Your email endings may be the last part of your email, but they are far from the least important. You can improve your professional emails by learning the best way to end an email properly.
You’re finishing up an email and you want to be sure to leave a good last impression. Here are some basic guidelines to follow:
- Don’t skip the closing. You may feel that this one is obvious, but it happens a lot. Since email is a more casual form of communication, it’s not uncommon for an email writer to skip formalities like the opening and closing—even in business emails.
- Make sure the closing is appropriate. Your email closing should take your audience into consideration. For example, you wouldn’t want to close an email to your boss with the word “love.” Although, that’s a perfectly appropriate ending for an email to your mother.
- Be sincere. Your closing should be genuine and realistic. This may require some thought on your part. For example, you wouldn’t want to end an email to an out-of-town colleague with the words “See You Soon” unless you really are going to see them in the near future.
- Check spelling and grammar. A closing full of typos and grammar errors leaves the reader with the impression that you are sloppy and unprofessional. It just takes a few minutes to read over your email and use the spell check tool. Take those minutes.
- Use your full name. Unless you are very well-known to the recipient, you should use your full name in an email rather than just your first name. Even if you do know that recipient well, they could know more than one person with your first name.
- Include a call to action or next step. The final sentences above your signature are important too. A call to action tells the reader how they should respond to your email. Don’t assume that they’ll automatically know what the next step is.
The closing of your business email is like the closing of a business letter. It should look something like this:
Final paragraph of email body (should include a call to action or next steps action in the wording).
Closing phrase,
Signature Template (if used)
First and Last Name
Title and Company
Phone
You may wonder whether you need to include contact information below your name if you are using an electronic signature template. The answer is “yes.” It’s important to also type the information below your name since some email accounts block images. If you leave contact information out below your name, a recipient whose email account blocks images won’t know how to contact you.
Your email closing is the last thing a reader sees, so it can leave a lasting impression. A good, professional email closing will make a positive impression. A sloppy email closing full of mistakes may cause the recipient to view the email sender as less than professional.
