How to End an Email: Closings and Sign-Offs

What is the last part of an email called?

An email ending has three parts, and most advice blurs them together. The closing line is the last sentence of the message itself, and it says what happens next. The sign-off is the short phrase before your name, like "Best" or "Kind regards". Letter-writing guides call it the complimentary close. The signature block comes after that: your name, role, company, and maybe one phone number or link. People who ask what the last part of an email is called usually mean the sign-off or the signature. In a cold email, though, the closing line does most of the work, because that's where the reader decides whether to reply.

1. 1 Closing line: one sentence with one ask or next step, e.g. "Worth a short call next week?"
2. 2 Sign-off: one to three words followed by a comma, e.g. "Best,"
3. 3 Signature block: name, title and company, plus one phone number and one URL if you want them. Plain text works in every client.

What are good closing salutations for business emails?

Pick the sign-off based on your relationship with the reader and how formal the thread is, not on what sounds clever. On first contact, a neutral close is the safe choice. Once you're going back and forth, shorter closes are normal. The table below compares the common options on the same three points.

Sign-off	Register	Fits when	Watch out for
Best / Best regards	Neutral to formal	First contact, cold email, most B2B mail	Nothing. It's the safe default.
Kind regards / Regards	Formal	Prospects in the UK and EU, legal or finance contacts	A bare "Regards" can read as curt in a tense thread
Thanks / Thanks again	Neutral	You've asked for something, or the reader just helped	"Thanks in advance" assumes a yes before you have one
Sincerely	Very formal	Applications, formal letters, official complaints	Stiff in a sales thread
Cheers	Informal	An existing relationship, UK and Australian contacts	Too casual for a first cold email to some readers
Talk soon / Speak Thursday	Informal, forward-looking	A meeting is already booked	Presumptuous if nothing has been agreed

Is "Cheers" a good sign-off?

"Cheers" works once you know the reader, or when they sign off that way first. In British and Australian English it's an everyday close, closer to "thanks" than to a toast. In US business mail it reads as more casual. A simple rule: in your first email to a stranger, use "Best" or "Kind regards". Once the prospect replies, match the sign-off they used.

How do you write the closing line before the sign-off?

Put one ask in the closing line, phrased so the reader can answer in a few words. "Let me know if you have any questions" doesn't actually ask for anything, so it rarely gets a reply. "Should I send the short summary, or is a call easier?" gives the reader two options they can answer in one line. If your email contains several asks, the reader usually answers the easiest one, or none at all.

• Meeting ask: "Does Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon suit you for a short call?"
• Permission ask: "Want me to send the example we built for a team your size?"
• Routing ask: "If this sits with someone else on your team, who should I speak to?"
• Low-pressure close: "If the timing's wrong, a quick 'not now' is completely fine."

How to set "Regards" in an email signature automatically

To add your sign-off and name to every message automatically, save them as a signature in your mail client. In Gmail, go to Settings, then See all settings, then General, then Signature. Create a signature, set it as the default for new emails and replies, and save the changes at the bottom of the page. In Outlook on the web, the setting is under Settings, then Mail, then Compose and reply. One detail catches people out. Gmail can insert a separator line of two hyphens and a space above the signature. Some mail clients treat that line as the start of the signature and hide or trim everything below it in quoted replies. If you put "Best regards" in the signature field, it ends up below that line, where those clients may cut it. That's why many senders type the sign-off by hand and save only their name and details as the signature.

How to end a cold email or sales follow-up

Prospecting mail has two kinds of ending: the closing line that carries each email's ask, and the final email that ends the sequence. Each follow-up should close on a different, smaller ask than the one before. Don't repeat "just checking in".

Follow up sales email: how should it end?

A follow-up sales email should end with a new reason to reply and an ask that's easier than the last one. If your first email asked for a call, the second can ask whether a one-page example would help. Reply in the original thread so the recipient sees the context, and keep the same sign-off and signature as your first message. If the sign-off changes in every email, it looks like a rotating template rather than a person writing.

Sales follow up email template: ending only

Here's a closing you can reuse at the end of a sales follow-up: "Last time I asked about a call. Easier option: shall I send the short example by email instead? A yes or no is plenty. Best, [Name]". It mentions the earlier ask, offers something smaller, and tells the reader a one-word answer is enough. For the full message structure, see our sales follow up email template examples.

Follow up email after no response: how to close it

When nobody has replied, end the follow-up with an easy way out as well as a way in. For example: "If this isn't a priority, reply 'no' and I'll close the loop." The last message in the sequence should say plainly that it's the last one, and then you need to actually stop. Before you write any follow-up, check that the first email didn't hard-bounce. Following up with a dead address gets you nothing. Our guide to the follow up email after no response covers bounce checks and replying in-thread.

Does the email ending affect deliverability?

The sign-off itself doesn't decide where a message lands. The signature can, because that's where links, images and tracking pixels pile up. A signature with several social icons adds remote images and extra URLs to every cold email. Filters look at link domains, and a plain-text message with a heavy HTML footer looks inconsistent. Keep the signature to plain text with one link at most, on a domain that matches your sending domain.

Cold email deliverability and the footer

Cold email deliverability depends mainly on what the receiving server checks: whether SPF, DKIM and DMARC align with your From domain, your domain's reputation, and your bounces and complaints. The ending only plays a part through the footer, which is where the opt-out line and sender details go. The FTC's CAN-SPAM guidance asks commercial email to include a valid physical postal address and a clear way to opt out. EU consent rules for B2B cold email are a separate matter and vary by country. Whether you meet any of these rules depends on how you run your outreach, not on the wording of your footer. Before you blame a sign-off for landing in spam, read how cold email deliverability is decided.

Email deliverability rate: does the signature change it?

"Email deliverability rate" usually means delivery rate: the number of messages the receiving server accepted, divided by the number sent. A signature doesn't change whether a server accepts a message. Invalid addresses, failed authentication and blocklisting do. Where a signature can matter is inbox placement, which is measured separately from acceptance. A message can be accepted and still filtered to spam, for example if the footer links to a domain with a poor reputation. For how to measure each one, see email deliverability rate: delivery vs inbox.

How to end a video email sent with EmailFlow OS

EmailFlow OS sends personalised AI video email for B2B cold outreach. You record one video and upload it to EmailFlow OS, connect your Brevo account and sending domain, and import your prospect list into EmailFlow OS. EmailFlow OS then creates a personalised version of that recording for each recipient on the list, not one per company. Each version goes out from your own inbox, through your own Brevo account and your own sending domain, never through a shared platform sender. That affects how you end the email. The From address the prospect sees is yours, so the sign-off and signature should name the same person who appears in the video. State the ask out loud at the end of the recording, then repeat it as the closing line under the video, so a reader who doesn't press play still sees it. The EmailFlow OS home page explains more about video outreach from your own Brevo account and domain.

What doesn't work at the end of an email

• Two asks in the closing line: the reader answers one or neither, and you can't tell which.
• "Thanks in advance" in a first cold email: it assumes a yes from someone who hasn't agreed to anything.
• A signature longer than the message: images and icons add remote content, and on mobile the ask scrolls out of view.
• A different sign-off in each follow-up: it looks like a rotating template rather than a person.
• A footer link on a domain other than your sending domain: the mismatch shows in the message source.
• "Sent from my iPhone" left on a scheduled sales email: it contradicts the time and setup the reader can see.

Questions people ask

? How do you end an email professionally?

End with three things, in this order: a closing line with one concrete next step, a neutral sign-off such as "Best" or "Kind regards" followed by a comma, and a signature block with your name, role and company. That structure fits almost any business email. Only the closing line changes from one email to the next, because it has to state that message's ask.

? Is "Best" or "Best regards" better?

Both are neutral and safe for first contact. "Best regards" is slightly more formal, which suits prospects in the UK and EU or legal and finance contacts. "Best" is shorter and common in US business mail. The difference is register, not correctness. If the reader replies using one of them, using the same one in your reply is a sensible default.

? Should a cold email have a signature?

Yes, but keep it to plain text: name, title, company, and at most one link on your own sending domain. A cold email without a signature looks anonymous. One with logos, banners and several social icons adds remote images and extra link domains. For commercial email in the US, the FTC's CAN-SPAM guidance also expects a postal address and an opt-out somewhere in the message.

? What's the difference between a sign-off and a signature?

The sign-off is the short phrase before your name, like "Thanks" or "Kind regards". The signature is the block after it: name, role, company and contact details. Mail clients save the signature and can insert it automatically. Some also add a separator line above it, which other clients use to trim signatures from quoted replies.