Use a basic business letter template that has blocks for the date, your address, and the address of the recipient. If you have business or personal letterhead that you plan to use to print your letter, make sure the template you use has room to accommodate that.
If you’re using mail merge, follow the formatting guidelines set forth in your word processing app. Typically this means enclosing in brackets the name of the column from which you want the app to pull data from your spreadsheet, such as “firstname lastname. "
Avoid using the “Dear” greeting if some of your recipients are organizations, other businesses, or government agencies. Typically this greeting is only used for individuals.
If you’re writing a letter for change of address of your business, you’ll want a more formal closing, such as “sincerely. " However, if you have a mix of personal and business contacts, you may want to go with something less formal, such as “thanks. "
Don’t get too wordy with your introduction. You want to keep the letter under a page, so it should be brief and to the point.
Make sure you’re giving your recipients enough time to receive the letter, update their records, and get any letters out to the proper address.
For example, if your business is relocating, you might write “Thank you for your attention to this matter. I greatly appreciate the value you add to this company and look forward to continued work with you. "
This is especially important if your business is relocating. You may want to route all questions or concerns about the relocation to a particular phone number or extension, or to a particular email address.
Consider several letters if you have any relevant information you want to include that only applies to one audience. This way no one is getting any information other than what they need.
Check the address in particular and make sure it’s correct. You don’t want to send your recipients a change of address letter that points them to the wrong address.
Check all the fields and make sure they all match and belong to the same recipient. For example, you want to make sure that the name and address of the recipient in the address box matches the name in the greeting.
If you have international contacts, you probably want to provide two or three months’ advance notice to allow for the time it takes to send mail internationally.
