There are all sorts of ways we conclude emails. And for us web workers, where our communication is digital more often than not, the way we sign our emails may (or may not) reveal certain clues about what we’re trying to accomplish. Let’s poke around at a few of the most common sign-offs/closings.

Cheers

“Cheers” signals a sense of worldliness. (Tell me you don’t read it in a British accent and yearn for a pint of Bass.) This sign-off says “I’m casual, yet professional.” We could share beers at the bar, or we could do an angel VC deal. Or both. “Cheers” is designed to command a certain amount of respect while still maintaining a level of approachability. As such, we see it all the time. Yet one has to wonder if this sign-off is becoming (or has already become) too trendy. (Note: My “Cheers” analysis applies to U.S.-based emailers only. UK emailers, you have the final say on it, as for some reason, I just feel like it’s yours.)

Thanks

To me, “Thanks” says, “Just do what I’ve asked in the body of this email, and let’s leave it at that.” Even though that might not be the writer’s intention, it can come across as patronizing. (Note: To combat this, some people have taken a casual approach to “Thanks” with the abbreviated “Thx!” The verdict is still out on this tactic — particularly the use of the exclamation point.)

However, “Thanks” can, and should, be used in the early stages of an email relationship. It’s safe, it’s no-nonsense, and it rarely lends itself to interpretation. When in doubt, “Thanks,” in all its blandness, simply works.

Best

“Best” is strange. It basically means, “I wish good things for you.” That’s OK, but chances are that tone doesn’t mesh well with what you’re communicating in the body above. However, “Best” is innocuous enough that people don’t really digest it. It’s easily ignored, which leads me to speculate that it’s one of the highest-raking sign-offs that’s pre-loaded into email signatures, simply because it’s both neutral and positive at the same time. (I base this on no data whatsoever.) Ultimately, “Best” says that the sender’s professional-personal ratio is at about 9-to-1: the sender wants to keep things proper, while showing a little personal attention.

Take Care (and Other Ways to Say Goodbye)

Some people think of their sign-off as a goodbye. If you were leaving a meeting, you’d shake hands and say something like, “Take care, Elisa” or “Alright, Avi, I’ll see you tomorrow.” So a short-form goodbye can effectively give the communication a colloquial nature, one that’s conversational and fluid. But be careful. A phrase like “Take it easy” might not be formal enough for a given situation; use your judgment.

So what are “goodbye” sign-offs revealing? I think they show that the sender is striving for more verbal, personal communication. When used in the right situation, this type of closing can work well because it increases the friendliness of the email.

Nothing at All

Sometimes, we drop the closing entirely. We’re seeing this habit with greater frequency as more and more people are emailing from mobile devices; it doesn’t make sense to crank out an extra word on a little keyboard. This lack of closing can reveal a few things. It may imply that you’re on the run, which can be perceived as good or bad: Good because you’re quick to reply no matter where you are; bad because you’re always somewhere doing something else.

Another common approach is to use initials in place of the dropped closing. With this sign-off, perhaps the sender is trying to brand his or her initials. When I sign my emails with “DC,” I’m expecting the respondent to see my initials almost as a stamp of my approval. Maybe I even intend for the recipient to address me as “DC” in his or her reply. The “no closing/initials instead” approach may show that you’re not one to waste time and that you want to set the tone for the entire communication sequence. From my experience, this approach seems particularly prominent amongst tech, entrepreneur and media types.

There’s really no right or wrong way to go about the sign-off, and what it may or may not reveal is open to interpretation. That said, feel free to tell us in the comments section what you think your sign-offs of choice reveal about you, and when and why you use them.

Godspeed,

dave

Dave Clarke is the Communications Strategist at Churnless, a web strategy and production company that helps businesses satisfy, delight, and keep their customers. Follow Dave on Twitter: @thedaveclarke.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Email: The Reports of My Death are Greatly Exaggerated

Photo courtesy Flickr user hyperscholar, licensed under CC 2.0

Get Feedback

I wanted to start with feedback because it’s valuable regardless of the outcome of your contract engagement. Whether your client loved you or hated you, finding out why can only help you in the long run. You can use feedback to spot your faults and improve, to capture best practices, and to help convey the impression to your employer that you’re a conscientious worker.

There are different ways to go about soliciting feedback, and some methods might be more effective than others depending on who you’re working with. Some prefer a personal approach, but in all cases I find it best to have an Adobe feedback form ready to go soon after the project starts. Generally, you can use one standard form, and maybe tailor it a bit for different clients. Adobe forms have the advantage of being portable, accessible on every platform, and easy to create.

Recover Intellectual Property

When you’re doing work for a client, you’re also doing work for yourself, in that you are producing IP that you can use to sell your services to other clients. Valuable IP could be templates, presentations and even content sometimes. The key is knowing what you can and can’t shop around once the contract has ended.

As long as you scrub anything that you actually create for a client of any reference to their company, and of any client-related content, you should be able to use it going forward either to demo your abilities to others, or as the basis for future work. No use reinventing the wheel every time, right?

Ask for Another Contract/Reference

If you don’t ask for more work, most of the time you won’t get it. Even if someone was pleased with what you gave them, they might not even think about recommending you for upcoming contracts in their own or other areas for the simple reason that it just didn’t cross their mind. A lot of contractors will shy away from asking about future projects directly because they don’t want to appear needy or desperate, but there’s nothing needy about wanting to work.

As for references, you’d better ask if you plan on using them at all in the future, because even if you think a project went wonderfully, the person paying the bill might have different ideas altogether. Failing to ask about references is something that can seriously affect your ability to secure work in the future. It’s better to be sure someone doesn’t like the work you did than to assume they did and leave yourself open to the possibility that they didn’t. There’s also no harm in asking if you can use a showcase project in your sales efforts.

Some of these steps may seem more obvious than others, but all are designed to make sure you get the most out of the end of a contract. It’s a time when you may feel overwhelmed, and things tend to happen in rapid succession, but if you’re prepared and you develop a routine that’s easy to replicate, it can be a positive experience, or at the very least not a total write-off. The nature of the freelance web working beast is that all contracts must end, so there’s no reason not to be prepared.

What procedure do you follow when closing a contract?

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I mean, having a Starbucks on practically every corner in some cities is the kind of convenience that we’re all used to getting online where if one Web site or Web app isn’t exactly what we need when we need it, another is only a few mouse clicks away. A few steps to the next street corner is only slightly more strenuous than those mouse clicks. And now, we’ll have to actually walk whole blocks to get to a Starbucks that hasn’t been ripped from our streets in the name of improved profit margins for the ubiquitous coffee haven. Well, what about our profit margins as Web workers? Without those 600 Starbucks, how will we survive?

To get everyone through these tough times, I’ve come up with a 5-pronged strategy to ride out the shake-up but also to make sure that we don’t get caught back in the vortex of coffee chain market oversaturation and end up feeling the same pain. Here are my tips:

1. Diversify. Are you a one-Starbucks kind of guy or gal? You need to identify several Starbucks in your area within a reasonable distance from your home base in order to ensure that you have a backup location in case another one closes down. A Google Maps search will help you pinpoint the prime locations.

2. Act Locally. Better yet, stop by some of your locally-owned mom and pop coffee shops that actually offer free wifi versus the pricey AT&T or T-Mobile online access that many Starbucks provide. I tend to split my work time away from the home office rotating between several locally-owned establishments for my caffeine fix, free wifi, and relatively quiet workspace.

3. Visit Globally. Why not enjoy the Starbucks experience while you are on the road for business? It turns out, according to CNNmoney.com, that the company is “still opening a large number of stores in overseas markets like Western Europe, where growth is slowing down and profit margins are lower.” So you may be in luck if your job takes you to Western Europe this year.

4. Really Diversify. These days, wifi isn’t relegated to the ol’ coffee shop. After toggling between two locally-owned (and woman-owned, by the way) coffee hang outs in town, I’ve added a natural foods restaurant to the mix. Wifi is everywhere including libraries, gas stations (and truck stops if you are literally on the road driving to another town for business), even laundromats. What could be better than getting your online work done while taking care of the laundry? Talk about multi-tasking!

5. Raise Your Own Profit Margins. What’s the real bottom line here? You’ll see a lot greater profit from your efforts in Web working at the end of each year if you make your own coffee at home. You can even throw in a little bit of Tip #2 by buying coffee from local roasters. Making your own coffee daily instead of buying an overpriced cuppa joe can save you upwards of $1000 annually, and that’s if you only partake in a single cup per day. Those of you with a heavy caffeine habit could buy a small car with your profits. Maybe even a hybrid.

So you see, my five-pronged strategy for surviving the Starbucks closures could not only help save you some of your hard earned cash but could also help to save the world.

This post was somehow inspired by this one by Paul Kedrosky of Infectious Greed.

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