Email signature best practices for UK businesses

What a good signature does

An email signature has two jobs. It tells people who you are and how to reach you, and it shows the email came from a real business. Everything else is optional.

The best signatures are short, consistent across the company and easy to read on any screen. Most people glance at a signature once, looking for a phone number or a job title, so make those easy to find.

What to include

• Your full name. Use the name people know you by.
• Job title, and department if it helps. It tells the reader what you do and whether you're the right person to ask.
• Company name. Spell it the same way every time.
• One or two phone numbers. A direct line or mobile is more useful than a switchboard. Label them so it's clear which is which.
• Your website. One link to your main site is enough.
• A logo, if you have one. Keep it small. It supports the signature rather than leading it.
• One or two social links, if you use them. A company LinkedIn page is often the most relevant. Skip profiles that haven't been updated in years.

Pronouns, working hours or a note about flexible working are common additions too. They're helpful when they matter to the people you email.

Your email address is optional, since it's already in the message. It does help when emails are forwarded or printed, so many companies include it anyway.

What to leave out

A signature gets repeated on every email and every reply in a thread. Anything that isn't useful soon becomes clutter.

• Quotes and slogans. They date quickly and don't help anyone reach you.
• A signature made from one big image. It can be blocked, screen readers can't read it and nobody can copy your phone number from it.
• Lots of colours and fonts. Stick to one font and your brand colour for accents.
• Every social network you're on. A row of eight icons is noise.
• Long legal disclaimers. Confidentiality notices carry little legal weight on their own. If you want one, keep it short and put it in small print under the signature.
• Large animated images. They distract from the message, and some versions of Outlook for Windows only show the first frame.

What UK companies must show

If you're a UK limited company, the Companies Act 2006 and the trading disclosure regulations made under it require certain details on your business letters, order forms and websites. The rules cover letters in electronic form as well as on paper, so they apply to business emails. Most companies put the details in the signature or in the small print underneath.

You need to show:

• your company's registered name, exactly as it appears at Companies House
• your company registration number
• the part of the UK where the company is registered, such as England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland
• your registered office address

A few related rules are worth knowing:

• If you mention your share capital, it has to be the paid-up share capital.
• Limited liability partnerships have to show the same kinds of details.
• Sole traders and partnerships trading under a business name have their own rules about showing the owners' names and an address for documents.
• Regulated firms, such as solicitors, accountants and financial advisers, often have extra wording their regulator expects.
• A VAT number doesn't need to be in your signature, although it must appear on VAT invoices.

This is general information rather than legal advice. GOV.UK has the full guidance, and your accountant or solicitor can confirm what applies to you.

Make it accessible

A signature everyone can read is a better signature for everyone. A few habits cover most of it.

• Use real text, not pictures of text. Screen readers can read text aloud, people can copy it and it still shows when images are blocked.
• Give every image alt text. Use your company name for the logo and the person's name for a photo. Social icons need the network's name, such as LinkedIn.
• Keep text a readable size. Around 12 to 14 pixels for contact details, with your name a little larger.
• Check the contrast. Pale grey on white is hard to read. Dark text on a light background, with your brand colour for accents, works well.
• Don't rely on colour alone. Label phone numbers with P: or Phone: rather than using a coloured icon on its own.
• Make links make sense. Show the web address, or use link text that says where it goes.

Design for phones as well as desktops

Plenty of email is read on a phone, often on a narrow screen and a slow connection. Your signature should work there too.

• Keep the whole signature within about 600 pixels wide. Simpler layouts shrink more gracefully.
• Stack information in one column where you can. Side-by-side layouts get cramped on small screens.
• Make phone numbers and email addresses links, so people can tap to call or write.
• Leave space between links so they're easy to tap.
• Keep image files small, so they load quickly on mobile data.

Our guide to signature size and images covers widths, file sizes and dark mode in more detail.

Keep everyone's signature consistent

The hard part isn't designing a good signature. It's keeping every person's signature matching, correct and up to date. Signatures drift as people change roles, copy old versions or tweak the design to suit themselves.

Signed fixes that by managing signatures centrally. You design the template once, details come from Microsoft 365 and the Outlook add-in adds the signature to every email. Assignment rules and campaign banners handle the exceptions.

A quick checklist

• Name, job title, company and one or two phone numbers
• Registered name, company number, place of registration and registered office, if you're a UK company
• A small logo with alt text
• One font and one accent colour
• Readable on a phone and in dark mode

Want to try a design first? Build one with the free email signature generator, or register interest to hear when you can set it up for your whole team.