A powerful email sign-off not only sticks in the reader's mind, it also reinforces your message and encourages your reader to take action.
Therefore, by choosing the right email sign-off, you turn a simple professional correspondence into a memorable interaction that can significantly influence your audience's response.
In this blog post, we’ll dive into five different ways to end an email that are essential for your marketing campaigns’ success. These techniques grab attention, boost engagement, and motivate action, ensuring your email's end is as strong as its start.
Table of Contents
1. Strong Call-to-Action (CTA)
One of the different ways to end an email is with a strong CTA. A strong CTA in your formal email's closing encourages recipients to take action, be it a purchase, learning about a product, or signing up for a service. With 78% of marketers witnessing a rise in email engagement in the last 12 months, the value of an impactful CTA is undeniable.
Reinforcing the Desired Action
A strong CTA guides your email target audience into taking the desired action. Without a strong CTA, your reader wouldn’t know what to do after consuming your email. CTAs help ensure your email recipients take the next step in the engagement funnel.
Crafting Your CTA
When crafting your CTA, follow one or more of these tips to ensure the best results:
Be Direct: Aim for a straightforward CTA. This clarity leads to higher conversion rates and swift decision-making.
Offer Clear Value: The CTA must spell out the benefit and value for the audience. By showing what the reader stands to gain, it motivates engagement.
Keep It Simple: A simple CTA doesn’t use complex language. It uses simple terms readers understand.
Ensure Prompt Action: Creating urgency in your CTA compels the reader to act promptly to avoid missing out.
Make It Stand Out: Ensure your CTA stands out in your friendly email. You can do this by leaving white space around your call-to-action button. You can also use a button color that contrasts with your email background.
Your email's CTA should also lead to a landing page that leaves a positive impression and encourages action. An optimized landing page is key to a smooth transition from that perfect email to your website.
Make sure the landing page is found even by people who aren’t your subscribers for optimal results. For example, you can leverage the services of a good SaaS link building agency, for instance, to boost its visibility in search engine results.
With better visibility, you increase the chances of other people seeing your CTA and taking your desired action.
Effective CTA Examples
Now that you know how to create a good CTA, let’s look at some real-life sample CTAs used by brands to finalize their emails.
Headspace sure knows how to craft good ones. The brand closes out its email below, for instance, with a CTA that offers clear value. When people click on the button, they’ll know they can “get 40% off.” The CTA is also simple and straightforward:
Source: Reallygoodemails
Here’s another example from Appsumo:
Source: Copyhackers
The “now” used in the ending CTA creates a sense of urgency that prompts subscribers to click on it. The terms used, “Join Appsumo Plus now,” are easy to understand as well.
1800 Contacts knows exactly how to make a CTA stand out. Notice how the brand uses a CTA color (blue) that contrasts with the email background (white). There’s also a lot of white space around the CTA:
Source: Make Digital Group
Ending your formal business emails with a strong CTA ensures your message's intent is unmistakable.
2. Limited-Time Offers and Urgency
If you’re selling products with your email, why not end it with a limited-time offer? That’s a simple way to prompt quick action. We all want a good deal, after all.
Creating a Sense of Urgency
Limited-time offer statements are effective because they can help create that sense of urgency that motivates people to act. With these closing email phrases, you essentially leverage the Fear of Missing Out. You make your readers feel that, while others have it better than them at present, they can easily turn the tide by taking your desired action now.
Highlighting Limited-Time Deals
When creating these statements, you want to highlight the fact that your deals are valid for only a limited time. In the email example below, for instance, the brand uses the closing phrase “Only 22 holiday shopping days left!” to emphasize the limited-time nature of the offer. The email also highlights the cut-off times for subscribers to benefit from “free ground shipping” and “express shipping” that will allow them to get their purchased product by Christmas.
Source: Pinterest
Other phrases you can use to highlight limited-time deals include “Offer valid only until X,” “Offer ends tomorrow,” and “Last day of offer today.”
You can also use a countdown timer to reinforce that time limit emphasized by the closing remark. Just make the timer visible and ensure its proper placement. In the example above, for instance, the timer is found right beside the closing “Hurry!” phrase that helps create a sense of urgency. We’ll talk more about that later. The timer essentially helps reinforce the message conveyed by the phrase.
Strategies to Convey Urgency Without Pressure
There are strategies you can use to convey urgency without necessarily stressing your subscribers out. Follow one or more tips when crafting your closing limited-time offer statements for your emails:
Use words like "now,” “today”: An email with a closing phrase like “Get this offer now" is more likely to prompt action than one that doesn’t incorporate the word.
You can also use phrases that encourage immediate action like the “Hurry!” phrase in the email example above or “Don’t miss out!”
Emphasize exclusivity: Use phrases that also highlight exclusivity. This way, recipients also know they're getting something not everyone can get.
Source: Reallygoodemails
See how Oakley generates that air of exclusivity with the closing limited-time offer phrase “Get your deals ahead of everyone else.”
Showcase the benefit: Directly connect the limited-time offer to its benefit in the sign-off. The brand reMarkable does this explicitly. In the sentence, “Take $50 off when you buy a new reMarkable today,” the “Take $50 off” highlights the offer's value, encouraging immediate action.
Source: Really Good Emails
Highlight limited nature of stocks: If you show subscribers that the products covered by your limited-time offer will run out, they’ll likely take action and buy.
3. Personalized Thank You
Personalizing your email sign-offs can significantly enhance engagement. Statistics show that emails featuring personalized content achieve an average open rate of 22.63%. Then there’s the fact that showing appreciation to customers is one way a brand can build loyalty. Research has found that this applies to both young and old demographics.
Expressing Gratitude for the Reader's Time
When you end your emails with a genuine expression of gratitude, you essentially acknowledge your audience's time and attention and elevate your professional email. You make your business communication less formal, highlighting a friendly, but not too friendly, casual relationship with your email subscriber.
You can end emails with a thank you even if the primary goal of the messages wasn’t really to express gratitude to email clients for an action they took that helped your brand. This is what Trello does. It ends its emails meant to onboard Trello users who didn’t sign up on their own but were invited to the platform by others:
Source: Inbox Flows
For Trello, the fact that these subscribers took the time to read their email was more than enough for the brand to express its gratitude.
Personalizing Thank You Messages
Don’t just end your emails with a “thank you.” Make sure you personalize these messages, too. You can do this in several ways.
One option would be to include your email recipient’s name in the “thank you” phrase. So, instead of signing off with a “thank you,” you sign off with a “thank you, Julie” sentence.
Here’s another way to personalize: If you’re sending emails with the primary goal of thanking subscribers, make sure you send the right email to the right subscriber. Don’t send your email (with the thank you sign-off) expressing gratitude for a purchase to someone who never made any recent purchase in the first place.
To effectively personalize, don’t just ask for that email address in your lead capture forms. Ask for full names well. You can also leverage email marketing automation to send tailored emails (with thank you sign-offs) to subscribers based on specific triggers.
Building a Positive Customer Relationship
You can also take the opportunity to further build positive customer relationships in your thank you email endings.
For instance, if your email’s primary goal is to thank your loyal customers, why not offer them a reward or an exclusive deal as a token of your appreciation? If you’re thanking customers who referred others to you, you can give them rewards points they can redeem at a later time.
With these strategies, you create an engaging experience for your regular contacts that strengthens trust and loyalty.
4. Teasers and Sneak Peeks
Teasers and sneak peeks offer a creative and different way to end an email, enticing your audience with what's coming next.
Creating Anticipation for Future Content or Products
Your email closing phrases can help build anticipation for your upcoming content or products.
Check out this excellent example from Harry’s:
Source: Really Good Emails
The closing remark “Check your inbox in two days” helps build anticipation for the new shaver to be launched. As a result, those who read the statement will likely wait for that next email and read it to get more details.
Source: Really Good Emails
You can also build interest in your offers with your closing statement, enough for subscribers to take your desired action, not later as in the example above, but now. This is what Peel does in the email above. The closing sentence “Your secret offer awaits!” is more than enough for subscribers to click on that “Reveal Your Deal” CTA.
Offering Exclusive Previews or Insights
Exclusive previews and insights don’t just offer a glimpse into what's next. They emphasize a sense of exclusivity, increasing the reader’s desire for what you’re offering. This ultimately increases the effectiveness of your email strategy.
Gymshark is an example of a brand that uses exclusive sneak peeks well.
Source: Get Site Control
Notice how it ends the email above with the “New Drops? First Look” phrase? With that statement, the brand increases the likelihood of the subscriber clicking on the CTA button. It makes the subscriber feel special by making them think that only they, as new subscribers, can have this “first look” into the sneak peeks.
Generating Interest and Engagement
Ensure that even your teasers and sneak peeks are targeted. So, don’t offer a sneakerhead a preview of your newest T-shirt line at the end of your email. They likely won’t be interested. Instead, offer them a sneak peek or an exclusive preview of your newest sneakers.
By going the extra mile and matching your audience's interests, you give subscribers a good reason to take your desired action or stay tuned for your next emails.
Gymshark does a good job generating interest and engagement with its email above. The “We’ll give you sneak peeks of the things we think you’ll love” closing sentence below the “New Drops, First Look” phrase highlights the fact that the sneak peeks it offers are of products the subscriber will likely be interested in and engage with.
5. Social Media Engagement
Here’s another one of the many different ways to end an email: Encouraging readers to engage with you on social media. It’s a smart move since it promotes cross-platform engagement, boosting your overall marketing effectiveness.
You can easily encourage social media interaction at the end of your marketing emails. Just follow these tips:
Include social media icons: Incorporate social media icons that readers only need to click to see your brand’s social media profiles and interact with you there.
Source: Bright Pearl
This is exactly what Puma does.
Offer Incentives: End your emails with discounts for new social media followers. For example, why not end your email with the phrase “You can unlock rewards by following us on Facebook” to encourage quick action?
Before encouraging your email subscribers to engage with your brand on social media, ensure they're actively receiving your email messages. An email verification tool cleans your subscriber list, ensuring that you reach active users. This increases the chances your audience will take your desired action and engage with you on social media platforms.
While there are many ways to include social media links and hashtags in your email, let us look at some possible options-
- If you’re sending the marketing email in your capacity as a company employee, you can share social media links and hashtags using e-business cards as they are highly customizable. Go ahead and include them along with your contact details and add it as your email signature. You can find online digital card software to create yours. You can also share links to your instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram so subscribers can reach you there. Don’t forget to include your job title as part of your professional signature.
- Why not end your email with a link to your best-performing social content subscribers might want to see and share? See how Groove does this. The brand signs off by giving a link to one of its popular Tweets for easy sharing:
- You can also share links to your popular user-generated content. Include the hashtags used for your user-generated campaign so subscribers will employ it should they decide to create their own social content for your brand.
- Ending your email with a link to your upcoming Facebook live or YouTube streaming events is also a great idea.
Whatever your options are, just make sure the links you include aren’t broken or inaccurate. You wouldn’t want your subscribers to get to the wrong social page or a nonexistent one when they click on it.
Merging email marketing with social media marketing doesn’t just help boost audience engagement on both platforms. It also ensures you reach a wider audience. The more people you direct to your social platforms, the more eyeballs you get on your social content. That means more people are likely to share this content for their own social followers to see.
So, apart from the strategies mentioned above, you can follow these tips to close out your email and further ensure this cross-platform collaboration:
- Briefly mention some social media milestones
- Announce your latest social media account in passing
- Sign off with a screenshot of a relevant social media quote by the company founder
Sky's the limit when it comes to integrating your email and social media marketing efforts. Just make sure you offer a cohesive cross-platform brand experience. You want your subscribers to feel that the social platforms they go to are also yours, and not some other brand’s.
Wrapping Up
As we’ve seen, there are different ways to end an email. You can end with a strong CTA, a personalized thank you, limited-time offers, teasers, and sneak peeks, or even encourage social media engagement.
You don’t need to do all these things at once. Experiments to determine which strategies work for your specific email recipients, then rinse and repeat.
Ultimately, the goal is to end your email in a way that resonates with them, making them take action or feel closer to your brand.
