The Best Tips For Using Email Cover Letters
Posted by Lee Keen | Under Writing & Speaking Thursday Feb 4, 2010Just as there are certain guidelines to help you write a paper cover letter, there are key strategies for sending email cover letters too. One main difference though between these two correspondences is the way in which they are formatted. In principle, the signature block is placed below your name in the email, where as on paper, it positioned at the top of the page.
An assumption that is sometimes made when making an emailed application is treating it with less formality. While emails may appear less formal than actual letters, such a casual fashion should not be applied when creating an email covering letter. When you reader opens your application, your opening paragraph is always important. The message not only has to both entice hook the reader, but sell them on your abilities. Templates of email cover letters can be quite useful in showing how to present yourself and help avoid careless mistakes and minimize you chances of your message being trashed.
One caveat. Some employers may not accept attachments and so in this situation you’d have to place the contents of your resume and letter into the body of your e-mail message. Ideally use plain text font rather than anything using HTML. This is because some e-mail software packages may not be configured to read HTML formatted messages. As a safeguard, send the message to yourself first to make sure you can see it.
While there are no hard and fast rules, the following are some basic suggestions that should at least form the basis for creating your own email cover letter templates:
- Introduce yourself and explain what job you’re applying for. Make them aware where you saw or heard about the job listing. If a contact within the company or someone referred you to the job, let them know this in the opening paragraph.
- Particularly focus on the parts of your background, such as education, leadership, experience or anything else that you feel is most pertinent to the job. Be as specific as possible and illustrate example of how they relate the post.
- Always keep the format simple. Try and keep to three or four concise paragraphs at the very least.
In addition to the use of email cover letters templates, specialist software such as the OneClick Cover Letter and the Breakthrough Cover Letter systems contain a vast range of pre-formatted correspondences (including ones especially designed for sending via email) that provide excellent examples of the kind of compelling language your should be using in order to create an impressive and customized job application.
Undoubtedly, emailed applications have made it incredibly easy to apply to as many as companies and as illustrated in this article, it often it takes nothing more than writing a cover email and adding your resume as an attachment. However, ensure when composing an email cover letters, you are not being excessively nonchalant and slapdash and risk offending the reader.
You can learn out more about other types of employment cover letters as well as more useful cover letters guidelines at coverletterguidelines.com.