Business Letter Salutation

A business letter is a formal letter, which acts a medium of correspondence between two business entities. It can be a letter written by one organization to another, or a letter written by an organization to its clients or customers. Business letters are further divided into several types, ranging from a letter of inquiry to a letter of agreement. Irrespective of which type it is, the business letter format has some common elements, like the address (of the sender as well as recipient), subject, date, salutation and valediction. Among these elements, one of the most important element is business letter salutation. Although it's of utmost importance and widely used, when we take to letter writing, many of us still tend to get confused about what to use and what not to use.

Business Letter Salutations

A letter salutation is a greeting, most often used in formal letters, used to begin the letter. While choosing the salutations for writing business letters, one has to take into consideration the seniority of the person being addressed and the relationship they share. Below we have mentioned some business letter salutation etiquette's one has to follow, while writing a formal business letter.

Tips for Writing Business Letter Salutations

One of the most commonly used salutation is 'Dear', followed by the name. For instance,

• Dear Mr. Rogers
• Dear Mrs. Williams
• Dear Miss. Martins

As far as the punctuation is concerned, in American English a colon (:) is used after the name, while in British English a comma (,) is used after the name. In informal letters, you can use only the first name sans comma or colon, but in formal letter you have to include these punctuation marks. If you don't know the persons name, but are aware of the gender you can use salutations such as

• Dear Sir
• Dear Madam

If you are not aware about the gender of the receiver you should ideally use the non existing salutation

• To Whom it May Concern
• Dear Sir/Madam

In case you want to refer to more than one person, you can either prefer to write their names followed by commas or just use 'Gentlemen' or 'Ladies' to address them. If you know the designation of the person in the company, but you don't know the name, you can use the designation to address the person.

Business Letter Salutation Closing

An important part of the formal letter is the closing salutation. You should avoid using salutations that sound a bit too stuffy or too casual. The key is, the right mix i.e. neither too formal, nor very casual.

• Kind Regards
• Best Regards
• With Appreciation
• Sincerely
• Regards

According to the norms of business letter salutation format if the salutation is followed by a colon, the closing salutation has to be followed by a colon as well.

Irrespective of whether it's a business e-mail and business letter, salutations will remain the same. You can be a bit liberal with salutations in case of business e-mails, but overdoing it, might send a wrong message and hence should be avoided. Remember that a business letter reflects your professionalism, and being one of the most important part of the business letter, salutations stress on your professionalism as well.