- The perfect way to end an email, especially when you're writing to a stranger, is to keep it simple.
- Email sign-offs you should avoid are ones that could be construed as too casual, too formal, and even insulting.
- Here's how to end an email the right way.
Writing the body of an email is the easy part. The hard part is signing off.
Is "cheers" too casual? Too pretentious? Too British? Is "sincerely" timeless and professional, or stodgy and overly formal? "Best" seems fail safe — unless it's too bland?
As anyone who has sat staring blankly at a screen, weighing "best" versus "all best" versus "all the best" knows, not signing off doesn't feel quite right either — especially if the context is professional.
"Not closing seems way too abrupt," business etiquette expert Barbara Pachter told Business Insider. "If you have a salutation, you should have a closing to balance it out."
Will Schwalbe, one of the authors "SEND: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do it Better," agrees, pointing out that "we don't go around in life barking orders at one another and we shouldn't on email either."
Manners aside, the email close serves a practical function. It helps "define the personality of the email's content," says Aliza Licht, SVP of Global Communications for Donna Karan International and author of the career guide "Leave Your Mark."
It's also an opportunity to define or redefine your relationship to your correspondent, Schwalbe adds. (A shift from "love" to "best," for example, indicates you may have a problem.)
If we accept — at least for the moment — that email sign-offs are here to stay, the question becomes which one to use, and in what contexts to use it.
We had Pachter, Schwalbe, and Licht weigh in on 27 common email closings. Here are the ones they say to avoid in most situations — and which one to use when you're just not sure.
SEE ALSO: Here is the perfect way to start an email — and 20 greetings you should usually avoid
DON'T MISS: 22 email-etiquette rules every professional should know
WINNER: 'Best'
All three experts agree that "best" is among the safest possible choices, inoffensive, and almost universally appropriate.
So when in doubt, go with "best."
SIGN-OFFS TO AVOID: 'Thanks'
"Thanks" is "fine if it's for a favor the person has done, but obnoxious if it's a command disguised as premature gratitude," Schwalbe says.
Licht agrees. It "comes off as not really that thankful," she says. While it doesn't particularly bother Pachter, the consensus is that you can probably do better. Skip.
'Thanks again'
Again, Schwalbe and Licht aren't fans.
It's "even worse then 'thanks' if it's a command and not genuine gratitude," he says.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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