Creating your own personal email signature is easy when you have a few tips and tricks to help you out. Making your own email signature gives you creative control over one of the most important brand elements in your business—your name. You may even want to turn your email signature into a logo—we can show you this too.
Whether you want your email signature to contain text or text and images, this is the guide for you. We’ve included popular mail clients to help you with step by step processes.
How to make your own email signature
Creating an email signature is easy. An email signature is your name plus all the information associated with your business or brand. This information is critical to establish your reputation, credibility, and appropriate channels of return contact.
While most people use their email signature as a means to provide contact information, others might use this as an opportunity to establish brand style. Using actual signatures, logos, and imagery is a great way to introduce “flair” to your email signature.
If you are looking for email signature inspiration, WiseStamp.com and Graphicriver.com are great places to explore new ideas.
Courtesy: Wisestamp.com 
Trying to figure out what to include in your email signature is completely up to you. Not everyone requires high-design email signatures. But at the very least, you’ll want enough email signature elements to properly encourage engagement.
If you are representing a business, you should include the following elements:
- Full name
- Title
- Company
- Phone Number
Good to have, but not necessary email signature elements:
- Social links
- Photo
- Company Logo
- Most recent blog/LinkedIn article
- Country specific legal requirements
Nearly all mail clients (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) have an email signature editor. Using these editors are very easy. We’ve put together a quick guide on each below.
How to make your own email signature in Gmail
Creating an email signature in Gmail isn’t very complicated and it really polishes your emails. Google allows for up to 10,000 characters in your signature, so there won’t be any problems with creative blocks.
5 steps to creating a basic Gmail email signature:
- Open your Gmail account
- Click settings in the top right corner of your Gmail account. To find the settings area, look for a little grey cog wheel.
- Scroll down until you see the signature section and begin adding your signature text in the box.
- Check the box “Insert this signature before quoted text in replies” if you feel it’s relevant. This means your email signature will be placed above replies.
- Click Save Changes.
Pro tip 1: Add the signature before quoted text in replies if you want email replies to appear this like.
Pro tip 2: Keep in mind that you can change the font in your signature. It might look nice to have a larger font for your name and then smaller fonts for your title and contact information.
Pro tip 3: You can always add an image for a logo or actual signature under your name by uploading an image in the signature section. This is where you can get really creative.
How to add an image to Gmail signature in 7 steps
- Open your Gmail account
- Click settings in the top right corner of your Gmail account. To find the settings area, look for a little grey cog wheel.
- Scroll down until you see signature
- Find the image icon (images below)
- Upload an image
- Select size
- Save Changes.
How to make your own email signature in Outlook
Adding a signature in Outlook is a piece in cake. In fact, it’s one of the easier mail clients to create a cool email signature.
5 steps to creating your first Outlook email signature
- Open Outlook
- Begin a new email message
- Select the Signature button in the top right
- Click Edit Signatures
- This will open a screen that shows you all your current signatures (if you have any)
- Press the “+” sign to add a new signature
- This will open an editing screen where you can create your custom email signature.
- You can also add an image to your email signature if you’d like by pressing the image icon.
- Click out of your signature and you are all set.
Pro tip 1: Create multiple signatures for different reasons. Maybe you have a signature for delicate outreach that doesn’t contain your email or phone number. Or maybe you have a more detailed signature with more contact information for clients. When crafting an email, you can select your email signature in the top right to choose the one that best fits your recipient.
Pro tip 2: You can put social links in your profile with cool social icons. Find a great social icon, copy, and then paste them into your signature. Right click on them and add a hyperlink.
How to make your own email signature in Yahoo
Yahoo mail makes it really easy to add an email signature to your outbound emails. You can add images and modify text with ease.
Steps to add or edit your Yahoo mail signature
- Select the settings menu (looks like a cog wheel)
- Select the “writing email” option
- Move the toggle button to enable a signature for your email address
- Enter your email signature if you haven’t added one yet
- Edit your email signature but selecting the edit button
- You can also add a picture to your account my copying the image from the host site and pasting it right into the signature editor
- Save changes
How to add a logo to your email signature
Adding a logo is as simple as adding an image to your email signature. If aren’t sure how to add an image, review the points above. Once you are confident in adding an image to your email signature, it’s as easy as adding your logo image.
Ideally, you’ll want your logo to be a PNG file. These are image files that have transparent background. The Intel logo below is transparent and the purple logo below is not. Transparent PNG logos always look cleaner.
Where do I go to purchase a logo if I don’t have one?
- Fiverr.com($): If you don’t have a logo and want to get something done quick an easy, go to Fiverr. Fiverr is a marketplace with contractors do project work $5+. You’ll pay between $5 and $50 for a great logo depending on skill level. This doesn’t have to be your permanent logo, just one to get your brand started.
- 99designs.com ($$$). 99Designs is a design competition website. It’s much more expensive than Fiverr, but the skill level of your logo designers will also be much better. Expect to pay $299-$500.
Where do I go to create a logo myself?
- Canva.com. Canva is a great design tool and they have now created a free logo maker! My opinion is this is the best option for non-designers. But that’s just me. You first pick design elements you like and they guide you through the process. You do need to sign up, but you don’t need a subscription. You’ll be able to download a solid 500×500 logo.
- Placeit.net. ($). Placeit.net has some of the better drag and drop logo making tools on the web. There isn’t a free version. All logos are $39 after you create them. In my opinion, $39 is just fine for a great high resolution photo.
- Figma.com. Figma is a design it yourself tool. This is a REAL designers tool. Full web and mobile applications have been designed in Figma—it’s powerful. There is a learning curve, but you can create seriously good logos here. In fact, you can create seriously good graphics in general here.
How to make your email signature clickable
There might be instances when you want your email signature to be clickable. This is a great marketing tool if you have a website you want to encourage people to visit or a visit you want them to see.
We’ve covered above in the Outlook section under Pro Tip 2 how to add a link to a social image. This is the same process for anything you want to link.
In most email services, you can highlight any element of your logo and press the link button to attach a link to that element. Whether you want people to click an image or your name, you can link those elements anywhere.
Steps to make a clickable email signature link
- Highlight whatever element you want to click (name, title, logo, image)
- Find and press the link icon 🔗
- Type in the web address of wherever you want to send someone
That’s all there is to it. It’s a small touch, but one that could lead a prospect down the right path.
Related Questions
What should an email signature include? At minimum, your email signature should include your full name and email.
Do I have to use an email signature? If you are conducting business or building a brand, you should always have an email signature. While everyone can always reply to your email, having an email signature is good for the following reasons:
- Credibility- Your contact information conveys your business as legitimate.
- Awareness- Elements like business name, title, and logo elevate your brand awareness.
- Email search- People might remember your name and not your company and so including your name in the signature will help them search for you later on.
- Outbound links- Your email signature might contain outbound links to important content which can benefit your business.
