Business Email or Business Letter Salutation Question

Question:

Could you please let me know if there is a salutation to use such as “Dear Valued Clients” to notify our clients about the new tax code?  We would like it to sound a little personal, but also businesslike.

Answer:

You don’t mention if you plan to send a letter or an email, but in either case Dear starts the salutation correctly, and you should close it with a colon.

Ideally, you would personalize the salutation with an actual name. If you are sending letters, this is easy to do with a mail merge program. Email marketing software also easily inserts a customer’s name into the salutation. If customizing the salutation name is not possible:

1. Make sure the generic salutation is singular, not plural, so the reader feels a more direct salutation.

Dear Valued Client:

not

Dear Valued Clients:

2. “Valued Client” has become so over-used it’s now somewhat meaningless. Instead, omit “valued”:

Dear Client:

In your very first sentence, explain the valuable information you want to convey, as it benefits your client. Strong content, presented immediately, will convey your value of your client more than an over-used, stale salutation.

Learn More in This Course: Effective Business Writing Techniques