How much useful info can email signatures carry, before they become furniture?

In 2012, I wrote an article about email signatures. At the time, the dilemmas seemed pressing. To keep it small or make it BIG? To brand the guts out of it or opt for plain-text humility? To include every accolade in your life or wait for people to ask?

Fourteen years later, we have AI agents writing emails and phones that fold in half, but people are still signing emails with 11 job titles, four social media icons, an inspirational quote and a JPEG containing their entire professional history.

It seems that we need to talk about email signatures once again. Let’s do it.

Email Signature Consideration 1: Size

In 2012 I divided signatures into “littlies” and “biggies”. The littlies contain your name, title, company and a couple of useful ways to find you. The biggies contain your name, title, company, mobile number, office number, website, postal address, qualifications, professional memberships, company registration, VAT number, latest award, newsletter, booking link, confidentiality disclaimer and blood type.

In 2026, I am Team Littlie. Your email signature needs to survive a phone screen. It is also repeated throughout long email chains. So current best practice is restraint. Only include what somebody is reasonably likely to need:

• Your name
• What you do
• Your company
• Your preferred contact detail
• Your website

You may have a legitimate reason to add a booking link, physical address or regulatory information. Add it because it performs a job, not because the information exists. Your email address itself is often redundant. The recipient has just received an email from you; they have it. (Your fax number must go.)

Email Signature Consideration 2: Content

This one has become more interesting. A signature is a tiny piece of owned media that accompanies an extraordinary amount of business communication. So yes, I think it should do some marketing, but I don’t think it should do all your marketing.

You don’t need:

Winner of Thingy Award 2017 | Finalist in Other Thingy 2019 | Member of Organisation No-One Outside the Industry Recognises | As Featured in Local Business Publication | Top 57 Something-or-Other

This creates visual noise and can make impressive credentials look less impressive.

But one current, relevant piece of proof? Absolutely. If you’ve won a significant award, written a book, have an upcoming event or have one particularly useful resource you’d like people to discover, your email signature can carry that.

I like the idea of a single rotating “proof or prompt” line. For example:

• 2026 Top Impact Speaker | See Tiffany speak
• New: My guide to writing emails people actually read
• Speaking at [event] in October →

The same applies to social media. You don’t need to provide directions to every corner of the internet where you have ever opened an account. If LinkedIn matters commercially, link LinkedIn. If no-one’s posted on your company Instagram since the Christmas party of 2023, don’t send people there.

Email Signature Consideration 3: Aesthetic

This is where my 2012 article has aged the most. Back then, the choices felt like:

• Plain text = reliable but boring
• Image signature = pretty but problematic
• HTML = fancy techie sorcery

In 2026, HTML is the sensible middle ground. But there’s an important distinction: your signature should not be one giant image. Important info should remain live text. Images can be blocked, fail to load or become inaccessible to someone using assistive technology. Text baked into an image is also harder to resize and copy.

Use your logo as an image if you want one. A small headshot can work too, particularly if your personal brand is commercially important. But keep your actual name, job title and contact information as text. And remember to give meaningful images appropriate alt text, because accessibility belongs in the conversation now.

Email Signature Consideration 4: Mobile

I didn’t include this in 2012. Here it is now: Your beautiful 700-pixel-wide corporate masterpiece may look magnificent on the marketing manager’s 27-inch monitor, but your client is reading it on their phone while standing in the Woolies queue.

Email signatures should be designed mobile-first or, at minimum, mobile-aware. This means avoiding sprawling horizontal layouts, tiny type and enormous banners. It means keeping the information hierarchy obvious and making links easy to tap. 

It also means testing the thing.

Email Signature Consideration 5: Accessibility

This deserves more than an afterthought. Don’t make someone decipher tiny pale-grey text because it fits your brand palette. Don’t use an image containing essential information without a text alternative. Don’t make link text meaningless where you can avoid it. And don’t assume everyone interacts with your email in the same way.

The useful principle here is wonderfully unsexy: Information first. Decoration second. Your email signature has a job before it has an aesthetic.

Email Signature Consideration 6: Retirement

I would like to nominate several email-signature traditions for immediate retirement.

• Inspirational quotes
  Still my worst thing in the whole world.
• Massive confidentiality notices
  If your organisation genuinely needs one, fine. If somebody added it in 2009 and no-one knows why it’s still there, ask.
• Every social-media platform known to humankind
  Your dormant X account does not require its own tiny icon.
• Giant promotional banners
  Especially when they appear 14 times in a reply chain.
• “Please consider the environment before printing this email.”
  Just…no.

My 2026 Email Signature Formula

Name

Professional descriptor

Company

One useful contact method | Website | One relevant social/profile link

One small piece of proof or one CTA

Optional: small logo or headshot.

That’s it.

Build it in lightweight HTML with real text rather than turning the whole thing into a JPEG. Keep the images small and properly hosted. Add appropriate alt text. Make sure the colours remain legible. Test it on desktop and mobile and in the major email clients your recipients actually use. And check it every six months.

Sources

HubSpot: Professional email signature guidance
Mailchimp: HTML email fundamentals
Mailchimp: Images in HTML email
Litmus: Dark mode guide
W3C: Alt text for meaningful images
Exclaimer: 2026 signature design guidance