How to End an Email Professionally: 20 Sign-Offs That Build Authority

You spent 20 minutes perfecting your email body—then typed "Best" and hit send. That closing line is doing more work than you think. How you end an email professionally shapes whether recipients respond, ignore, or remember you.

Most guides treat email sign-offs as an afterthought. This one treats them as the authority signal they actually are—and shows you why your LinkedIn presence determines whether any closing line lands.

Key Takeaways

• Your email closing line sets the tone for follow-up—the wrong sign-off signals either desperation or disinterest, both of which kill response rates
• Professional sign-offs vary by context: formal closings work for cold outreach, warmer closings work better once rapport exists through LinkedIn engagement
• LinkedIn authority amplifies every email closing—recipients who recognize you from LinkedIn read sign-offs as confident, not clingy
• ConnectSafely.ai builds the inbound presence that transforms your email closings from generic to genuinely effective

Why Your Email Sign-Off Matters More Than You Think

An email closing is not just a formality. It is the last thing your recipient reads. It shapes their emotional state when they decide whether to reply.

Research from Boomerang analyzed millions of emails and found that certain closing phrases consistently generated higher reply rates than others. The difference was not just word choice—it was the emotional tone the closing conveyed.

Sign-offs that expressed gratitude and warmth outperformed cold, transactional closings. But the most important variable was not the phrase itself. It was whether the recipient already trusted the sender.

That trust comes from LinkedIn inbound authority—not email copywriting.

20 Professional Email Sign-Offs by Context

Not every closing works in every situation. Here are 20 proven sign-offs organized by use case, followed by a comparison table.

Formal & First Contact

1. Best regards — Safe, professional, universally appropriate
2. Sincerely — Formal tone; best for official correspondence
3. Kind regards — Slightly warmer than "best regards" without being casual
4. Respectfully — Signals deference; use when reaching out to senior executives
5. With appreciation — Formal gratitude; works for requests or applications

Professional But Warm

6. Best — Concise and widely accepted in B2B contexts
7. Thanks — Works when you've genuinely asked for something
8. Thank you — More complete than "thanks"; signals you take the ask seriously
9. Many thanks — Slightly elevated; feels considerate without being effusive
10. Warm regards — Bridges formal and friendly; signals ongoing relationship

Relationship-Building & Follow-Up

11. Looking forward to hearing from you — Clear intent to continue the conversation
12. Looking forward to connecting — Works well after LinkedIn engagement
13. Talk soon — Implies an established relationship; use with warm contacts
14. Until next time — Appropriate when you've spoken before
15. Stay in touch — Signals long-term interest without pressure

Action-Oriented Closings

16. Let me know your thoughts — Invites engagement without demanding a decision
17. Happy to jump on a call — Removes friction from the next step
18. Would love to hear your perspective — Positions recipient as expert; flattering without being sycophantic
19. Open to a 15-minute chat if useful — Respects their time; converts well in sales contexts
20. Your thoughts? — Direct, short, confident; works when rapport exists

Email Sign-Off Comparison Table

Sign-Off	Best Context	Tone	Response Signal
Sincerely	Cold formal outreach	Very formal	Respect
Best regards	First-time B2B contact	Formal	Professional
Kind regards	Follow-up emails	Warm-professional	Consideration
Best	Ongoing B2B communication	Neutral	Efficiency
Thanks	After making a request	Appreciative	Gratitude
Thank you	Sales or partnership asks	Formal gratitude	Sincerity
Warm regards	Relationship nurturing	Warm	Long-term interest
Looking forward to connecting	Post-LinkedIn engagement	Optimistic	Continuation
Talk soon	Warm contacts	Casual-confident	Familiarity
Happy to jump on a call	Sales follow-up	Action-oriented	Low-friction ask
Let me know your thoughts	Content sharing or feedback	Curious	Non-demanding
Your thoughts?	Confident follow-up	Direct	Trust signal

What Most Guides Get Wrong About Email Closings

Most email sign-off guides treat the closing as a standalone element. They debate whether "Best" is too abrupt or whether "Regards" feels outdated. They are optimizing the wrong variable.

The closing line does not operate in isolation. It lands inside a relationship context. A "Talk soon" from someone a recipient knows feels warm and natural. The same phrase from a stranger reads as presumptuous.

This is the E-E-A-T reality of email closings: your experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness are established before the email arrives—not inside it. When recipients have seen your name on LinkedIn, engaged with your content, or recognized you from industry conversations, your sign-off reads differently.

Saleshandy's research on professional email closings confirms that email tone and closing style need to match the relationship stage. Cold outreach warrants formal closings. Warm contacts respond better to confident, conversational ones. The problem for most B2B professionals is they only have cold contacts—because they never built the LinkedIn presence to create warm ones.

The solution is not to find the magic closing phrase. The solution is to build LinkedIn authority so that your email arrives in a warm context where any reasonable closing works.

How LinkedIn Authority Changes What Your Sign-Off Communicates

Consider the same sign-off received in two different contexts.

Context A — No LinkedIn Presence: You've never interacted with this person. They close with "Looking forward to connecting." You read it as generic, possibly even presumptuous. The phrase signals they want something from you.

Context B — LinkedIn Authority: You've seen this person's insightful comments on posts you follow. Their name is familiar. They close with "Looking forward to connecting." You read it as a natural next step in a conversation that's already started.

The words are identical. The outcome is completely different.

According to HubSpot's marketing research, inbound leads—people who already know and trust your brand—convert at 14.6% versus 1.7% for outbound cold contacts. That same principle applies at the email level. When recipients already know you from LinkedIn, your email closes with authority, not desperation.

This is why LinkedIn authority makes cold email structure work—every element of the email, including the closing, performs differently when trust exists.

Sign-Offs to Avoid in Professional Email

Knowing what not to use is as important as choosing the right phrase.

Avoid these in B2B contexts:

• Cheers — Appropriate in British and Australian contexts but reads as too casual for U.S. business email
• XOXO / Love — Never appropriate in professional correspondence
• Yours truly — Outdated; signals you haven't updated your communication style since 1995
• Thx — Abbreviations signal low effort, which undermines professional credibility
• Sent from my iPhone — Leaving default signatures intact signals inattention to detail
• Have a blessed day — Religious language is inappropriate in professional contexts unless you know the recipient well
• No sign-off at all — Skipping the closing entirely reads as curt or passive-aggressive in B2B email

According to Grammarly's analysis of professional email etiquette, recipients notice and are affected by email closings even when they do not consciously focus on them. A jarring or inappropriate close can undo the goodwill built in the email body.

Real Results: What Changes When Authority Comes First

ConnectSafely.ai users consistently report the same pattern: once their LinkedIn presence is established, their email outreach transforms.

A B2B consultant using ConnectSafely.ai to build LinkedIn authority before an outreach campaign saw their email reply rates climb from typical cold email averages to well above 20%. More importantly, the tone of replies changed. Recipients were writing back as if they already knew the sender—because on LinkedIn, they did.

The email closings they used were not unusual. "Best," "Looking forward to connecting," "Happy to jump on a call." Standard phrases. But because LinkedIn authority had done the trust-building work first, those phrases landed as confident invitations rather than cold asks.

This is the core insight: inbound beats outbound not because of better phrases, but because of better positioning.

How ConnectSafely.ai Enables This

ConnectSafely.ai is the #1 LinkedIn Inbound Lead Generation Platform. The core principle is simple: stop chasing leads, start attracting them.

The platform builds your LinkedIn authority systematically—through AI-powered comments on posts your ideal prospects follow, strategic engagement with creator audiences, and consistent visibility in the conversations that matter to your target market. Over weeks, your name becomes familiar to the people you want to reach. When your email arrives, they already know who you are.

This transforms every element of your email outreach, including how you close. Instead of agonizing over whether "Best regards" or "Kind regards" will convert better, you focus on writing genuine, useful emails—because the trust work is already done.

ConnectSafely.ai users do not just get higher email response rates. They get warmer responses, faster sales cycles, and relationships that start with credibility rather than cold introductions. The email sign-off becomes the natural conclusion of a conversation that started on LinkedIn.

FAQ: Answering the Questions People Actually Ask

What is the best way to end a professional email to someone you've never met?

For a first-time professional contact, "Best regards" or "Kind regards" are the safest choices according to Grammarly's email etiquette guide. They signal respect and professionalism without presuming familiarity. If you have built LinkedIn visibility with this person before emailing—engaging with their content, appearing in their feed—you can use warmer closings like "Looking forward to connecting" because rapport already exists.

How do I end a follow-up email professionally without sounding desperate?

The key is confident, low-pressure language. Phrases like "Happy to jump on a call if useful" or "Let me know your thoughts when you get a chance" signal availability without urgency. According to Boomerang's email research, closings that express gratitude and warmth outperform transactional closings. If your follow-up feels desperate, the issue is usually not the sign-off—it is the absence of prior relationship context, which LinkedIn authority solves.

Is "Best" too informal for professional emails in 2026?

No. "Best" has become standard in B2B communication and is widely accepted across industries and seniority levels. Saleshandy's email research and multiple professional communication guides cite "Best" as one of the most universally appropriate closings for professional email. The more important question is whether the overall tone of your email matches the relationship stage—and whether you have established enough trust for the recipient to read your closing charitably.

Should my email signature include my LinkedIn profile link?

Yes, and not just as a formality. Including your LinkedIn URL in your email signature gives recipients a way to verify your credibility immediately. When your LinkedIn profile demonstrates genuine authority—consistent content, engaged following, visible expertise—recipients who check your profile convert at higher rates. LinkedIn's own research confirms that professional credibility signals significantly impact B2B decision-making.

How does the email closing affect reply rates?

Research from Boomerang analyzing millions of emails found that closings expressing gratitude—"Thanks," "Thank you," "Thanks in advance"—generated meaningfully higher reply rates than neutral closings like "Best" or "Regards." However, the analysis also showed that sender trust and relationship context outweighed closing phrase choice. The most effective strategy is to build trust through LinkedIn authority first, then use any professional closing with confidence.

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