What is an email sign-off?
An email sign-off is the closing phrase before your name and signature. It is the last thing the recipient reads before they decide whether to reply, forward, or ignore your message. A sign-off sets tone, signals relationship, and in professional contexts, it shapes how your competence and approachability are perceived.
The distinction between a sign-off and an email signature matters. The sign-off is the closing phrase: "Best regards," "Thanks," "Looking forward to hearing from you." The email signature is the structured block that follows: your name, title, company, phone number, and links. The sign-off is written. The signature is designed. Both affect how your email lands, but they serve different functions.
Most email sign-off advice stops at "here are 50 options, pick one." That is fine for personal email. For professionals who send 40+ emails a day, the sign-off is not a creative writing exercise. It is a pattern that needs to match context: cold outreach versus ongoing thread, client-facing versus internal, formal industry versus casual startup culture. The right sign-off for a lawyer sending a contract is wrong for a sales rep following up on a demo.
Formal sign-offs
Formal sign-offs work for first contact, executive communication, client-facing correspondence, and any situation where you have not established a casual rapport.
Best regards is the global default. It works across cultures, industries, and levels of seniority. If you are unsure, use this one. It is professional without being stiff and warm without being familiar.
Kind regards carries slightly more warmth than "Best regards." Common in UK and Australian business communication. Less common in the US but never inappropriate.
Sincerely is the most formal English-language sign-off. Appropriate for cover letters, formal proposals, communications with government officials, and first contact with senior executives. It signals respect and distance. In ongoing email threads, it can feel overly stiff.
Respectfully is standard in military, government, and diplomatic communication. In civilian business contexts, it reads as highly formal and is best reserved for situations where deference is appropriate (addressing a board chair, responding to a regulator, communicating with a judge's chambers).
Regards is "Best regards" without the warmth. Neutral and professional. Works when you want to be polite but not friendly. Common in procurement, compliance, and formal vendor communications.
Yours faithfully is British English convention for letters addressed to "Dear Sir/Madam" (where you do not know the recipient's name). In email, it is rarely used unless you are in the UK legal or financial sector and maintaining traditional letter conventions.
Yours sincerely is the British counterpart to "Sincerely." Used when the recipient is addressed by name. Standard in UK professional correspondence.
With appreciation works when the recipient has done something specific that warrants acknowledgment. More personal than "Thanks" and more formal than "Thanks so much." Use it deliberately, not as a default.
Casual and friendly sign-offs
These work for colleagues you communicate with regularly, internal emails, and industries with informal cultures (tech, creative, media, startups).
Thanks is the workhorse of casual professional email. Data from email analytics platforms consistently shows that emails closed with "Thanks" or a variation of it get higher response rates than any other sign-off category. It is brief, positive, and implies that you value the recipient's time.
Thanks so much adds emphasis without crossing into overly familiar territory. Works when the recipient is doing you a genuine favor.
Cheers is common in UK, Australian, and New Zealand business email. In the US, it reads as slightly informal and is more common in tech and creative industries. Avoid it with recipients who might find it too casual for the context.
Talk soon implies an ongoing relationship and an expectation of future communication. Appropriate for colleagues and business contacts you speak with regularly. Not appropriate for first contact or formal correspondence.
Have a great week / Have a great weekend works for Friday afternoon emails and end-of-week wrap-ups. It adds a human touch without being unprofessional. Avoid "Have a great day" on Friday afternoons or "Have a great weekend" on Monday mornings.
All the best sits between formal and casual. It works across most contexts and is particularly useful when you are unsure about the appropriate level of formality.
Take care implies concern for the recipient's wellbeing. Appropriate for colleagues you have a relationship with, especially during stressful periods (year-end, product launches, organizational changes). Too personal for first contact with strangers.
Warmly conveys genuine friendliness. Common in nonprofit, education, and counseling contexts. In corporate environments, it can read as overly soft depending on the industry.
Sign-offs by role and profession
Sales and business development
Sales professionals live in email. The sign-off is part of the closing technique.
For cold outreach: "Looking forward to connecting" signals interest without pressure. "Let me know if this is relevant" gives the recipient an easy out, which paradoxically increases response rates.
For follow-ups after a demo: "Excited about the possibilities" conveys genuine enthusiasm without being pushy. "Happy to answer any questions" keeps the door open.
For closing emails: "Looking forward to getting started" assumes the positive outcome. "Let me know how you would like to proceed" is neutral and professional.
For relationship maintenance: "Always happy to help" positions you as a resource. "Let me know if anything comes up" signals availability without creating obligation.
The sign-off a sales rep uses should match the stage of the relationship. "Best regards" on a cold email is fine. "Best regards" on the 15th email in an active deal feels robotic. Match warmth to familiarity.
Legal professionals
Lawyers operate under professional conduct rules that affect communication tone. Sign-offs in legal correspondence tend toward the formal end.
For client communication: "Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions" is standard. It reinforces the advisory relationship and encourages the client to seek clarification rather than act on incomplete understanding.
For opposing counsel: "Regards" or "Respectfully" are the safest options. Warmth can be misread as strategic friendliness. Distance is appropriate.
For court filings and judicial communications: "Respectfully submitted" for formal filings. "Respectfully" for email correspondence with chambers staff.
For internal firm communication: "Thanks" works for day-to-day communication between associates and partners. Law firms internally are less formal than their client-facing communication suggests.
Healthcare professionals
Healthcare sign-offs need to balance professionalism with the warmth that patient-facing communication requires.
For patient communication: "Wishing you well" or "Take care" conveys genuine concern. "Best regards" works for administrative correspondence but feels cold in clinical context.
For inter-provider communication (referrals, consultations): "Thank you for the referral" or "Happy to discuss further" maintains collegial tone. "Regards" for formal correspondence between institutions.
For administrative/billing communication: "Please contact our office with any questions" is standard and directs follow-up to the appropriate channel.
For research collaboration: "Looking forward to the collaboration" or "Happy to discuss methodology" signals engagement with the academic side of the profession.
Technology and engineering
Tech industry communication is notably less formal than most other professional contexts.
For external partners and clients: "Best" (abbreviated from "Best regards") is the tech industry default. Brief, professional, and universally understood.
For internal team communication: "Thanks" or simply no sign-off at all. In engineering-heavy organizations, dropping the sign-off on internal emails is common and not considered rude. The cultural norm is efficiency over formality.
For open-source and community communication: "Cheers" is common in developer communities. "Thanks for the contribution" for pull request correspondence.
For support and customer success: "Let me know if this resolves the issue" combines a sign-off with a call to action. "Happy to help further" signals ongoing availability.
Finance and accounting
Financial services communication trends formal because regulatory scrutiny extends to electronic communication.
For client communication: "Please feel free to reach out with any questions" is the standard advisory sign-off. "Best regards" for routine correspondence.
For regulatory correspondence: "Respectfully" or "Regards." Avoid anything that could be interpreted as casual when communicating with regulators, auditors, or compliance officers.
For internal communication: "Thanks" for day-to-day. "Regards" for communication with senior leadership or cross-departmental correspondence that might be forwarded.
Education
For parent communication: "Thank you for your support" reinforces the home-school partnership. "Please don't hesitate to reach out" encourages engagement.
For student communication: "Good luck with the assignment" or "Looking forward to your presentation" adds encouragement. "Best" for routine administrative correspondence.
For administration and board communication: "Respectfully" or "Best regards." Education administration communication is more formal than classroom communication.
For colleague communication: "See you at the meeting" or "Thanks" for daily correspondence. "Best regards" for communication with administrators or district leadership.
Real estate
For buyer/seller clients: "Excited about this opportunity" or "Looking forward to the next steps" maintains momentum in transactions that live and die on enthusiasm and timing.
For agent-to-agent communication: "Thanks for showing the property" or "Let me know if your client has questions." Collegial but businesslike.
For post-closing: "Congratulations on your new home" is the obvious and correct sign-off. It is also the last impression you make before the client decides whether to refer you.
Sign-offs to avoid in professional email
"Sent from my iPhone" is not a sign-off. It is a default email client setting that tells the recipient you did not care enough to change it. Remove it or replace it with a proper mobile email signature.
"Thx" or "Ty" abbreviations read as lazy in professional contexts. "Thanks" is five letters. Use all of them.
"XOXO," "Love," "Hugs" are appropriate for personal email with friends and family. Never for professional communication, regardless of how close your relationship with the colleague is.
"Hope this helps!" as a sign-off on unsolicited advice reads as passive-aggressive. If someone asked for help, "Hope this helps" is fine. If they did not ask, it implies they needed it.
"Per my last email" is a passive-aggressive callback, not a sign-off. If you need to reference a previous email, do it in the body of the message.
"Please advise" is a request, not a closing. It works mid-email as a question but does not function as a sign-off. Combine it with an actual closing: "Please advise at your earliest convenience. Best regards, [Name]."
No sign-off at all is acceptable in rapid internal email threads where the conversation is essentially a chat. It is not acceptable on first contact, client-facing email, or any communication that might be forwarded to someone who does not know you.
How sign-offs affect response rates
Email analytics data consistently shows that the closing phrase affects whether and how quickly the recipient responds.
"Thanks in advance" gets the highest response rates in studies of large email datasets, likely because it creates a subtle social obligation. The sender has preemptively thanked the recipient, making it psychologically harder to not follow through.
Grateful sign-offs as a category ("Thanks," "Thank you," "Thanks so much," "Thanks in advance") outperform neutral sign-offs ("Regards," "Best," "Cheers") and formal sign-offs ("Sincerely," "Respectfully") in response rate studies. The effect is consistent across industries and seniority levels.
The worst performers are sign-offs that create ambiguity about whether a response is expected. "FYI" and "For your reference" actively signal that no response is needed, which is useful when that is your intent but counterproductive when you need a reply.
The takeaway: if you need a response, close with gratitude. If you do not need a response, close with a neutral sign-off. Match the sign-off to the desired action.
Making sign-offs consistent across a team
Individual sign-off choice is fine for personal email. For a company sending thousands of emails per week, inconsistency in sign-offs creates a fragmented brand impression. One sales rep closes with "Cheers!" while another uses "Respectfully submitted." One support agent signs off with "Let me know if you need anything else :)" while another uses "Regards."
This is not about policing creativity. It is about establishing a professional baseline that every team member's email meets, and then allowing individual variation within that baseline.
Practical approach for teams:
Define 3 to 5 approved sign-offs for each department or customer-facing role. Sales gets a different set than legal. Support gets a different set than the executive team. Document them in your brand guidelines alongside your email signature templates.
Enforce the signature portion centrally using email signature management software. The signature (name, title, phone, company branding) should be identical across the team. The sign-off (the closing phrase) is harder to enforce technically because it is typed by the user, but you can set expectations through onboarding documentation and periodic audits.
For teams using Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, centralized signature management ensures that even if the sign-off varies, the professional presentation of the signature block is consistent. This is the 80/20: you cannot control what people type, but you can control how their name, title, and company appear underneath it.
Sign-offs by situation
Job application emails
"Thank you for your time and consideration" is the standard. It is respectful, grateful, and universally appropriate. "Looking forward to hearing from you" adds forward momentum. Avoid "Hope to hear from you soon," which can read as impatient.
Networking and introduction emails
"Looking forward to connecting" is warm and forward-looking. "Would love to continue the conversation" signals genuine interest. Avoid "Let's circle back," which has become a cliche.
Complaint or escalation emails
"I appreciate your prompt attention to this matter" is firm without being hostile. "Thank you for looking into this" assumes the recipient will act. Avoid sign-offs that sound threatening or passive-aggressive.
Thank-you emails
"With gratitude" or "Many thanks" reinforces the purpose of the email. "Best regards" on a thank-you note feels perfunctory. Match the sign-off warmth to the gratitude you are expressing.
Rejection or bad-news emails
"Wishing you all the best" or "I wish you success in your search" for job rejections. "Thank you for your understanding" for service cancellations or scope reductions. The sign-off should not undercut the empathy in the message body.
Out-of-office and handoff emails
"[Colleague Name] will be happy to assist in my absence" redirects the reader. "I will follow up when I return on [date]" sets expectations. Always include the handoff contact in the sign-off section, not buried in the body.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most professional email sign-off?
"Best regards" is the safest universal choice for professional email. It works across industries, seniority levels, and cultures. "Sincerely" is more formal and appropriate for first contact with executives, government officials, or in cover letters. For ongoing professional relationships where rapport has been established, "Thanks" or "All the best" are equally appropriate.
Is it okay to not include a sign-off?
In rapid internal email threads that function like chat, yes. In any external email, first contact, or communication that might be forwarded, no. The sign-off signals that the email is complete and provides a professional conclusion. Without it, the email can feel abrupt or unfinished.
Should I use the same sign-off every time?
Having a default is fine, but varying it based on context shows social awareness. Use "Best regards" as your baseline, then adjust warmer ("Thanks so much") or more formal ("Sincerely") based on the recipient and situation. Sales professionals in particular should match the sign-off to the relationship stage.
Do sign-offs differ by country?
Yes. "Cheers" is standard in UK, Australian, and New Zealand business email but reads as casual in the US. "Yours faithfully" and "Yours sincerely" follow specific British English conventions tied to how the recipient was addressed. German business email traditionally uses "Mit freundlichen Grüßen" (with friendly regards). Japanese business email uses "よろしくお願いいたします" (yoroshiku onegai itashimasu), which roughly translates to "I appreciate your favorable consideration." When emailing internationally, default to "Best regards" unless you are familiar with the recipient's cultural conventions.
How do I set a consistent sign-off for my team?
You cannot technically enforce what people type before their signature. What you can do is: (1) document 3 to 5 approved sign-offs per role in your brand guidelines, (2) centrally manage the email signature so the professional block below the sign-off is consistent, and (3) include sign-off guidance in employee onboarding. The signature management portion eliminates the bigger inconsistency problem (different logos, outdated phone numbers, missing titles) even if sign-off phrasing varies slightly.
Is "Best" too informal?
"Best" (short for "Best regards") is the most common sign-off in US tech and startup culture. It is borderline for traditional industries like law, finance, and government. If your industry defaults to "Best regards" in full, using "Best" might read as curt. If your industry is casual, "Best" is perfectly fine. Read the room.
Should my email sign-off match my email signature style?
The tone should be compatible but they serve different purposes. The sign-off is a personal closing phrase. The email signature is a structured block of contact information and branding. A playful sign-off like "Cheers!" paired with a formal corporate signature with legal disclaimers creates tonal whiplash. Match the register: formal sign-off with formal signature, casual sign-off with clean but simple signature.
What sign-off gets the best response rate?
Research across large email datasets consistently shows that gratitude-based sign-offs ("Thanks," "Thank you," "Thanks in advance") outperform neutral and formal alternatives. "Thanks in advance" specifically generates the highest response rates, likely because it creates a sense of social reciprocity. If you need a reply, close with thanks. If you are sending an FYI, close with "Regards" or "Best."
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