What to Put in a Professional Email Signature (2026 Checklist)
Seven things belong, five are situational, and four should never appear. Here's the checklist, with the reasoning — so you can stop second-guessing the footer of every email you send.
The checklist
ALWAYS: name, title, organization
The core triple. Name slightly larger or bold; title and company on the next line. This is the part everyone scans.
ALWAYS: one phone, one email, one website
Each as a working link (tel:, mailto:, https). One of each — a menu of contact methods creates hesitation, not convenience.
USUALLY: a photo or logo
Headshot when you are the brand (services, sales, freelance); logo when the company is. Hosted properly (or it breaks).
USUALLY: LinkedIn
The one social link with universal professional value. Others only when directly relevant to your craft.
SOMETIMES: a call to action
One button — book, quote, download — when meetings or leads are the goal. Skip it for pure correspondence roles.
SOMETIMES: credentials, license numbers, pronouns
Regulated professions (law, real estate, healthcare) often must include license details. Pronouns if you choose. Both belong on the line under your name.
SOMETIMES: the disclaimer
Legal/confidentiality language where required or firm-mandated — styled small and gray, below everything.
NEVER: inspirational quotes
The most-mocked signature element in existence. No exceptions survive contact with recipients.
NEVER: the image-only signature
One big picture = broken when images are off, uncopyable, invisible to screen readers.
NEVER: six social icons and three phone numbers
Curation is the signal. One number, one or two profiles.
NEVER: 'Sent from my iPhone' as your brand
The default tagline tells clients which emails you wrote carelessly. Put your real signature on the phone too (it's fixable).
The checklist, pre-built
Every Autograph template implements this checklist — fill in your details and install. Free to try; $29 once for everything.
Download Autograph free See the templatesCommon questions
How long should the whole thing be?
4–7 lines. If you're using all the SOMETIMES items at once, you're probably at nine — cut.
Does the checklist change for internal email?
Yes — colleagues need almost none of it. A short second signature ('Jane · ext 412') for internal threads is a classy touch Apple Mail supports.
Fastest way to implement this checklist?
A template that already encodes it: name/title/company hierarchy, linked contacts, image slots, optional CTA and disclaimer — that's Autograph's default anatomy.