Printed business letter is a better way to go than email despite its quick and convenient benefits. With printed letter, you will be able to pass across the relevant information you have easily than with an email. An effective communication can be created when printed business letters are presented in an attractive letterhead. The basic letter writing tips outlined here should be followed if you really want to achieve the desired result in letter writing.
Formal business letter should includes these elements:
- Date
- Polite language
- Clearly stated intent ( reference, invitation, resignation etc. )
- Contact Information
- Name Surname
- Signature
Choose a professional letterhead design for your small business
The image of your company is portrayed in your business letter and therefore you will want to make your company to be distinguished and offer a sense of top quality. Instead of using traditional printed letterhead which might not be economical or convenient to you, you can opt in for modern letterhead and templates designed in envelope forms.
BUSINESS LETTER FORMAT SAMPLE
Use a standard business letter format
The “block style” format is most widely used for business letters. In this format, the text of the letter is justified left, single spaced, double spaces between paragraphs and so forth. You can use the default setting of 1 inch margin on all sides of the document and also the additional built-in Letter Wizard in Microsoft Word can offer you more formatting assistance and you can access them in the Tools menu.
Your tone should be professional
Causal and chatty languages are not meant for the letter but for friendly conversations and your personal emails. You should ensure professionalism in your formal letter. According to Scott Ober, the overall tone in a polite letter should reflect confidence, sincerity and courtesy.
The tone should be able to leverage subordination and emphasis as required and also the language contained in it should not be discriminatory.
The tone should emphasize on the “you” attitude and its level of difficulty should be appropriate. Make sure your letter does not sound like a machine wrote it.
Clarity in your writing is important
Your points should be stated early in your writing. Straight and brief language should be used in the letter in order to avoid miscommunications. Avoid using technical jargon peculiar to your industry but rather you should use active and lively words that would captivate the attention of the readers.
Your information should be logically organized in such a way that related information is ground together. Make subheadings and subsections if the letter is long. To further capture the attention of the reader, you can highlight keywords and phrases that are important.
This can be easily done with many word processing applications and with your multicolored printer, you can make it stand out.
Emphasize words in text using colors
To draw attention to important words in your letter, you can put them in colors. This can be easily done with most word processing programs by selecting the word and clicking the arrow in the Font Color button to select the specific color you want.
You might as well highlight the words in text by selecting them and clicking the “highlight” button. It is usually important to use light colors like light green, yellow or light blue when highlighting some parts of your documents.
More so, the highlighting can as well be removed and this can be done by clicking the “highlight” button again. Highlighting and coloring important texts in your document will make your letter to stand out.
