “Company-Wide” Email Signature
If you’re looking for a template that everyone in your team can adopt, this example should provide some inspiration.
Although it’s missing the personal touch of a profile photo, the brand logo gets center stage. The inclusion of clickable social media icons is a smart move, too.
3) The “Digital Business Card” Signature
In many respects, an email signature performs the same role as a business card. This example proves the point, with a design influenced by the real world.
Keeping everything in a single column works well here, because each line of text is given space.
4) The “Entrepreneur” Email Signature
Although this simple text-based signature is somewhat lacking in visual appeal, it shows how we can promote multiple products and brands in a single signature.
Add some more contact information and a headshot photo, and you would have a really good email signature template.
5) The “Eye-Catching” Email Signature
An email signature doesn’t need to be a simple text sign-off, as this example proves.
Placing the text on top of a vibrant background makes the end of each message feel more like a section from your website. It also allows you to create an uncluttered layout.
Just be aware that such designs don’t always work well on smaller devices.
6) The “Support Team” Email Signature
This example is perfect for anyone who regularly handles customer feedback or provides support.
Integrated within the signature is a tiny customer satisfaction survey, allowing recipients to share how they feel with a click.
While the form does make the signature a little clunky to look at, the practical benefits of this template are pretty clear.
7) The “Full Works” Email Signature
From the company logo to the text disclaimer at the bottom, this example is actually quite simple in terms of presentation. However, it crams in a lot of useful information and links.
Notice the use of white space; without a little room around each section, it could easily look like a mess.
8) The “Disclaimer” Email Signature
Sometimes, it’s worth including a disclaimer at the bottom of your emails — just in case any clients get the wrong idea.
This example shows what disclaimer text can look like in an email signature design. It looks pretty good, but you could consider adding a little more space or making the disclaimer text gray, to reduce the visual “clutter.”
9) The “Call to Action” Email Signature
This very clean signature is a variation on the banner template.
This time, the banner is a compelling call to action that invites anyone who receives the message to sign up for a free trial.
We also have the all-important headshot and contact links — the only missing ingredients are links to LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.
10) The “Branded Banner” Email Signature
Although this signature is lacking some key features, we really like the design. Underneath the full name and job title of the sender, we have a full-width banner with company branding.
It looks really slick, with a stitching effect to match the apparel brand and integrated icons for social profile links.
11) The “Award-Winning” Email Signature
Here’s something a little different: if your company has won an award, why not flaunt it in your business email signature?
This can be particularly powerful if you’re trying to find new clients via cold outreach. Any award is a pretty powerful type of social proof.
12) The “Handwritten” Email Signature
When you want to add a personal touch to your communication, there’s nothing quite like ending your emails with a handwritten signature.
This style of email signature is admittedly a little old fashioned. But for personal brands, it can work well. In this example, we see how it’s possible to combine a written signature with digital contact links.
13) The “Photographer” Email Signature
For many small businesses, Instagram is a key branding tool.
In this example, we see a signature that shows off recent posts by embedding Instagram. While this isn’t suitable for most businesses, it could work wonders for photographers, stylists, hairdressers, lifestyle brands, and many others.
14) The “Simple Plain Text” Email Signature
All the more visually appealing designs above are HTML email signatures, built with code and images.
While these signatures look great on most devices, some mobile email clients won’t display them properly.
If you prefer to keep things simple and mobile friendly, a plain text signature like this one is a good starting point. To improve it, consider adding your social media handles.
15) The “Animated” Email Signature
If you really want your email signature to stand out, why not add a little animation?
This template shows what is possible by inserting a GIF into your HTML template (the fox moves). The rest of the design is pretty good, too — although a little more spacing would help with readability.
Best Practices for Crafting Email Signatures
As we have discovered, there are countless ways to compose an effective email signature. However, the best signatures all abide by the same best practices.
When you come to draft a new email signature, be sure to keep these core principles in mind:
- Keep it clear and concise — While it’s good to include various pieces of information in your signature, it still needs to be readable. Be careful not to overload your signature.
- Choose your fonts wisely — Use fonts that are easy to read, and compatible with most email clients. Don’t include any more than two fonts; this isn’t an elementary school art project.
- Create a coherent color scheme — A splash of color often works well in email signatures. But don’t go for the kaleidoscope look; stick with one or two hues that work well together. Ideally, they should match your company branding.
- Use white space and dividers — To help with readability, make sure to separate sections with white space or dividers. Both can help the reader to scan through the information you have provided.
- Optimize for mobile — More emails are opened on mobile devices than on desktop nowadays, so optimizing your signature for smaller screens is vital.
- Make links trackable — Want to know whether your email signature is really hitting the mark? To find out, you will need to track every link in your signature.
Other Ways to Improve Your Email Strategy
Upgrading your email signature is a good task to complete before launching your next email marketing campaign.
Another smart move is to adopt email verification. Using NeverBounce, you can check every single email address on your list before you hit send — meaning higher, more accurate response rates.
By weeding out duplicate and incorrect addresses, NeverBounce can also reduce your costs and keep you off the dreaded spam lists.
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