The 3 Benefits of Using an Email Address in Email Signatures

Choosing what to include in contact information for a professional email signature is fairly straightforward. But what about using an email address in email signatures? After all, there are only so many details you can include. As a rule, your contact details should include your full name, job title, phone number, and your office mailing address. Your email signature is your business card over corporate email after all.

So you might think including an email address in email signatures is a bit pointless. There are a number of people who think that there’s no need to add one. They say that including an email address is redundant and a waste of time. They also say that adding it just extends the lines of text in your email signature template.

However, this is fundamentally incorrect. There are actually a few reasons why an email address in email signatures should be included every time.

Forwarding an email

When you first send an email, it is true that a recipient can easily click reply in order to respond. However, some email clients like Outlook and Gmail use display names rather than email addresses. So, when forwarding an email, the recipient might only see “John Doe” or “Jane Doe” rather than the actual address. This makes it harder for someone receiving the forwarded email to respond.

Some email clients may also strip out sender details from the body of the email, so even a display name won’t show. For this reason, it’s important to include your email address with a mailto: link in your email signature. This makes it so recipients can easily contact you or save your email address.

By simply adding your email address in email signatures, you can ensure your email address will always appear on the email thread.

Starting a new email

By including a ‘mailto:’ link in your email address (e.g. mailto:[email protected]), you make it a lot easier for recipients to start a new conversation with you. So, when someone clicks on the address, it will automatically open a new message window.

When using a group email address

Many employees have access to a shared email address. Examples would include “[email protected]”, “[email protected]”, “[email protected]”, etc. This allows multiple members of a team to send and receive emails from a central inbox.

However, when communicating one-on-one with a recipient, a more personal touch often works best. This is when you use include your email address in email signatures in order to offer an alternative way for recipients to contact you. And as it’s your personal email address, you don’t end up flooding other team members’ inboxes with messages that have no relevance to them.

Proving your email is legitimate

Given the number of phishing scams out there, many recipients are cautious when it comes to receiving and reading emails. Adding an email address in email signatures proves that the message you are sending is legitimate. It also highlights that your email comes from the same domain as your organization.