Ending an email may seem like an afterthought. But it’s actually a crucial part of the message, especially in business communication.
The way you end an email can make a good impression, convey essential information that gives more context to the entire message, and can even act as a powerful marketing or sales tool that grows your business on autopilot.
But what are the main ways to end emails? And how to end a professional email to align it with your brand and goals?
Key Takeaways:
👉 Enhance communication and support marketing goals with a well-designed email signature.
👉 Keep signatures clean, mobile-responsive, goal-oriented, and updated. Add a personal touch.
👉 Choose formal ("Sincerely"), semi-formal ("Best"), or informal ("Cheers") based on the email's context.
👉 Avoid unprofessional language, mismatched tones, lengthy signatures, broken links, and poor mobile optimization.
Let’s explore these and other essential questions about how to end an email professionally below.
The two main ways to end an email
Before getting into the specific strategies for ending emails, it’s a good idea to get a better understanding of the types of endings for emails you can consider. The good news is that while there are many possible variations, most email endings can be boiled down to a couple of types.
1. Sign-off. A simple email sign-off is probably still the most common way to end an email. It’s a quick “Best Regards” or “Sincerely”, followed by the sender’s name at the end and maybe their job title. For a long time, these types of signatures were the standard that most people were okay with. But today, it’s a wasted opportunity for providing more context, increasing networking possibilities, and helping the business grow.
2. A professional email signature. With email signature tools becoming more accessible, more and more individuals and businesses are opting to get more out of every email they send. A well-designed email signature can contain essential contact information, useful links, disclaimers, social media links, logos, professional photos, and even promotional banners.
Examples of how to close an email
One of the best things about using email signatures to enhance the endings of emails is that they can be customized to suit virtually any situation. No matter what field you’re working in or what goals you want to achieve, email signatures can be adapted to match your needs, helping you accomplish goals that extend well beyond simply stating who you are.
Here are a few examples of email signature layouts that show how different details can be combined to achieve your goals.
Tips on ending an email professionally
Using email signatures is a great way to end any professional email. But if executed poorly, an email signature can also become a distraction that takes away from the main topic of the email or even creates issues that distort the entire message.
That’s why you need to follow the best practices of email closing, which include principles in design, presentation, and alignment with goals. Let’s explore these tips below.
Keep it clean and concise
Leading email signature tools make it easy to add various elements to your professionaly email ending. But that doesn’t mean that having more things at the end of your email is always a good idea.
In fact, it’s often better to make sure you highlight the most important elements in the email signature design first, and then look at ways you can enhance it with something else that could either offer more value or help you achieve business goals.
The good news is that when you use a reputable email signature tool, you can take advantage of various templates that are tailor-made for businesses and professionals. These templates are already made with the best practices of email signature design, ensuring you get a signature that looks good on any device and helps you accomplish your business goals.
"Very fast to get going, easy to use and it's no problem managing my own signatures across multiple email accounts and it's been great at providing signature solutions for clients."
Prioritize mobile responsiveness
Mobile clients account for more than 40% of all email opens, which means that your emails must look good on any device in order to be read. While a simple signoff will not cause any issues, having a more elaborate email signature can cause it to become distorted or not display at all if it’s not optimized for various devices.
source: mailmodo
The good news is that email signature tools have signature templates and design tools that ensure you get an HTML-based email signature that can adapt to different screen sizes.
Of course, you should still test your email signature on different devices and email clients to ensure that it looks the way it should and loads quickly.
Consider your goals
If you’re not sure where to start, you should consider what you want your email signature to achieve. Endings of emails are excellent opportunities to showcase not just share relevant information but also nudge people to become your customers and explore your services, especially if you can make that offer appealing.
So, think about what you want to accomplish - do you want more traffic to your website? Maybe you need more social media followers? Want to book consultations with leads? Include a call to action to promote a new hot product?
Craft Your Perfect Email Signature Today! ✨
Elevate your email endings with a professional signature that leaves a lasting impression. Customize your signature with essential details and promotional elements. Access a variety of templates and create a signature that enhances your communication and supports your goals.
Design Your Signature
Defining your goals and using an email signature to achieve them can yield great results, especially if you also use an email signature tool that offers email tracking, allowing you to understand which approaches are working and generating the business outcomes you’re looking for.
Update regularly
An email signature is only as effective as the information it contains. Otherwise, it can actually become harmful, providing customers and business partners with wrong details that can cause misunderstandings and even ruin relationships.
That’s why even if you take the time to put together an amazing signature that delivers great results for your business, you should still strongly consider whether it needs to be changed every few months.
You don’t necessarily need to revamp the entire design, but at least look over every detail, refresh your offer if you have one, and think about how you could use the data you collected to make improvements that could potentially lead to even better results.
Make it your own
Emails don’t offer many opportunities to stand out. That’s why email signatures are your best bet for adding a bit of personality to your emails, which can help form stronger connections with your audience and make your messages instantly recognizable.
Today’s email signature tools make adding logos and professional photos an effortless process, allowing you to plug personal elements right into a signature template, making it your own and adding touches that make the email seem more personal.
If you want to take it a step further, you can even customize various elements in your email signature to match your brand colors, providing a unified experience throughout your website, social media, and email communications.
Email closing phrases
When looking for good ways to write an email ending, using signatures will offer more advantages in most formal business correspondence. However, email signatures also need sign-off phrases that signal that it’s the end of the email message and are also appropriate for the person you’re communicating with.
Here are some options you could consider in different situations:
Formal: For formal sign offs, phrases like Sincerely, Best Regards, and Best Wishes are usually safe options to consider. These are great for situations when you don’t know someone and want to convey respect, such as a job application.
Less formal: When you’re emailing clients or colleagues you know but don’t have a close relationship with, using semi-formal phrases like Best, Many thanks, or even Take care can be solid options.
Informal: If you’re emailing friends, close colleagues, or clients you have a great relationship with, you can use informal sign-off phrases like Cheers or Chat soon.
Email endings to avoid in a professional setting
An inappropriate or poorly-written sign off can diminish even a timely and useful email. And there are quite a few different mistakes you can make when ending an email, which can not only cause confusion but can even damage your relationship with the person you’re communicating with.
To help avoid these situations, let’s look at some of the biggest mistakes to avoid when ending emails.
Using only your full name
Even though it’s still relatively common, signing off with just your first name or the full name is not really appropriate in a business setting. People you’re communicating with expect at least some context about who’s writing to them and might choose not to reply at all if they aren’t sure who the person is or why their message is relevant to them.
Unprofessional language
Another big mistake with email sign-offs is using language that’s inappropriate for the person you’re emailing. In almost all business communication, you should avoid using slang, emojis, or excessive exclamation points; leave these for when you’re emailing friends.
Mismatched closing phrases
While it’s not a huge mistake, using the wrong tone in your closing line can put off some people you’re communicating with, especially if you have little to no prior communication and haven’t built trust yet. For example, when reaching out to someone for the first time, avoid using “Cheers” or “Best” as your closing phrase, and instead go for a more formal and safer option such as Best Regards.
Overly long signatures
As mentioned before, email signatures can come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. And with HTML, you can design elaborate signatures that contain not just your details, but also social media icons, banners, and images. However, while these elements can be useful, it’s important not to add too many elements to your signature, as that can cause readability issues.
Broken links or images
Adding links, banners, and images can be a great idea if they’re part of a professionally-designed email signature. However, it’s crucial to regularly check if all the links and images are working and displaying correctly. Otherwise, your signature will not only look unprofessional but can even cause irritation to the recipient, souring your relationship with them.
Poor mobile optimization
Since such a significant percentage of emails are opened on smartphones, it makes sense that the email signature needs to look good on any device. And yet, many signatures that are not created with a professional email signature solution end up being distorted on various screen sizes. Sometimes, it’s better to stick to a simpler design if that means it will look better in portrait mode on a mobile phone.
Bottom line
A sign-off is not just something you need to put at the end of your email. It’s an important communication tool that provides context about who you are, shows respect to the recipient, and sometimes even plays a significant role in achieving your marketing goals.
By using a professional email signature solution, you can leverage an intuitive design process and a variety of templates to create an email signature that matches your brand, business goals, and preferences.
