Professional Letter and Email Examples

Confident businesswoman reviewing paperwork in office lounge
Caiaimage/Martin Barraud / Getty Images

Do you need to write a professional letter or send a business-related email message? When you are writing professional correspondence, it can be helpful to review examples to get ideas for writing your own letters and messages.

Regardless of the reason you’re writing, it is important to be sure that all your letters make the best possible impression on the reader.

Your letters need to be concise and focused, so you make your point clearly and definitively, as well as politely. They also need to be correctly formatted, carefully proofread, and well-written.

What to Include in Your Letter

Be aware of what you need to include in your letter before you start composing it. There is a standard format for writing professional letters, including page margins, font selection, paragraph spacing, contact information, introduction and closing sections, and your signature.

What you use will vary depending on whether you are sending a printed letter or an email communication. Before you start your letter, review these guidelines for writing and formatting business letters.

Professional Letter and Email Examples

Here's a list of professional letter examples for business, employment, career, professional networking, references, referrals, and more. Do be sure to personalize your letters, so they fit the circumstances you are writing about. Edit and proof your correspondence before you click send or mail your letter, both for content and for typos and grammatical errors.

Apology Letters
Did you make a mistake at work? Did you miss an interview? Whatever the circumstances, an apology letter or email is a good way to make amends and get back on a positive track. Review the letter examples to apologize during a job search and at work, plus advice on when and how you should apologize.

Appreciation Letters
People love to be thanked, and it only takes a few minutes to send a quick appreciation note or email. These letter examples show appreciation for a job well done, for help at work, for a client or job referral, for assistance with your career or job search, and for a variety of other professional circumstances. If you see an opportunity to share your appreciation, don’t hesitate to take it. In addition to showing that you’re aware of how the recipient was helped, it also helps strengthen your connection with him or her.

Congratulation Letters
Do you know someone who got a promotion, or who is about to retire? How about someone who just landed a new job or is starting their own business? Here are congratulation letter and email message examples for a variety of professional situations, including a new job, a promotion, starting a business, retiring, accomplishments at work, volunteering, and more.

Cover Letter Examples
Your cover letter is one of the most important parts of your job application materials. A well-written cover letter can help you secure a job interview and will show the hiring manager why you are a strong candidate for the job. Review cover letter examples for resumes listed by type of job, as well as by type of cover letter. If you need help writing a resume, also review how to write an interview-winning resume to ensure your application is well-written and includes all the details you need to provide to employers.

Email Message Examples
When you're writing and sending emails for career and professional purposes, it's important to write your messages as carefully as you would a letter printed out and mailed. Here are employment, job search, and business email message examples, plus email templates, formatted message examples, and subject line, greetings, and signature examples.

Employee Letters
Whether you're a manager who needs to provide written notification to an employee or you're an employee who needs to write to an employer, you'll find samples of correspondence for a variety of work-related circumstances. Review employee letter and email examples for hiring, termination, promotions, missing work, appreciation and congratulations, references, thank you, and more employment-related circumstances.

Goodbye Letters
Are you leaving your job, or do know someone who is moving on? It’s always a good idea to send a goodbye letter with information on how you can keep in touch and stay connected. These letter examples are for saying farewell to co-workers, clients and business contacts to let them know that you have accepted a new job, are retiring, or resigning. There are also letter examples to send to colleagues, clients, and customers who are moving on.

Inquiry Letters
When you’re job hunting, it can be useful to send inquiry letters to companies that may be hiring, but haven’t advertised openings. A letter of inquiry is written to a prospective employer to ask about potential job openings. When you write one, you'll need to sell yourself and explain why the company should have an interest in you. Review samples of inquiry letters and advice on how to write them.

Networking Letters
What's the best way to reach out to a connection? How should you follow up after a networking meeting? How should you introduce yourself to someone you’ve been referred to? These professional networking letters and emails include referral letters, referral cover letters, letters of introduction, outreach letters for career networking, meeting request letters, and networking thank you letters.

Reference Letters
Do you need to write a recommendation or ask someone to write a reference for you? It's always helpful to review examples before you get started. Here are reference letter and email message examples including academic recommendations, business reference letters, professional references, and more employment-related references.

Resignation Letters
When you're leaving your job, a well-written graceful resignation letter can help you move on while remaining on good terms with your employer. Review resignation letter and email samples for many different reasons for resigning and for a variety of lengths of notice.

Thank You Letters
Review thank you letter examples for a variety of work, employment, job search, business, and career situations. There is also all-purpose thank you note examples appropriate for any occasion – professional and personal.

Download a Template

You can view a professional letter sample, and download the template below.

Professional Letter Sample

Corey Carpenter
250 Old Country Road
Morristown, TN 37814
555-555-5555
corey.carpenter@email.com

August 7, 2020

Spencer Brent
Web Designer
XYZ Web Design, Inc.
1234 Cumberland Boulevard, Ste. 11
Knoxville, TN 37901

Dear Spencer:

I wanted to drop you a note to thank you for the great work you did in building and launching the redesign of our company website. Since the go-live, I’ve received several glowing comments from clients who are thrilled with the new look of our product catalogue and with the improved ease of the website’s navigation system.

I also appreciate the extra time you took to train me and our business team in how to correctly enter new text and visuals into the website. None of us were familiar with web design or coding before, but your training and the manual / process checklist you wrote for us will ensure that we’ll easily be able to make changes to the website as needed.

You were a pleasure to work with. Please call upon me should you ever need a positive testimonial to use on your own website.

Thanks again,

Corey Carpenter (signature for hard copy letter)

Corey Carpenter

More About Letter Writing

Need more help? Review these guidelines for writing professional letter and email messages to ensure all your correspondence is written and formatted correctly.