Letter Closings Letter Salutations e Mail Salutations Salutations Closings Endings
For professional emails and business letters, it is best to maintain a balance between formality and creativity when choosing a closing. While “Sincerely Yours” is a safe formal bet, it is often considered trite and hackneyed. You don’t want to go sounding like a cliché right? On the other hand, “Cheers” would not only be very personal but also may be inappropriate.
Writing a business letter or professional email is often harder than it sounds. Once you’ve written that letter, closing that letter effectively is important as this indicates how the email or letter recipient should respond.
As a rule of thumb, it is best to avoid the following closings unless you are writing to your close friend:
♦ Be well
♦ Take care
♦ Ta ta for now
♦ Take it easy
♦ To be continued…
♦ Kind thoughts
♦ Over and out
♦ Over to you
♦ Take care
♦ Stay tuned
♦ Yours
♦ Wishing you the best
♦ Write soon
♦ Until next time
♦ Cheers
♦ More to come
♦ Smiles
♦ Cheerio
♦ I’m out
♦ *insert cutesy emoticon here*
As a guideline, choose from the following when ending that next professional email or business letter:
♦ Best regards
♦ Warm regards
♦ With anticipation
♦ Yours respectfully
♦ Yours truly
♦ Best wishes
♦ Thanks and regards
♦ Confidently yours
♦ Many thanks
♦ Respectfully yours
However, be sure not to mix up the languages and the places of your business associates or you could embarrass yourself!
In today’s globalised world, it is more often than not that people have to sendprofessional email closings:
♦ Aloha – for business associates in Hawaii
♦ Au revoir – for French speaking business associates in places such as France, Geneva, Mauritius, Ivory Coast and Quebec
♦ Adios – for Spanish speaking business associates in places such as Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Venezuela
♦ Auf Wiedersehen - for German speaking business associates in places such as Germany, Zurich, Austria and Liechtenstein
♦ Ciao – for Italian speaking business associates
♦ Namaste – for Hindi speaking business associates in India
♦ Adieu – this is basically old French so you can use this to impress those French speaking business associates in places such as France, Geneva, Mauritius, Ivory Coast and Quebec again
Unless you are hitting on that person, or the email recipient is a love interest, avoid the followingendingsand a sexual harassment lawsuit:
♦ Thinking of you
♦ Hugs
♦ Love always
♦ Lots of love
♦ Love eternally
♦ Love forever
♦ Hasta la vista, baby
♦ Hugs and kisses
♦ Much love
