Most people will argue that your signature should not include your email address. It’s overkill; it’s redundant. Sure, for one-on-one conversations it makes make no sense: you just emailed them.

But, if you’re forwarding an email or get involved in a thread later, your email client usually does not include full email addresses in the quoted reply/forward content.

Thus, you see “Jim Smith” was looped in early on but don’t have his email address to loop him back in. Or you are forwarded a message that needs follow up but all it says down below is “From: Mark Johnson (Acme Co).” What now, Mark?

Plus, you may have a dozen different accounts that end up at the same inbox. Adding your email address in your signature helps you communicate your preferred address and avoid misdirection in the future.

Ensuring your email address is somewhere in your initial message avoids these situations. No matter how much we use it, email is hard sometimes… let’s make it a little easier for each other.