10 golden rules of email sign-offs (plus 72 ideas)

That includes how you sign off in your email.

Just like email preheaders or P.S. statements, the email sign-off is a small part of your newsletter that can have a big impact on your subscribers. 

Surprisingly, many skip email signatures in their marketing emails—even though they are a golden opportunity to build a connection, establish trust, and perhaps even drive conversions. 

It’s time to tap into this often overlooked part of your email marketing, and learn how you can use the end of your newsletter to pack a punch! 

An email sign-off (aka signature) is how you wrap up your email or newsletter, after sharing your message. The usual components of an email sign-off include:

• A sign-off message (e.g. Have a great day)

• Your name

• Your contact details

• Links to your social media profiles

• A logo

• A profile picture

Here’s a simple email sign-off by Foreign Rooftops. After a final call to action (CTA), they close with the message “Have a lovely day”, followed by a signature and links to their website and social media profiles.

Email is the most effective marketing channel on the planet because it is personal. If you lose that personal element by omitting a sign-off, you lose some of the secret sauce. 

Here are three reasons why email sign-offs are more important than you might think.

Yep, that small section at the end of your email newsletter really does pull its weight! 

In fact, 77% of professionals said that they were planning to incorporate email sign-offs in their 2020 marketing campaigns. 

Your email signature will be the last thing that sticks in your subscribers’ minds before they click a link, so make it count! 

There are three things to keep in mind when you’re planning your email ending:

• Your voice (how you speak to your subscribers)

• Your branding style (the design style, logo and color scheme)

• Your target audience (who will be reading your newsletter)

Your email signature should correspond to all of these elements, so that the whole “vibe” of your newsletter stays consistent. 

A newsletter sign-off for a lawyers’ conference will be very different from a sign-off for a music festival, for example! 

Before you create your email ending, stop and think about how you want to come across. Once you have that fixed in your mind, you’re ready to start building.

Your email sign-off should resonate with your audience. It’s like the last note at the end of a concert that stays with you long after you leave the hall—so you want it to hit home! Here are 10 practical tips for creating your email sign-off. 

1. Make it personal

Personal sign-offs make you much more human and relatable. You’re no longer a faceless organization: you’re a real person that your subscribers can connect with. 

When you’re wrapping up your email, think about how you can add warmth and brand authenticity to your sign-off. 

For example, blogger Derek Murphy shares a reel of photos in his signature to make a positive impression with his subscribers.

Pro tip: He also embedded social media icons, which is a great way to involve his subscribers on other channels as well! Combining the forces of social media and email is a great way to grow your email list even further.

2. Reinforce your brand voice

Your brand voice is the way that you speak to your audience—and the content of your email ending needs to reflect that. It makes you stand out, and it reminds people what you’re all about. 

Before designing your email closing, think about what kind of tone you want to create. 

A formal sign-off is very different to something you would send to a close friend! For example, the abbreviation “XOXO” or “thx” would not be an appropriate ending for a corporate business email. 

However, something like that could be perfect for a modern makeup brand—like in the closing line by IL MAKIAGE below. 

(P.S. We’ll be sharing some examples of different sign-offs for different audiences later on!)

3. Share your name and a profile picture

It helps when people can match a name and a face to the email they’re reading, but surprisingly, only 5% of professional email signatures include a profile photo. 

Just by adding a photo, it’s a safe bet that you’re already standing out from the crowd.

In their first email, Masterclass instructors include a profile photo, a full name, a job title and a handwritten signature (which leads us on to our next point)!

4. Try a handwritten sign-off

These sign-offs have all the charm of a handwritten letter. 

By sharing your signature with the world, you’re marking the newsletter as your own, and again adding a nice personal touch to the end of your email. It could even become the hallmark of your brand over time. 

Pro tip: To add your handwritten sign-off, write it out on a piece of white paper. Either scan or photograph it, save it in .png or .jpg format, and then insert it into the body of your email. You can play with the contrast, crop it and resize it however you like.

5. Include your contact information

If you want to have a higher response rate from your subscribers, then you need to make it super easy for them to follow up with you. 

Insert your phone number, and/or your postal address, and/or a link to your online contact form, and/or your email address (if it’s different from the address that you’re sending the newsletter from). 

Jericho Writers include their email address for queries, plus their UK and US phone lines for people who want to reach out. 

6. Add a P.S. line after your sign-off

That little P.S. line is actually eye-catching for your subscribers. 

You might have noticed that we often include a P.S. line at the end of our weekly newsletters—and that’s because we found they generate surprisingly high click rates. 

Inserting a P.S. line after your sign-off is your last chance to share important links and information—and a lot of your subscribers will be sure to check it out.

For example, this recent P.S. line was clicked on by 108 of our subscribers. 

7. Consider using a CTA

Your sign-off is also your last chance to get your subscribers to convert before they leave the email newsletter. 

You could include a CTA button for them to download a workbook, sign up for an event or buy a product, for example. 

Pro tip: If you aren’t sure, you can always fine-tune your approach with A/B testing. For example, you could test to see whether a CTA button or CTA anchor text gains more conversions in your sign-off.

8. Rethink the sign-off placement

Who says your sign-off needs to be at the end of your email? 

If you want to mix things up a little, you could add a little note at the beginning of the email, just like Hard Graft did in the example below. 

Their signature sets the tone for the rest of the newsletter, just like an editor’s note at the start of a magazine.

9. Make sure the overall design matches with your branding

When you’re designing your email sign-off, make sure it matches with your overall style and color scheme. 

You could incorporate logos, emoticons, illustrations, videos and anything else you like—just so long as it complements your style!

This email sign-off by the New Darlings blog incorporates their neutral color scheme and fun fonts, so that it flows with the rest of their email (more tips about blogging success here). 

Pro tip: Emails that end with some form of “thank you” receive much higher responses than other sign-offs.

10. Be unique

At the end of the day, we can all follow the same format for our email sign-offs… Or we can go wild and try something different! 

Remember that it’s ok to think outside the box and try something else (as long as it matches your brand and your target audience). It will make your email even more memorable.

This email ending from Paravel is a great example—they finish off their marketing emails with a series of positive life sayings. 

They’re definitely ending their newsletters on a high note!

Whether you’re writing a formal email or a relaxed newsletter, here are 72 of the best email sign-offs to use. As long as it’s tailored to your audience, the sky's the limit!

Now it’s time for you to create your own sign-off! 

There are 4 customizable signature blocks to choose from in the MailerLite drag & drop editor (you can see how they look next to each other in the GIF below). 

You can use these blocks as a template to create your own unique sign-off. 

Choose your favorite signature block, then drag and drop it into your newsletter. 

Click on the pencil icon on the border of the block to edit it. 

A settings menu will open on the right side of the editor. Here, you’ll be able to edit the image, text and signature to your liking. 

Et voilà, your email sign-off is ready to go out into the world! 

Over to you! It’s time to tap into one of your most underrated email marketing tools and wrap up your email in a memorable way. 

Follow these email sign-off hacks to ensure your subscribers remember you long after they leave your email!