Email Signature Statistics: A Closer Look at Email Signatures in 2023

Email signatures have become an essential part of professional communication, a powerful tool for individuals and businesses to make a lasting impression on their recipients.  In this email signature statistic report, we'll take a deep dive into the results of a recently conducted survey. We'll explore the valuable insights and trends that emerged from the responses of hundreds of participants and the email signatures of thousands of MySignature.io users in 2023.

Top Insights About Email Signatures 

• For 42.2% of users, email marketing is in TOP3 of the most effective marketing channels.
• Instagram (69.3%) and Facebook (62.1%) are the most popular social networks for adding to email signatures. Linkedin takes 3rd place - 42.3%.
• 89.9% of users have one email signature, and 8.6% have up to 10 email signatures.
• 77.8% check their email inbox more than five times daily, and 18.1% - 2-4 times.
• 36.3% of users don't use email trackers, 25.1% use paid email trackers, and 14.1% use free ones.
• 44.4% update email signatures 2-4 times yearly, and 31.6% once in a few years.
• The main goals of using email signatures are to maintain standardized email signatures across the whole company (25.1%) and branding, increasing awareness - 28.7%
• The most prevalent cause of using email signatures for marketing purposes is generating leads - 18.8%.
• 48.6% of respondents believe AI can analyze customer data and personalize email signatures to increase engagement and conversions. 
• Regarding Mailbutler, 40% of surveyed email users said they have at least 50 unread messages in their inboxes.

Let's look closer at the specific statistics on email signature usage.

Importance of email marketing channel

We asked how email marketing compares to other marketing channels in terms of its effectiveness for lead generation. For 42.2% of users, email marketing takes TOP3 of the most effective marketing channels. But 33% can't measure the effectiveness of email marketing for their business. It can mean that they are unable to determine whether their email marketing campaigns are successful or not. They may not have the necessary tools, resources, or knowledge to track and analyze their email marketing metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and ROI.

The most popular email clients among users 

The MySignature user's discovery results indicate that Gmail is the most popular email client, followed by Outlook and Apple Mail. Thunderbird and Yahoo are less popular among users:

• Gmail - 62.2%
• Outlook - 28.9%
• Apple Mail - 17,9%
• Thunderbird  - 3.9%
• Yahoo - 3.04%

Website and social media links

A large number of users (31.1%) add a website to their email signatures, indicating that businesses are using email signatures as a means of promoting their website. Social media links are also popular, with Instagram and Facebook being the most commonly added social media links in email signatures:

• Instagram - 69.3%
• Facebook - 62.1%
• Linkedin - 42.2%
• Youtube - 23.8%
• Twitter - 17.5%
• Tiktok - 11.4%
• Pinterest - 4.5%
• Reddit - 1.85%

Amount of used email signatures

The majority of users (89.96%) have only one email signature, while a small percentage (8.6%) have up to 10 email signatures. This suggests that businesses are not leveraging the full potential of email signatures for marketing purposes.

What information do users add to email signatures?

The survey results revealed that, in addition to the essential elements of an email signature such as name, company name, website, and phone number, users commonly include other important elements as well:

• Social media - 75.8%
• Call to action buttons - 32.3%
• Disclaimers - 29%

Promotional banners were less common but still present in 19.4% of email signatures, indicating that some users use email signatures as an additional advertising platform. These results demonstrate the many ways in which email signatures can be personalized and optimized to serve different purposes for different users.

The TOP7 most popular industries for using email signatures

Marketing and sales professionals are the most likely to use email signatures, followed by professionals in the real estate and construction, consulting, and e-commerce industries. Additionally, C-level and director-level professionals are the most likely to use email signatures:

• Marketing and Sales - 14.5%
• Real Estate and Construction - 9.7%
• Agency, consulting  - 9.7%
• E-commerce - 8.1%
• Media and Entertainment - 6.5%
• Non-profit - 6.5%
• Education - 4.8%
• Software and Internet - 3.2%

Most popular positions who email signatures:

• C-level - 7.8%
• Director - 6.2%
• Owner - 4.2%
• Founders - 3.9%
• Project Manager - 0.51%
• Marketing Manager - 0.61%
• Sales Manager - 0.81%
• Recruiter - 0.40%

How often do you check your email?

The results indicate that most users check their email more than five times per day - 77.8%

How many business emails are sent per day

11-25 emails per day send by 28.8% of users. But 11.7% send more than 50 emails per day. For these high-volume email users, email signatures can serve as a powerful tool for email marketing and promoting their brand. By including compelling visuals and call-to-actions in their email signatures, they can make a lasting impression on their recipients and drive engagement with their business.

How often email signatures are updated

The survey also found that email signatures are updated at varying frequencies, with 44.4% of users updating their email signatures 2-4 times per year and 31.6% updating them once in a few years.

The primary goal of using email signatures

The primary goal of using email signatures is branding and increasing awareness, followed closely by using email signatures to ensure consistent signatures throughout the organization  Finally, the survey found that email signatures are commonly used for marketing purposes.  The top three uses for email signatures in marketing are:

• generating leads - 18.8%
• promoting social media - 15.86%
• building a newsletter email list - 10.2%
• upselling new products and features to existing customers - 9%

Other popular use cases include adding email disclaimers, promoting new products and features, and distributing content such as white papers, eBooks, case studies, videos, and webinars. The survey results revealed that call-to-action buttons and banners are commonly used elements in email signatures (32.3%). Of these, social media calls to action were the most popular, with a whopping 39.8% of respondents including them in their email signatures.  Additionally, 27.9% of respondents included CTAs that encouraged recipients to take specific actions, such as scheduling a meeting, subscribing to a newsletter, buying a product or service, leaving a review, and more.  This underscores the importance of email signatures as a powerful marketing tool, allowing businesses to drive engagement and conversions directly from their email communications.

Email tracking of openings and clicks

Regarding the use of email trackers, 36.3% of the respondents do not use any email trackers, while 14% use free email trackers and 25.1% use paid ones. 

AI and email signatures

GPT is taking the digital world by storm, and the number of organizations realizing the value of Artificial Intelligence is set to skyrocket in the coming years. Does AI technology becoming more available mean for email marketing and creating email signatures? And how will it change how marketers around the world operate?

• 45% of respondents believe that AI can analyze customer data and personalize email signatures to increase engagement and conversions. 
• 29.4% think that AI can certainly automate the process of creating and updating email signatures, but whether it enhances effectiveness is still up for debate.
• 9.7% of respondents believe AI cannot replace the creativity and personal touch that a human can bring to crafting an effective email signature.

About survey: Surveyed 200+ respondents (small businesses, solopreneurs, marketing and sales, freelancers, and real estate agencies). Analyzed 20 000 MySignatures user accounts. Regions: US, UK, Germany, Spain, India Main responder's portrait: