Professionally End an Email The Do’s and Don’ts
By: Phillip Hughes
Tags: Email, Email Productivity, Email Tips

It can be tough when writing an email. Your end goal is to get your message across. Therefore, this blog post is going to show you how to professionally end an email, making look professional, and creating a good impression of you.

Don’t forget people not only form an impression of you but also about your business. Creating an amazing impression could mean more business opportunities.

So it can be critical to learn how to end an email professionally.

In addition, if the end of your email doesn’t give the impression that you are professional and you know what you are doing. It could annoy the people who receive your emails.

You don’t want to annoy, rattle, or downright offend anyone you are emailing. So you need to learn the best practices to profession end an email.

That’s what this blog is about. Helping you end an email using the right words.

Four Ways To Professionally End An Email

I’ll start by running through four different scenarios.

In each scenario, you should end your professionally written emails differently.

Asking For Feedback

The key to asking for feedback is to present an “attitude of gratitude”.

Studies have shown being grateful for something another person has done for you, helps you build strong and long-lasting relationships.

It also shows you in a good light, people will think good things about you.

You can use this to your advantage when trying to get a bit of feedback from one of the recipients.

For example, you could end with something like:

“I appreciate your help in resolving this matter”

“Thanks in advance for your time”.

“Looking forward to hearing from you”

“Thank you for your time. Let me know whether we can meet up for a coffee.”

My personal favorite and how I end a lot of my emails in these sorts of situations is.

“Thank you for your time and for reading this far/reading this email”

I learned this ending from Tim Ferriss. I love it, as it doesn’t ask too much from the recipient. Sometimes ending with “I look forward to hearing from you”, implies you expect a reply.

By using this ending, it shows thanks and appreciation toward the recipients for both their time and for reading your email.

Therefore, painting you in a good light, which is what we are aiming for.

However, what if someone takes an age to reply back to your email? If needed, you could send them a little reminder.

You could use Outflash’s email tracking to see if someone has opened and clicked your email. Allowing you to set a reminder to follow up with someone, that you know has read your email.

Build A New Relationship

You have a new lead. Or you have met someone at a Meet Up event and you want to build up a relationship to promote yourself and your business.

A good way to start is by showing them that you care. End your emails with things like.

“Keep fighting the good fight”.

“Stay awesome”.

Another way, which I prefer is offering something that brings them value and supports them in what they are trying to achieve.

For example

“P.S. Here is [your offer/something of use] you might find interesting”

Link to something like a blog post, YouTube video. Or some other premium content like an eBook or info graphic.

This shows the recipient that you care and are willing to help them out. Without necessarily getting something upfront in return.

“Lets Meet For A Coffee”

Let’s say you work for Outflash as a sales professional and are chatting with a potential new client about our email scheduling and easy mail merge functionality.

The new lead agrees to meet with you for a coffee and discuss how Outflash can benefit them.

This is a great opportunity for you to end the email by pre-framing what you would like to discuss.

You can end your emails either by saying.

“Look forward to meeting you soon”

“Talk to you soon”

However, this is very generic. What I also like to add to the end of the email is some information about the features I would like to discuss when we meet for a coffee.

For example

“I hope [link to some valuable information] will help you understand our tool a bit more.

This is a great way to direct the conversation before you even meet up. It shows you have thought about what you would like to discuss. So they don’t feel the coffee will be a waste of their time.

TRACK YOUR “LETS MEET FOR A COFFEE” EMAILS!

Requesting A Meeting

If you would like to meet a new client or a potential lead. You have to find a way to get them on board with the idea.

After giving them lots of reasons why it would be a good idea for the meeting you can add:

“Eager to work around your schedule”

“Hoping for some time in your calendar”

Remember people value their time and don’t want to give it away for free.

You have to show them or provide them with some value to display to them that the meeting will be of benefit to them.

How can you do that?

The best way is to add a P.S that shows them what the meeting will be about and how much time it should take.

For example

“P.S. I promise a good ROI for your 30-minute meeting with me. You’ll walk away with [something of tangible value].

There are lots of ways to do this. Remember you want to end the email in a way that prompts the recipient to take action in a way that you would like.

Professionally End An Email — The Close

Using the examples above. you will have ended your email with the correct wording that reflects the goal of your email.

Next, you should focus on how to professionally end the email.

It’s important to have all these points in the professional email closing. And they should be formatted in the right way.

1) Closing remark — ensure you include a comma after your closing remark. And then include space before going to the next element.

2) Signature — embed your digital signature here if you have one. Otherwise, leave it blank.

3) Leave a space, then type your full name.

4) Your title and the company you work for.

5) Contact information.

Now you have seen how to end an email professionally. Let’s review how to professionally end an email with a run though.

Example Of How to Professionally End An Email

Here is an example email that at first glance looks like it is a well-written email.

Hi Steve,



I'd love to discuss your company's software development requirements with you. Here are a couple of time slots that works for me.



Tuesday at 3 PM

Thursday at 1 PM



Let me know if these time suit you, or if another day works better for you and I can check my schedule. My number is [BEST NUMBER TO REACH YOU].



Phil.

If you compared this email against a lot of the online email checklists out there. It will pass as good, clear, and concise.

So, what is wrong with it?

Well, it forgot to include the elements that make a good, professional email ending.

– No close phrase, so it sounds a little casual, not professional

– The email was closed using only my first name. How many Phil’s could the recipient know?

– There is no signature that details any contact information.

– There is no call to action. What do you want them to ultimately do from your email?

It could be that this email is easily ignored and deleted. Making you lose potential new customers.

Let’s run through what we have discussed in this post and see how we can professionally end the email above.

Hi Steve,



It was interesting speaking to you about our services.

I'd love to discuss your company's software development requirements with you. Here are a couple of time slots that works for me.



Tuesday at 3 PM

Thursday at 1 PM



Let me know if these time suit you, or if another day works better for you and I can check my schedule. My number is [BEST NUMBER TO REACH YOU].



Hoping for a space in your calendar.



Best Regards



Phil Hughes



Phillip Hughes.

Owner, My Little Software and IT Services Company

phil@mycompany.com

Conclusion

A good ending to a professionally written email is as important as starting the email well.

It shows how professional you and your business are.

Also, check out “Professionally Start An Email” which will show you how to start off your emails.

Email is a huge part of our day-to-day life and has become key in business and professional communication.

Becoming great at writing email isn’t that hard. You just need a framework and a bit of practice.

Use a bit of care and attention, just fire out the email. Who knows what could happen?

You may land that client, the amazing job, get that promotion you deserve. All because you crafted a professionally worded email.

So, go ahead and use the tips mentioned above and write that amazing email.

And don’t forget to comment on this post with some tips if you have mastered the art of emailing!

You can check out the original post here