How to Write an Email Signature Block

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Signature block is the information block that follows your name at the bottom of your email message. Here is an example:

It’s both an information and a MARKETING tool to promote the links and selected personal data that you want the whole world to know about. It’s like a miniature billboard that you send out to the world every time you click the SEND button.

For most INFORMAL emails that you send to your friends and loved ones, a signature block is unnecessary and it may actually come across as “pretentious”. So it’s better to end our email with just your name when you're writing informally.

Here is an example of a totally inappropriate and OVER THE TOP signature block for an informal email:

A much BETTER informal email would be just this:

That’s it. No signature block whatsoever. Why? Because if Pat is a close friend of yours she either knows all that information in your signature block or she would be baffled why you’re sending her your email address, web sites, phones numbers, mailing address, or personal charity messages just to ask if she’d like to go for lunch. It just doesn’t make much sense. Don’t do that.

Here are some RULES of signature block:

1) LESS IS MORE: Include as little information in your signature block as possible. We are all struggling with the amount of email we receive each day. Don’t make the task of reading emails even harder by a long and complicated signature block.

2) EMAIL RETURN ADDRESS: Totally unnecessary. Including this is your signature block is always a complete waste of space since your return address is either recorded in the FROM field of your email or can be found easily by clicking the REPLY link.

3) Include a signature block in all your FORMAL emails. For your INFORMAL emails, try to keep it to a minimum or eliminate it all together.

4) Use your email program’s SETTINGS or SIGNATURE BLOCK (or similar) functionality to automate your signature block. Once you do that, the block will be added by default to the bottom of each message, automatically.

5) Make sure the content of the block is appropriate for the email content and the list of recipients. That’s why try to stick to a GENERAL information block that would share the essential information about yourself without offending anyone or without raising unnecessary questions about your intentions or competence.

For example, here is a signature block that would endear you to all hard-core Republicans but probably raise immediate questions if your recipient is a Democrat:

If you’d like to communicate only with your fellow Republicans this might be a great signature block for you. But if you’re trying to communicate with people from all kinds of political backgrounds, than rest assured that this signature block will not help you much.

6) Do not include any humor or quotations in your signature block since they get old fast. They also might not be appropriate for the the occasion.

Imagine automatically sending a one-liner joke (that’s been embedded into your signature block) when you’re writing to a friend to express your grief about the death of a family member...

7) Try to keep your commercial plug-ins to a minimum. Including your the URL of your main web site is okay. But this is not:

8) Set up multiple signature blocks if your email program allows it. Use the one that’s appropriate for your message and the recipients.

9) ALWAYS re-read your signature block before you click the SEND button. Make the necessary changes manually or eliminate it all together if the informal occasion does not justify it.

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