Example Business Communication letter

E-mail may be the quick and convenient way to relay daily business messages, but the printed business letter is still the preferred way to convey important information. A carefully crafted letter presented on attractive letterhead can be a powerful communication tool. To make sure you are writing the most professional and effective letter possible, use the business letter format and template below and follow these basic business letter-writing.

Your business letter is a representation of your company, so you want it to look distinctive and immediately communicate "high quality." For a convenient and economical alternative to using traditional preprinted letterhead, try using our contemporary letterhead and envelope design templates. Simply create a letter within a predesigned color letterhead template and then print your entire piece quickly and beautifully on your Phaser® color printer.

The most widely used format for business letters is "block style, " where the text of the entire letter is justified left. The text is single spaced, except for double spaces between paragraphs. Typically margins are about 1 inch (25.4 mm) on all sides of the document, which is the default setting for most word-processing programs. If you are using Microsoft Word, you can turn to its built-in Letter Wizard for additional formatting assistance (look on the Tools menu).

This business letter format illustrates the specific parts of a business letter:

Date: Use month, day, year format, e.g., March 3, 2012 or 3 March 2012

Sender's Address: It is a good idea to include sender's email and url, if available. Don't include this information if it's already incorporated into the letterhead design. This will allow customers to find your small business more quickly.

Inside Address: Use full name. Mr./Ms. is optional

Salutation: Be sure to use a colon at the end of the name, not a comma as in personal letters

Body Text: State why you are writing. Establish any connection/mutual relationship up front. Outline the solution, providing proof in the way of examples and expert opinions. Group related information into paragraphs

Closing "Call to Action": State what the reader needs to do and what you will do to follow up

Signature Block: Sign your letter in blue or black ink

Enclosures: Use if you have an enclosure

Carbon Copy: Use if you are sending a copy to additional person(s)

Save casual, chatty language for email - your printed business letter should be friendly but more professional. As Scott Ober suggests in his book Contemporary Business Communication, "The business writer should strive for an overall tone that is confident, courteous, and sincere; that uses emphasis and subordination appropriately; that contains nondiscriminatory language; that stresses the "you" attitude; and that is written at an appropriate level of difficulty." That said, be sure to sound like yourself - you don't want your letter to read as if a machine wrote it.

State your point early in your letter. To avoid any miscommunications, use straightforward, concise language. Skip the industry jargon and instead choose lively, active words to hold your reader's attention.