How to start a business letter

How to Start a Letter (With Professional Greeting Examples)

Melissa Ling / The Balance

What’s the best way to start a letter? When writing a letter for professional purposes, an appropriate greeting is essential. Your greeting sets the tone for your letter or email, and is an indicator of your written communication skills.

Review information on options for starting a letter, including professional and personal greetings, examples of the best salutations, and what to do when you don’t have a contact person.

Options for Starting a Letter

When deciding which salutation to use, you should consider whether, and how well, you know the person you’re writing to. The answer will determine how you start your letter. It’s important to use a formal and professional greeting when you don’t know your letter or email recipient well.

Personal Greetings

When to use a person’s first name: If you are writing to someone in a professional capacity that you have known personally for many years, it is appropriate to use only their first name.

Professional Greetings

When to use a professional greeting: If you don’t know the person well, it is best to use Mr., Ms., or Dr. as an appropriate business letter salutation. When you don’t know the recipient’s gender, you can use their first and last name. If you have any doubts about which greeting you should use, err on the side of caution and use the more formal style of address.

Use a Formal Salutation

Keep it formal: Try to avoid the temptation to begin your professional letter with informal salutations like «Hello,» «Greetings,» «Hi There,» or «Good Morning» if you don’t know the name of your contact person.

While those informal greetings are fine for casual emails to friends or even for more formal emails you might send to groups of people, in a professional letter you’ll need to use a personal salutation with either a first and/or last name («Dear Mr. Doe») or a job title («Dear Hiring Manager»).

Always be sure to double-check the spelling of the recipient’s name. Otherwise, you’ll be making a poor impression from the start of your letter.

Punctuation

Also remember to include the period after «Mr.» and «Ms.» and follow your salutation with a colon or comma (e.g., «Dear Ms. Doe:» or «Dear Jamie Chen,»).

Examples of Professional Letter Greetings

These greetings are all suitable for professional communications.

When you know the person well:

When you know the person’s name:

When you don’t know the person’s gender:
When you have a name but are unsure of the gender of the person you are writing to, it is acceptable to leave out the honorific, and use the first and last names alone. For example:

Try to Find a Contact Person

If at all possible, use a contact name when you write. This makes your letter more personal, and it creates an immediate relationship with the reader. If you don’t have a contact name, do some research to find out the right person to address your letter to.

It doesn’t take much extra time to make an attempt to find a name, and the sentiment it conveys is worth it. It’s worth a try, even if you aren’t successful.

Sometimes the name will be on the company website, or you may be able to find the right person on LinkedIn. Perhaps one of your colleagues or contacts knows who the appropriate person might be. You can also call the office of the unknown person you are writing to and ask the receptionist for the name by explaining your reason for calling.

For example: «I am applying for a job with your company. Can you please tell me the name of your Hiring Manager so that I know to whom I should address my cover letter?»

Greetings to Use When You Don’t Have a Contact Person

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you just can’t find a name to address your letter to. In that case, you have a variety of choices, all of which are professional and appropriate.

The more information you have about where you are sending the letter, the better. (For example, the human resources department of the company, or the manager of the department related to your inquiry.) This way, you can make a more targeted choice when selecting your greeting.

If you don’t have a contact person, there are a variety of options to choose from:

Greetings to Avoid Using

The following greetings aren’t appropriate for formal letters or email messages:

Tips for Writing and Sending a Letter

Greeting

Start your letter with an appropriate greeting, as listed above.

First Paragraph

After your greeting, begin your first paragraph, which is usually an introduction that lets the reader know who you are and what you are writing about. If you have a mutual acquaintance who referred you to the reader, you should mention them at this time.

Body of Letter

The body of your letter normally consists of a paragraph or two of text. Here, you can elaborate on the theme of your letter and provide supporting details for the subject.

You’ll want to keep it concise and pertinent to the person and the topic.

Be thorough but don’t repeat yourself or go on and on about unimportant details.

Conclusion

Next, you’ll need to sum up your letter. Your summary should include a thank you to the person for his or her time and consideration. If you plan to follow up later, you can also provide the details of when and how you will contact him or her.

Closing Options

Finish your professional letter with a closing, such as «Sincerely» or «Regards.» If you plan on sending the letter by postal service, your signature should be followed by your typed name.

If you’re sending an email, your typed name should be followed by your contact information, which you can type in manually or have it done automatically for you. Here’s how to set up an automatic email signature.

How to Start and End a Business Letter or Email

Make sure that your business letters and emails use the correct salutations and endings. If you write business correspondence, you’ll need to know how to start a letter (or email) and how to end the letter or email.

For example, a common mistake in ending an email is to write “Bye” or “Bye Bye”. As this is not a standard way of ending business emails, it makes your writing look unprofessional.

Here are some widely used phrases for starting and ending business letters and emails in British English.

How to start a letter

The way you start your letter depends on how formal you need to be. Here are some examples:

1. Formal letter of application (for a job)

If you don’t know the person you’re writing to, you can start with “Dear Sir / Madam”. If you start with this, you should end “Yours faithfully”. Here’s an example:

“Dear Sir / Madam

I am writing to apply for…”

“I look forward to hearing from you

Yours faithfully
(your name)”

2. Formal business correspondence (for example: a letter of enquiry)

In most business correspondence, you can start with “Dear Mr / Dear Ms” + surname. You should end the letter with “Yours sincerely”.

“Dear Mr Smith” (Dear Ms Smith)

I am writing to enquire about your prices…”

“An early reply would be appreciated / I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.”

Yours sincerely
(your name)”

3. Formal letter of reference

In British English, we also use the formal term “To whom it may concern” when we write a letter of reference on behalf of someone. Here’s an example:

“To whom it may concern

I write with reference to Ms Smith, who has worked in my company since …”

“Yours faithfully
(your name)”

How to start an email

Business emails are usually much shorter than business letters. They also tend to be more informal.

4. Business email (friendly)

You can write the person’s first name and use a more friendly ending. Here’s an example:

“Dear (+ first name)

Just a quick note to remind you about …”

“Best wishes / Kind regards
(your name)”

5. In-company email request

If you’re writing to a colleague, you can either use their first name, or start the email immediately. Here’s an example:

“Thanks / Cheers
(either write your first name / omit it)”

In British English, “Cheers” means “thank you and goodbye”.

Extra Resource

Make sure you use the correct form of address when you write to women. Check out our page on whether to use Mrs, Ms or Miss.

More Business Letter Writing Help

For more help with business writing, take a look at my book Business Writing Essentials: How to Write Letters, Reports and Emails.

Designed to help you write business emails, letters and reports quickly and confidently, it’s packed with tips, guidelines and ready-to-use letter and email templates.

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8 Essential Steps to Writing a Business Letter in English

A letter?

In the 21 st century?

Isn’t business writing all about emails, reports and memos?

Well, business people actually write and read business letters all the time.

You can send a business letter via email (as an attachment or in an email) or as a hard copy (printed on paper).

Business letters are more formal than business emails. They communicate something more official in a business situation.

It is important to write business letters correctly, because the impression you create depends on how you write them.

We will help you write a great business letter in English with fewer mistakes.

Here is a list of eight steps to follow when writing a business letter, along with many valuable tips.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

8 Essential Steps to Writing a Business Letter in English

1. Decide what type of letter you need to write

Business letters have a sender and a recipient (person who receives the letter). The sender can be a person or a group (like a company) and the recipient can be another person or group.

Depending on the sender’s reason for writing, there are several types of letters. Have a look at the main types of business letters:

Whatever type of business letter you are writing, read on to find out more tips and specific phrases you can use to sound more professional!

2. Write a short outline

After you have decided what type of letter you are going to write, it is important to stop and think. Write an outline before you start typing. If you don’t do this, you could be wasting a lot of time. At the end, you can easily make minor changes, but big changes are more difficult to make. If you have a good plan, you won’t need to make a lot of time-consuming changes.

So first of all, start gathering all the information you can on the situation you are writing about. If you are writing a letter of complaint, you should know exactly what the problem was and what you hope to achieve as a result of your letter. If you are writing an order letter, remember to gather all the information about the product you need.

Next, write down the main ideas you want to include. You can write down full sentences, or just key words if you are in a hurry. For example, if you are writing a cover letter, your main ideas could look like this:

If you know the main ideas, you know how many paragraphs you are going to write. Remember to have only one main idea in a paragraph. This will help the reader follow your points more easily, and your letter will be structured and logical. Your reader will also be happy (and you want to keep your reader happy) if your ideas are nicely connected. Remember to use connectors to make transitions within and between paragraphs.

3. Use the right layout and salutation

Business letters have quite strict rules when it comes to layout (format and order). You need to include the sender’s and the recipient’s addresses and follow some simple rules:

14 Bridge Street
Baviera, California 92908

Ms. Jane Smith
Customer Care Manager
Chapman and Litt
711-2980 Nulla Street
Mankato, Mississippi 96522

Dear Ms. Smith: (If you know the recipient’s name.)

Dear Jane: (If you know the recipient quite well and call each other by your first names.)

Dear Sir or Madam: (If you don’t know the recipient’s name.)

To Whom It May Concern: (If you don’t have a specific person to whom you are writing. It is a bit more general than “Dear Sir or Madam.” It is best to try to find a contact person when writing a business letter.)

(Dear Ms. Smith:) Yours sincerely / Sincerely / Sincerely yours,

(Dear Jane:) Best / Best regards / Kind regards,

(Dear Sir or Madam: / To Whom It May Concern:) Yours faithfully / Faithfully / Faithfully yours,

[Ms.] Rebecca Smith
Director of Acquisitions

4. Use appropriate vocabulary for the type of letter you are writing

Depending on the type of business letter you are writing, you can choose to use some of the sentences and phrases suggested below.

I am writing to complain about…

I am writing to draw your attention to…

I recently purchased … from your company.

Not only…(did the product arrive late), but…(it was faulty as well)

As you can imagine, I was quite disappointed/upset when…

I suggest that I get a full refund.

I feel entitled to a refund.

I would be grateful if you could give me a refund.

I would appreciate it if you could replace the product.

I look forward to receiving a prompt reply.

I am writing to inquire about…

Would you be kind enough to provide me with some information about…

I would be appreciative if you could help me find out…

Could you tell me whether…

I would also be interested in…

I am writing to apply for the position of…

I am writing in response to your advertisement…

I would like to apply for the position of…

I am particularly interested in this job because…

As you can see from my resume,…

As you will notice in my resume,…

I am currently employed by…

I am keen to pursue a career in…, because…

My main strengths are…

I would be available for an interview starting…

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please accept our apologies for…

We sincerely apologize for…

The mistake was apparently due to…

We are currently working on…

To prevent this from happening again,…

We understand how upset you must have been when…, but unfortunately…

We would like to place an order for…

We look forward to receiving your offer for…

Could you please confirm the prices for…

We are looking forward to your confirmation.

5. Check your spelling

When writing a business letter, perfect spelling is essential. If possible, use spell check to make sure your spelling is correct.

If you are writing a business letter as part of an exam, try to avoid spelling mistakes. You can simply replace words that you are not confident about with other words. For example, if you are not sure how to spell occur, you can use happen instead.

Another useful thing to do, especially if you are writing a cover letter or if you are trying to impress your reader, is to consider whether they use American or British spelling. There are a lot of words that are spelled differently, so it may be useful to have a look at this site which gives you the main differences.

6. Check your grammar

Grammar mistakes are a bit trickier. Of course, the safest route is to learn the rules and practice them as much as possible. You can use grammar books or online exercises or both, depending on what you find more convenient.

Another thing you can do is to know your grammar weak spots. For instance, do you tend to forget adding s for the third-person singular when using the present simple? Or do you overuse the? Then it is time to double-check for these mistakes.

Finally, here is a list of common grammar mistakes people make in English. Make sure you understand why they are mistakes, so that you don’t make them yourself!

Mistake: Your a valued customer and we’d like to apologize for the inconvenience we’ve caused you.

Correct: You’re a valued customer and we’d like to apologize for the inconvenience we’ve caused you.

Correct: Your interest is important to us.

Explanation: Your is used to express possession. You’re = You are.

Mistake: Its important that we get a reply as soon as possible.

Correct: It’s important that we get a reply as soon as possible.

Correct: We did not receive the email and its attachment.

Explanation: Its is used to express possession. It’s = It is.

Mistake: The employee’s lack of motivation stems from their low salaries.

Correct: The employees’ lack of motivation stems from their low salaries.

Explanation: With singular nouns, we add ‘s to express possession. With plural nouns ending in s, we just add ‘.

Mistake: I am working with kids and I love my job.

Correct: I work with kids and I love my job.

Correct: I am working with these kids while their teacher is on maternity leave.

Explanation: We use the present simple to refer to permanent, general actions, such as one’s job. We use the present continuous with temporary actions.

Mistake: I have read your cover letter when you sent it.

Correct: I read your cover letter when you sent it.

Correct: I have read your cover letter and would like to follow up with you.

Explanation: We use the present perfect for actions that happened in the past and still have an impact on the present. We use the past for actions that happened in the past, when the speaker knows when they happened.

Mistake: Our profits are lower then last year.

Correct: Our profits are lower than last year.

Correct: We analyzed your request and then we contacted you.

Explanation: We use than to form comparisons and then to refer to when something happened.

Do not worry if this seems challenging. English grammar is complex, and even native English speakers have difficulty with grammar sometimes. To ensure that your business writing is free from grammar mistakes, you may want to use Grammarly. This is a grammar-checking tool that will highlight mistakes and suggest corrections for you.

It is not 100% perfect, and it may still miss errors that a human being would see.

If you are going to be sending out very important business letters, then it is worthwhile to invest in professional proofreading services. After all, you want your writing to be perfect when you are sending a business letter to your entire company, to a potential employer or to your most valuable clients.

In these situations, we recommend that you seek the help of Proofreading Services, an online team of professional editors with tons of knowledge and experience—they offer combined proofreading and editing for over 5,000 clients in 93 countries. Just be sure to give them the secret password: FLUENTU15. This code entitles you to 15% off at ProofreadingServices.com!

7. Check your punctuation

It is so difficult to focus on different types of mistakes all at once—spelling, grammar and punctuation. So try to make time to proofread your letter a separate time for punctuation mistakes.

Here are some of the most frequent punctuation mistakes to watch out for:

Mistake: We tried emailing them but there was no reply.

Correct: We tried emailing them, but there was no reply.

Explanation: If you are not sure whether to use a comma or not, try splitting the sentence into smaller bits: We tried emailing them. There was no reply. It works, right? If you are still not sure, try saying the sentence out loud. If you are pausing a little, you should probably use a comma.

Mistake: I was extremely upset when I received a faulty product! 🙁

Correct: I was extremely upset when I received a faulty product.

Explanation: Exclamation marks and emoticons make your writing rather informal, so you should avoid them when writing business letters.

Correct: I haven’t applied for a job before, but I’ll give it a try now. I’m not sure if I’m qualified, though.

Explanation: When typing, we only use one space after commas or periods and no space before them.

8. Format your letter

Leave formatting for the end; it is less time consuming. Most business letters use a block format, and are left-justified and single-spaced. You should use double spacing between paragraphs to make it clear where a paragraph ends and where another one begins. The most common font is Times New Roman 12, but Arial also works just fine.

That’s it! Business letters are less complicated once you follow these easy steps.

Remember that, whether you know your reader or not, writing business letters in a “friendly” way means writing them in a “professional” way.

For those of you who are very dedicated to improving your English writing skills, we recommend that you go take a look at the courses and books by Inklyo. These have been designed to teach English students how to improve their writing, and they might be just what you need to keep moving forward!

Whenever you are in doubt, have another look at the eight steps above, and keep on writing!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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How to Start a Business Letter With Complete Guideline

How to Start a Business Letter: Business Letter is a letter that is addressed by one business to its prospective customers or to the other business entities. The purpose of the business letter may vary, but mostly it is to commence the business deals with prospective customers or the other business organisation.

We all know that a business can’t survive in the isolated environment, as it has to communicate and interact to the others stakeholder in order to thrive and keep going smoothly. The stakeholders of the business may be its customers, other business players in the same industry, shareholders, or even the general public etc.

How to Start a Business Letter Sample

This is why a business entity needs it from time to time to write the business letters in order to expand its business, and providing the news to its stakeholders which may be concerning them.

How to Start a Business Letter Greeting

For example if any business has recently developed any product in the market which is very unique and may be having decent scope in the future.

In such scenario the business organization has to write the business letters to the stakeholders to whom this newly launched product may be concerning so that it can pick up the market.

How to Start a Business Letter Introduction

In this article today we are going to discuss that how a business letter should actually be written in an effective and formal manner so that it can serve its purpose well.

So, if you are looking forward to write the business letter then just go through the entire article to have the guidelines in the context of the business letter.

So, this is how you can easily write the business letter using our above mentioned guide in which we have provided you with some major points to write this letter.

How to Write a Business Letter That Won’t Get Ignored

Nowadays, writing a letter can seem completely archaic. I mean, do people even send mail anymore? Or do they only communicate through email and messaging?

In the business world, though, letters are actually still crucial for collaboration. To convince someone to offer you a job, you need to write them a compelling cover letter. And to persuade someone to speak at your company’s event, you need to write a gripping pitch.

A lot of professionals overlook the importance of writing high-quality business letters because they seem outdated. As a result, most people don’t actually know how to write one.

How to Format a Business Letter

To teach you how to write a business letter in more detail than the snippet above, let’s take a look at a letter I wrote to Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot’s CTO, when I was a wide-eyed college student trying to convince him to speak at my school.

Business Letter Example

25 First Street,

Cambridge, MA 02141

When my freshman year of college ended, I was fortunate enough to work as a digital marketing intern at a startup called SlideBatch. They were introducing a new content marketing tool to the market, and my job was to apply that tool to their clients’ social media marketing campaigns and prove that SlideBatch was an effective marketing solution. I was so excited to get to work, but I had one small problem. I didn’t know what content marketing was. So, I did some research on the Internet and discovered HubSpot’s Marketing blog.

HubSpot’s influence on my life is the reason I’m writing to you today. I’m certain if you spoke at my school, DePauw University, about your life, HubSpot, and the inbound marketing philosophy, there would be hundreds of undecided students who start pursuing digital marketing. I know this because DePauw’s McDermond Speaker Series is one of the best platforms for business leaders to showcase their passion for their industry, company, and work. Brad Stevens of the Boston Celtics, Angie Hicks of Angie’s List, and Bill Rasmussen of ESPN have all successfully used the McDermond Speaker Series to inspire the world’s next generation of business leaders, and I know you could, too.

We would be honored if you spoke at our school. Thank you for your time and consideration, and we look forward to hearing from you!

313 South Locust St.

Greencastle, IN 46136

Introduction (first and second paragraphs)

To instantly grab Dharmesh’s attention and entice him to read the rest of my letter, you’ll notice I didn’t lead with the standard «I’m writing to you today because…” introduction. Instead, I engaged him with a story about how I discovered HubSpot and how his company changed my life. I thought this would strongly resonate with him because I assumed, as a co-founder of HubSpot, he would love to see how his life’s work has benefited others.

In your own business letters, you don’t necessarily need to tell a story to immediately hook your reader and persuade her to read on. But you should definitely describe how she’s made an impact on your life. This is what will truly grab and hold her attention.

Body text (third paragraph)

Once I stated my letter’s intent, I quickly pitched the benefits of speaking at my school and bolstered the reputation of my school’s speaker series. By emphasizing how speaking at my school could inspire hundreds of students to pursue digital marketing and highlighting the group of impressive speakers Dharmesh could join, I focused on the dividends he would reap from being a McDermond Series Speaker, rather than how my school would benefit from his guest appearance.

So whether you’re trying to convince someone to hire you or speak at your school, you must first persuade your reader that doing what you ask of them will ultimately benefit them and be in their best interest.

Call-to-action (fourth paragraph)

In my last paragraph, I politely ask Dharmesh to speak at my school again. Even though I already asked him this earlier, it’s important I end my letter with a clear next step. It packs more of a punch and crystalizes the desired action in his mind.

Strong call-to-actions are a crucial element of a persuasive business letter. Because i f you don’t tell your reader what to do next, you might as well have never written your letter in the first place.

Originally published Nov 1, 2018 7:00:00 AM, updated July 24 2019