one day last fall, my colleague miguel morales received an email with a signature that was so strange that it has stuck in his mind for the past year. It came from Melissa Geisler, who works in digital sports programming and production at Yahoo. Beneath Geisler’s title and above her cell phone number was this puzzling quote: “The bird is equal to or greater than the word,” attributed to someone simply called “scientist.”
With this and other strange farewells in mind, Miguel suggested that I approach the topic of the best way to end an email. I surveyed colleagues, friends, and four people he would consider experts, including Cynthia Lett, 55, a business etiquette consultant in Silver Spring, Maryland. below is her combined wisdom and some comments from me. I offer four rules and a long list of possible approvals.
but first, geisler’s quote. She says it comes from an episode of the animated cable TV show Family Guy, about a song from the 1960s. “It was me trying to have a little fun,” she says, adding that she has since changed her signature to add yahoo’s new logo, and dropped the quote, which he hoped recipients would enjoy while it lasted. As much as I respect Geisler’s attempt at frivolity, I think it’s wrong to leave people guessing what you mean.
These are my four rules for logging out of emails:
1. do not include quotes.
2. avoid large corporate logos. sometimes we have no choice in the matter, because our companies insist that we include these things, but if they are too big, they divert attention from the message.
3. Include your title and contact information, but keep it brief. In most business emails, you are doing the person a favor by sharing their vital information. but keep it minimal. mine just says, “susan adams, senior editor, forbes 212-206-5571.” a short link to your website is fine, but avoid a long list of links promoting your projects and posts.
4. include some kind of endorsement. mark hurst, 40, author of bit literacy: productivity in the information age and email overload, says the function of a signature is to signal the end of a message, so that the recipient knows that it was not short-circuited. “For me, endorsement is not so much a style as it is a function in the service of clearly communicating your message,” he says.
etiquette consultant lett advocates a more formal approach. “I don’t think emails are conversations,” she says. are lyrics I do not agree. emails are their own form of communication and are rapidly evolving. Farhad Manjoo, 35, a technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal and, until recently, the voice behind a whiteboard podcast, “Manners for the Digital Age,” puts it well: “An email is as much a letter as a message.” an instant message,” he observes.
All that said, here’s a list of common and not-so-common email signatures, with comments and notes from the experts.
best: this is the most ubiquitous; it is totally safe. I highly recommend it and so do the experts.
best of me: a little forced. lett etiquette consultant likes it.
best wishes to you: lett also likes this one. I think it’s outdated.
the best – harmless.
all the best – this works too.
Best Wishes: It looks too much like a greeting card, but it’s not bad.
best: I know people who like this, but find it finicky. why do you need the extra “s”?
best regards: more formal than the ubiquitous “better”. I use it when I want a note of formality.
greetings: fine, nondescript, usefully brief. I use this.
rgds – I used to use this, but gave it up because it tries too hard to be abbreviated. why not write three more letters? ok if you send it from your phone.
Best Regards: I like this personal email to someone you don’t know very well, or a business email meant as a thank you.
Best regards: As good as best regards, with a touch of extra warmth.
warmer: I often use this for personal emails, especially if I’m close to someone but not in regular contact.
warmly – This is a nice riff on the “warm” theme that can be used safely among colleagues.
caution: in the right cases, especially for personal emails, this works.
thank you. lett says this is a no-no. “This is not closure. it is a thank you,” she insists. I do not agree. Forbes Leadership Editor Fred Allen uses it regularly and I think it’s an appropriate and warm thing to say. I use it too.
thank you very much. I also like and use it, especially when someone (a colleague, a source, someone I do business with) has spent time and effort on a task or email.
thanks! – This annoys me because I used to have a boss who ended all emails this way. usually he would ask me to do a task, and that made saying goodbye to him seem more like a stern command, with a forced note of appreciation, than a genuine expression of gratitude. but in the right context, it can be fine.
thank you – more formal than “thank you”. I use this sometimes.
thank you! – this does not have the same grid quality as “thank you!” the added “you” softens it.
thank you very much: I use this a lot when I really appreciate the effort the recipient has put in.
thank you for your consideration: A little forced on a sycophantic note, this can work in the business context, although it’s almost asking for a rejection. stay away from this when writing a job search-related note.
thank you – I predict this will gain popularity as our emails become more like texts. lett wouldn’t approve.
hope this helps – I like this in an email where you try to help the recipient.
waiting – I use this too. I think it’s kind and warm, and shows that you’re looking forward to meeting the recipient.
in a hurry: This works when you’re really in a hurry. expresses humility and respect for the recipient.
in a hurry – also good when you don’t have time to review.
feel good: Some people find this irritating. it is not appropriate for a business email.
peace: retro, this firm wears its politics on its sleeve. it doesn’t bother me, but others can go back.
Sincerely – I don’t like this. It makes me feel like I’m ten years old and I get a note from a pen pal in Sweden.
yours: same problem as above.
very sincerely: lett likes this for business emails, but I find it stilted and has the pen pal problem.
honestly: lett likes this too, but to me, it indicates that the writer is stuck in the past. maybe fine for some formal business correspondence, like from the attorney handling his deceased mother’s estate.
sincerely yours: Same problem as “sincerely”, but more mocking. lett likes this for business correspondence. I don’t.
Cheers! – I wonder how prevalent this is in the UK? I’ve only seen it from Americans attempting a British affectation. I know it shouldn’t irritate me, but it does. I also don’t like people telling me to cheer up.
ciao: Pretentious to an English speaker, though I can see it used in a fun, personal email.
-your name: concise but perfect in many circumstances. probably not a good idea for an initial email.
-initial: good if you know the recipient and even suitable in a business context if it is someone you communicate with frequently.
love: This seems too informal, like too much sharing in a business context, but farhad manjoo points out that for some people, hugging is common, even in business meetings. for them, this approval can work.
xoxo – I’ve heard this used in business emails, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.
much love – I would only use this in a personal email. the “much” makes it even more inappropriately effusive than plain, clean “love.”
hugs: It’s hard to imagine this in a business email, but it’s great when writing to your grandmother.
smiley face: Emoticons are becoming more accepted, although some people find them irritating. I wouldn’t sign this way unless I was writing to my son.
😉 – I have received emails from colleagues with these symbols and they make my day.
[:-) – I’m a fan of variations on the smiley face made with punctuation marks, though I suspect most people don’t like them.
high fives from below: A colleague shared this awful goodbye often used by a publicist who handles tech clients. an attempt to sound cool, which fails.
Take it easy, bro – richie frieman, 34, author of new book answers all…and other ways to ruin your career, says he regularly gets this from a web designer in santa cross, ca. although it might put some people off, it would be nice to receive an email with this approval, knowing that the sender lives in an informal environment.
see you. lett would be embarrassed, but that’s fine with me.
Have a wonderful, generous and lustful day: Tim Ferguson, editor of Forbes Asia, regularly receives this thumbs-up from Joan Koh, a Southeast Asian travel writer. it’s weird and nasty.
sent from my iphone: This may be the most common signature. it used to bother me, but I realize it explains the brevity and the typos. i deleted it from my iphone signature because i don’t like to clutter my emails with extra words and in many cases i don’t want the recipient to know i’m not at my desk. but maybe you should restore it. the same goes for automated messages on other devices.
typos courtesy of my iphone: kinda clever but it’s gone stale. better to use the automatic message.
sent from a prehistoric stone tablet: I laughed the first time I read it, but then the joke is over.
excuse my monkey thumbs – same problem here.
please consider the environment before printing this email. – a preachy relic of the past. Who doesn’t know that printing uses paper?
vcards: I think they are a great idea. at least they work fine on my dell desktop when i want to load a contact in outlook.
this email is off the record unless otherwise noted: my colleague jeff bercovici, who covers the media, says he gets this email from friends who invite him to birthday parties or other commitments and finds it extremely annoying. I wonder what kind of paranoid people put this in their signatures.
Long Disclaimers: We’ve all seen and ignored them, though I understand many companies require them. Forbes in-house legal counsel Kai Falkenberg says she is not aware of any cases in which she has relied on legal disclaimers, although she says they could serve as persuasive evidence in a trade secrets case where one party was trying to maintain the confidentiality of the information.
What do you think of my list? What weird, funny, offensive or elegant closings have I missed?
see: 30 under 30: my best advice