Formal Cover Letter Salutation

The first rule of cover letter etiquette is to send a cover letter—always.

Formal cover letter salutation. If you choose the wrong salutation, it might be sending mixed signals to the reader. You’ve probably seen examples of cover letters with lengthy details of your contact information and the company’s at the top, like this: Follow these rules for cover letter salutation salvation.

So a cover letter is kept short and sweet while an application letter may go into a bit more detail about why you are a good fit for the position. You can use it whether you know the person or not and whether the letter's recipient is a supervisor or a business acquaintance. A cover letter is often used as the introduction to yourself followed by the details in your attached documents:

Proper usage of a business letter salutation is important in business writing and organizational practices. If that's the case, you should always address your cover letter to that individual by full name, first and last. Use a colon at the end of the salutation to show that you are writing a professional letter.

The most professional salutation for a cover letter is “dear.” even an email cover letter should start with “dear,” followed by the hiring manager’s name and a colon or comma. A greeting such as good day or hello is not formal enough for a business letter. Next up, you’ll want to perfect your cover letter heading!

Typically, a cover letter’s format is three paragraphs long and includes information like why you are applying for the position, a brief overview of your professional background and what makes you uniquely qualified for the job. A business letter salutation is a formal greeting used in professional written documents. Even if you know a company culture is more casual, it may serve you well to keep the cover letter salutation more formal.

Also use dear instead of any other greeting. Casual greetings are inappropriate for a cover letter salutation. The formal cover letter sign off you add to the end of your letter isn’t actually a cover letter closing salutation, though some do call it that.