There may be no more comically vague term in the entire business world than the word "business." It means so many things that it really means nothing, and yet you're reading this right now because you probably have a specific business-related need.
You might argue that any letter composed in a business setting could be considered a business letter—and you'd be more or less correct. But with such an impossibly wide and unspecific range of applications, how are you supposed to do business lettering right?
Whatever purpose you have for engaging in this epistolary practice, there are certain rules, expectations, and formatting specs you need to know. Here's how to write a business letter of just about any type in a way that gets the job done.
A business letter is formal written communication between organizations, individuals, or external entities for specific professional purposes. (Slightly) less vaguely speaking, a business letter can do things like give requested information, make inquiries, make proposals, accompany invoices, address concerns, or convey intention.
These communications usually follow standardized formats and include expected elements like formal salutations, signatures, contact information, and a body of text focusing on one specific business purpose. It won't likely get you fired if you don't rigidly follow all these rules, but abiding by format expectations can reduce variables, keep your messaging professional, get your message across clearly, and even enable automation.
There are a lot of different types of business letters because a lot of business things happen at businesses. That's just business facts.
But there are a handful of typical business letter purposes and structures for use cases, ranging from sales to hiring to procurement. Here are some of the most common ones.
While the details will vary pretty widely depending on what you're writing it for, there are four essential parts of a business letter that will almost always be there: heading, salutation, body, and sign-off. Here's what goes into each.
These basic details should open any business letter. They'll generally be left-justified at the top of the document, listing:
In some cases—particularly if you're sending a physical letter to a company—it can be helpful to include the recipient's address in the heading as well. In the digital age, it's not as important since you'll likely send this as an email or attachment. When in doubt, it doesn't hurt to include it, as it can also show you've done your homework.
Letters don't usually have big title headers labeling them as something generic like "Business inquiry" or "Business letter." But if you're writing one for a well-defined purpose for documentation, like a letter of resignation or offer letter, you could consider it.
Below your header, you can't just jump right into requesting a quote or quitting a job—you've got to greet the reader. This will go on its own line, equidistant from the heading to the body.
In a business context, you want to be formal but not stilted. "Hey!" won't be taken seriously, while "Greetings, Sir" comes across like an alien trying to act like a human.
"Dear _____," is always a safe choice. Fill in the recipient's full name or replace their first name with a title like "Dr." or "Professor." Always use a name if you can find one. If you can't, use a generalized stand-in like "Dear [company name/department] hiring committee" or "Dear [company name] board of directors."
When in doubt, you could do worse than "To whom it may concern," but it's a little on the impersonal side and should be avoided if possible.
If the heading is the table and the salutation is the plate, the body of the business letter is the big steaming scoop of casserole. This is where you make your case, ask your question, or shoot your shot. This usually takes up the largest portion of the letter, which kind of muddies my analogy.
Body sections can be as short as one sentence—something like "We have received your request and will respond within two business days." But in most cases, they'll be upwards of a few paragraphs. Again, there are no rules for the number of paragraphs. But for longer messages, it can help to map out three:
Here are a few pro tips for writing this section:
Once you've made your point, all that's left is to stick the landing and get out of there. Every business letter should have a closing section that shows you're finished and gives the recipient clarity on next steps.
So you know what a business letter is, what goes into it, and how to structure it. Now it's time to write it. Here's how to write a business letter for just about any occasion in six steps.
Before you write a word, you should have a clear purpose for your letter. If it doesn't fall into a neat category of letter types, see if you can at least summarize your purpose in one sentence.
Once you have a defined purpose, translate it into words you can inject into your first body paragraph. Your purpose should encompass your needs, who you need to communicate those needs to, and why that person is relevant to those needs.
Every letter needs a recipient. While you can employ the generic "To whom it may concern," that lack of specificity also signals to the recipient that you're not invested enough to know who you're talking to.
Before you get started, try to find the contact you need. Look to mastheads, contact pages, staff listings, or About Us pages for listings of personnel by role. Or, have a bot do it for you. AI sales assistant tools like contact crawlers can drag the internet for relevant contacts in a matter of seconds.
Business letter formatting should be like underwear: foundational but unnoticed. If the reader is thinking about your formatting, you've probably done something wrong.
The key to formatting is consistency. Maintain the same font, size, spacing, and margins throughout the document. When in doubt, left-justify all the text, but you can also consider these professional letter format options:
Block: Everything is left-justified with no additional indents to the first lines of paragraphs. Instead, you'll have an extra space between paragraphs. To avoid huge white spaces, you'll want to maintain 1"-1.5" paragraph spacing—ideally 1" or 1.15". This is a can't-miss standard option.
Modified block: A variation on block formatting, this one's a bit more dynamic. Start with block formatting, but add a twist: move non-paragraph elements like the heading, sign-off, and signature to the right margin. It's a small difference but a more visually engaging one.
Semi-block: Like block formatting, everything is left-justified in this format. The difference is that new paragraphs have indented first lines, generally 0.5". Since this visually differentiates new paragraphs, you should cut out any additional spaces between paragraphs. Keep this one at 1.5"-2" paragraph spacing, ideally double, to promote readability. This is a more formal option.
You'll spend most of your time in the body section, and that's where you'll really drive your point home. Every paragraph should contribute to the purpose you identified from the outset, and every word should advance your goal.
As you write your body paragraphs, it's crucial to maintain a consistent, professional tone. Keep it in the second person—since you're writing to an individual, address them as "you" when you need to refer to them.
Not sure how to get your tone right? You can always try using an AI text generator or chatbot to help out by:
This goes for your paragraphs and your letter as a whole. No one wants to sift through huge blocks of text to get to the point of a letter they know has an actionable intention.
There's no hard-and-fast rule here—it's really more of a feel. But generally try to limit paragraphs to four to six lines. If possible, keep the entire letter to one side of one page.
If you're sending your letter by email or webform, compose it in a text editor like a Google Doc first. This should give you access to more formatting features and a visualization of what fits on one page.
Do I believe that meaning is fluid and grammar is a subjective construct? Yes and yes. Do I believe business letters should be as grammatically sound as possible? Also yes.
Your letter may not have to have 100% perfect grammar and formatting in order to communicate your message effectively, but each mistake is like another ding in your authority armor. You can try composing your letter in or running it through one of the many writing or editing apps on the market. While Word and Google Docs have their own native spelling/grammar checkers, these AI-driven applications can pick up on much more nuanced linguistic quirks and even suggest clearer phrasing alternatives.
By now, you may be wondering what a business letter looks like in practice. More specifically, you may be wondering what an AI-generated RFI about Guy Fieri's free Food Network cooking classes looks like. Incredibly, that's exactly what I've got for you in this very section.
For reference, I used standard block formatting.
This simple business letter template should give you the foundation you need for just about any use case. Just replace the text with your information, delete the sections you don't need, copy edit, and you're ready to go.
Here are a few additional tips for customizing it:
Now that you know how to write a business letter, it's time to throw in a little automation to make it even easier. By using Zapier's no-code automations, you can build your own custom business letter workflows that combine your favorite applications.
For example, you can create and autopopulate a Google Docs template straight from the other apps you use. Here are a few other ideas to get you started.
