@Lars – I definitely see your point. It all depends on the industry you’re in too I guess. Most of the people I seem to deal with don’t have much in their signature.

With more and more people having personal blogs, Twitter, etc., it’s often easy to link to someone, to show someone else who they are, what they’re all about, etc.

For branding purposes, having a company logo (or name) in the signature makes sense – I just often find some people overdo it too much.

All in all, if you’re going to keep information in your signature, I recommend keeping it as simple as possible – i.e. the example below.

Thanks,

Ryan Cash
————————–
Marketing + PR-Coordanator
Marketcircle, Inc.

Follow me @RyanACash

As opposed to something like this:

Thanks,

Ryan Cash
————————–
Marketing + PR-Coordanator
Marketcircle, Inc.
http://www.marketcircle.com
————————–
p: (905)480-5555 x. 235
f: (905)480-5556
e: rcash@marketcircle.com

Follow Marketcircle on Twitter: @marketcircle
Follow me on Twitter: @RyanACash

“Insert some famous popular quote here to seem well read”.

Just don’t overdo it

- MexiChriS

Though I have a different opinion concerning the “Signature” part:
Picture a customer that wants to pass on your contact info to a colleague or to another business he wants to recommend your sevices to. With a signature it’s a simple copy&paste. With no signature he has to start the browser and look it up on your website (if it’s even listed there in detail) or copy it from his addressbook (if he has one, if you’re a simple freelancer not all companies will automatically add you to their addressbook) or he has to contact you via email in order to ask you. The customer could get an impression like “Hey wait a sec… does this guy even want to be contacted?” and drop his effort just because it took to long to get your contact details in one block. Adding a signature at the end of every email can also be helpful for corporate identity and the customer will always know where he put your contact details: at the end of each of your mails. It also helps to avoid spreading the stereotype of the computer guy sitting in the cellar and not wanting to be disturbed by real life, ergo the customer. I do get your point though, but I try to put myself in the position of the customer having to look all around for your contact details…

Best,
Lars.

“The Golden Rule” is really true – I can’t remember how often I receive eMails including a text saying that somebody from a country I never heard of before died and left 3.8 million dollar in their bank account while his / her last wish was to send it to me – must have been my lucky day!

I guess if this wouldn’t be spam, nobody who reads eMails every now and then would have to work at all anymore!

“The Golden Rule” is the best part and extremely true.

Great article!