“Yours in best practice…”
How to start and end a business or professional email — but properly
Dear Sir/Madam. Hi there. Greetings. Howdy. Hey. Dear Beloved. However you choose to kick off your emails, there’s messaging in it. And that messaging is the first impression your reader gets. So: get it right.
Or, at the very least, don’t botch it entirely.
I run business writing courses and I’ve yet to get through a single training day in which someone hasn’t identified email salutations (the ‘hello’ part) and closes (the ‘goodbye’ part) as two things they desperately want to cover.
But first:
How you start and finish your emails ultimately depends on two things: the context of your relationship with the reader (formal, informal; unfamiliar, familiar, etc.) and the message content. Make your selections based on that.
Okay, let’s go.
Salutations
AKA THE HELLO
The flowery
When an email begins, ‘Honoured Friend’, ‘Dear Beloved’, or ‘Greetings’, there’s a bell in your head (or there should be) that trills ‘Spammer!’, ‘Mail-order bride’ or ‘Someone asking me for money’.
Stay away from these. Even if you really want to convey your affection, respect or honour, this is not the place.
I don’t have the energy to deal with the evil ‘To whom it may concern’ and the complacent ‘Dear Sir/Madam’, except to say that both read like junkmail or worse, laziness.
If they’re neither, you’ve created distance between yourself and your reader, so rather take the time to find out their name — or use another salutation.
The casual
‘Howdy’, ‘Howzit (South Africa), ‘Hey’, and casual greetings have their place. I’m not going to hop on the keep-it-formal bandwagon and urge you to abandon all personality and friendliness. Email lives and dies with rapport.
But keep in mind that business emails are just that, and that these salutations are more suited to intra-colleague communication, those with whom you communicate really, really often or know really well, and instant messaging.
The simple
‘Hi’ and ‘Hi there’ are nice ish. Straightforward.
Vanilla yoghurt, if you will, at room temperature.
They’re relaxed enough to work for most email, which is nowhere near as formal as a letter, and they’re plain enough not to offend anyone.
First prize with ‘Hi’ is to combine it with a first name, if you have one (but not with a full name — ‘Hi John Smith’ — as this is spammy).
Another nicely generic set of salutations is the ‘Good morning / Good afternoon / Good day’ trio. They’re bland enough to serve when you don’t have a name, or when you’re unsure about the appropriate level of formality.
But be sure your reader in your same time zone or you’ll unnecessarily date your own correspondence — or come across like a pyramid schemer.
The standard
‘Dear [Name]’
Students on my courses ask me if this is ‘too boring’ to use for business writing, as it’s by far the most common.
It’s also the longest-lasting, going back centuries.
But ‘Dear’ is so standard; so typical; so expected, that you can use it almost always. It’s also useful across both formal and informal emails.
Closes
AKA THE GOODBYE
The old-fashioned
Yours truly
Yours faithfully
Thanking you
The smarmy
Ciao
Cheers
Bye
The cheesy
Yours in sales/entertainment/service/whatever
Enthusiastically yours
The simple
Thank you
Many thanks
The standard
Yours sincerely
Sincerely
Regards / Kind regards / Warm regards
Best wishes
I’m not sure how I feel about ‘Yours’ on its lonesome. It feels a bit love-letterish to me. If you agree, stick with ‘Regards’ instead. It’s safer.
Got it?
Great.
Warm regards,
Tiffany
Tiffany Markman gives good advice on words and writing. Want some?
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