Close a Business Email
Business mail is more formal than your personal mail, and this is as true for electronic mail (email; e-mail) as for mail sent through the post. You can avoid looking sophomoric (juvenile), amateur (unprofessional) or uneducated by following some simple steps.
Steps
- Be sure to thank the reader for their time. "Thank you in advance for your consideration" works well for most situations.
- Close the email the same way you would a business letter. "Kind regards" (Commonwealth English), "Sincerely", "Yours sincerely", "Thank you", "Thank you again", "Respectfully yours", etc. are all acceptable in general use. Formal closes are "Very truly yours" in American English and "Yours faithfully" in Commonwealth English.
- Include your full name and job title.
- Include your employer's name.
- Include your business postal address.
- Include your phone number.
Tips
- Your signature should look something like this:
- Sincerely,
- Jane Doe, Market Analyst
- MegaCorp
- 1234 Blue Bird Lane
- Suite 100
- Somewhere, KS 11111
- 214-444-1234
- It's very easy in most email clients like Outlook, etc. to set up a signature that gets attached to each and every email automatically.
Warnings
- Have another person double check your work if possible. There is no substitute for proper proofreading.
- Edit and proofread all letters before sending them, that is, read through for correct grammar and spelling, and remove typographical errors. Change ambiguous language: words and phrases that are unclear, or that have a double meaning.
- Using a spell check is not infallible since the software will often insert a properly spelled word but not the correct word for the context. Having "bankroll" changed to "blank roll" really changes the meaning of the sentence. You must also rely on your own knowledge of the subtleties of grammar, as the software's suggestions are not always right.
Related Articles
Sources and Citations
- http://www.cox.smu.edu/web/blc/blc - Business Etiquette Class, research source.
