How to Create an Attention Grabbing Email Cover Letter
Short, simple, sweet to the point, direct, informative, business-like and skills directed. Did you get all of that? That's how you need to write an effective cover letter for e-mail. E-mail writing is very different than receiving a letter via snail mail. You need to capture the attention of the person responsible for doing the hiring. You need to make the owner, human resources person, the potential boss want to read your e-mail. Considering that she will not have it in her hand to read, she might just whisk it away into cyberspace, forever gone.
Writing an effective cover letter by e-mail is quite a challenging task. You need to get your potential boss's attention, but you need to do it in a businesslike manner. When it is a more casual business, you can do alternative attention getting measures. But many employers these days are dealing with a decreasing bottom line. Before e-mail, arrived, when people sent a snail mail cover letter, they would take potential risks and write in different fonts and send cover letters that were written on various colored paper.
Do something different with your cover letter that will grab your reader's attention. Give your cover letter some attention grabbing bells and whistles. Herald your emails arrival with a Ta-Da, or a horn trumpeting your message. In today's bad economy and with there being a plethora of recent college graduates you need to do something that will make your cover letter stand out. Why not send your cover letter with different font? Try sending the cover letter with various background colors or shapes to enhance your stellar cover letter. You don't have to be obnoxious about it, just do something a little different.
Write in a business-like manner, but add a small bit of your personality. Let some of that inner-intelligence shine through in the e-mail. Your email cover letter doesn't have to be dull and businesslike, you can add a small amount of yourself. Perhaps writing something clever, or very upbeat will help matters move along. You can be a little quirky, but don't go overboard. The potential employer will understand that you are not the average candidate, but a risk taker!
Always make certain that you have the name of the person in charge of the potential career position. Don't send your email cover letter to a non- specific person such as Dear Sir, or Ms. Make sure that the person you are sending the cover letter to is currently at the company. Call to ask if that person is employed at the company or ask to speak to her. You may just get lucky and get her voice mail and then you know she is currently employed there.
Make your e-mail cover letter short, sweet and to the point. Make it one short page and nothing more. You are only introducing yourself and some of your talents. You will only need to write a small amount of information to get the employer interested enough to look at your resume. A long dissertation will only turn off the prospective employer because she is a busy person with a lot of responsibility. She will only give your e-mail cover letter a few seconds before sending it to the trash bin.
Go for it! In today's bad economic climate you need to take risks to get a great job. Be a little adventurous with your e-mail cover letter but don't be obnoxious with those bells and whistles. Too many ringing bells and your future employer will send your e-mail into cyberspace before she even looks at it. Grab your reader's attention and keep it by being clever and creative to show her that youa re the right person for the job. Remember to put your cell phone number on the e-mail also!
