Email Cover Letter: Sample + Format That Works in 2023

An email cover letter is a short message explaining why you're submitting your CV and how your expertise makes you the right candidate. It adds a personal touch to your application. A cover letter email is shorter than a standard letter and is sent in the form of an email itself, not as an attachment.

Sounds like your good old cover letter all over again. But it isn’t.

If you’re applying for a job via email instead of using job boards, you’ve got a golden opportunity to get remembered by the hiring manager. But—

To make it happen, you need the best email cover letter out there.

And you are going to have one. Read on, and you’ll see:

• An email cover letter sample that will help you land that interview.
• A tried-and-true email format for cover letters that showcases your most valuable strengths.
• How to write a cover letter in an email to get any job you want.
• Little known hacks for sending your cover letter email with a CV for greatest impact.

Want to write your cover letter fast? Use our cover letter builder. Choose from 20+ professional cover letter templates that match your CV. See actionable examples and get expert tips along the way.

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Use this cover letter template

Sample Cover Letter for a CV—See more cover letter templates and create your cover letter here.

First, have a look at this universal, simple email cover letter sample. What do you think makes it so special?

Sample Email Cover Letter Template You Can Adjust and Use

I’ll tell you one thing, Maria can expect the callback anytime!

It’s a perfect email cover letter template you can tweak so that it fits your situation, and use to apply for any job.

As you can see above, you should format your email cover letter just as any other semi-formal email. Use a standard, elegant font and double spacing between paragraphs. At the bottom, include your contact information, just as you’d do in the footer of any professional email you send.

Writing a regular cover letter to attach to your CV email? Learn how to make the most of it from our complete cover letter writing guide: How to Write a Cover Letter for Any Job Application

For more tips on formatting your cover letter, see: Cover Letter Formatting Guide

Contacting the company on a speculative basis to find out if there's a chance to work together? This guide will help: Speculative Cover Letter Sample

And if you’re eying an internship and crafting an email cover letter for fresh graduates, see this article: Internship Cover Letter Sample & Writing Guide

One last thing before we go on:

Email cover letter—body or attachment?

Either. But not both.

Truth is, this choice won’t be decisive for your job hunt, so don’t obsess over it.

My suggestion is—if you’re applying by email, you’re risking that your message will reach the hiring manager in a hurry, so don’t make them open TWO attachments. Write your cover letter in your email body and enclose only your CV.

Right—

So you’ve seen a jaw-dropping job application email cover letter. Now, let’s break down what makes this email format for cover letters so great.

1. Strong Subject Line: the Only Guarantee Your Email Cover Letter Gets Opened

It won’t matter if your achievements are breathtakingly impressive or your skills fit all requirements of the job you’re trying to land…

If no one opens your job application email cover letter.

And guess what? That depends only on the subject line.

Make the most of it. In the subject line for an email cover letter with a CV, include:

1. Who you are
2. That you’re applying for a job
3. The position
4. The company name
5. Job ID (if applicable)

Like the candidate from our sample, Maria did:

Sample Email Cover Letter Subject Line

Senior Software Developer[1]Seeks[2]Software Engineering Team Lead[3] Position with ABC[4] (ID: 4569870)[5].

Pro Tip: The only instance when all of the above is of no consequence? When the employer demands all applicants to use the same subject line, for example, “Application for Position XYZ - [Your Name].” If so—you have to play by their rules.

How long should your cover email subject be?

As long as it needs to be to include all of the above info and as short as possible.

Need an exact figure?

Number of email subject characters displayed varies across devices and operating systems:

For desktop email applications it’s within the range of 46 (Yahoo Mail) to 70 (Gmail).

Mobile email clients? From 30 characters (Android; portrait) to 64 characters (iPhone; landscape).

To stay on the safe side, begin your subject line with the name of your position. It’s sure to stay within the narrowest, 30-character range, and the hiring manager will immediately know what vacancy the message is about.

2. Proper Greeting to Show Your Professionalism

The best way to start your email cover letter is with ‘Dear’ + the hiring manager’s name.

Personalization will make the hiring manager feel like they’re reading something made specifically for them.

Don’t know the name of your hiring manager?

Do some research!

Double check the job ad.

• Check LinkedIn. Job offers on LinkedIn often identify the one who did the posting.
• Check the company website. Try to find the head of the department on the company's staff page.
• Ask friends. You can use LinkedIn to check if you've got contacts at the company. A Facebook shout-out may work too.
• Call. If all else fails, call the receptionist and ask who the contact person is.

Pro Tip: Tried all of the above to no avail? Go with ‘Dear [Team Name] Hiring Manager,’ or ‘Dear [Team Name] Hiring Team’, for instance: ‘Dear Customer Service Hiring Manager’ or ‘Dear Project Management Hiring Team’. The two greetings you have to avoid are: ‘To Whom It May Concern’, and ‘Dear Sir or Madam.’

For more details on how to address your email cover letter, see this handy guide: How to Address a Cover Letter to the Right Person

3. First Sentence: Short and To-The-Point

Sending your cover letter in an email instead of using job boards is an excellent strategy for escaping the CV black hole.

But there’s one downside.

While hiring managers book specific time slots for reviewing CVs and cover letters they got through their online recruitment systems, your email, as I said before, might reach them in a rush. For instance, heading out to a meeting or dealing with an urgent problem.

In an email cover letter, don’t make the hiring manager read between the lines of some fancy storytelling.

Be as straightforward as possible.

Email Cover Letter Example: First Sentence

And that’ll do.

4. Main Paragraph: Relevance is Key

You’re not applying for a job. You’re applying for this job.

For the hiring manager, it doesn’t matter how great your career has been so far. What matters is how you can help the company with their upcoming tasks and challenges.

Show that in your email cover letter body:

Read the job description carefully, identify what your responsibilities will be.

Then, research the company online, try to find out what projects they’re running or plan to launch in the future.

Outline your professional achievements that can translate into success in your prospective role.

Highlight what you have to offer.

Remember Maria, the candidate from our sample?

The company she’s applying to, ABC Corp., is looking for a Software Engineering Team Lead to supervise the development of new android apps.

That’s what her tailored, brief email cover letter reads:

Sample Short Email Cover Letter Body

Pro Tip: I can’t stress this enough—an email cover letter has to be shorter than one you would include as an attachment. How short exactly? Your go-to word count should be 150, tops.

In need of some extra tips for your cover letter? Check out: What to Include in a Cover Letter: 15+ Examples

When making a CV in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your CV here.

Create my CV now

When you’re done, Zety’s CV builder will score your CV and tell you exactly how to make it better.

5. Call to Action

So the hiring manager knows you’re a great candidate. Job done?

Not quite. Take an extra step. Reiterate your value in the call to action:

Ask the hiring manager to reach out to you and meet in person.

Once again, focus on what you have to offer.

Again, let’s have a look at the call to action from our sample:

Sample Email Cover Letter—Call to Action

Pro Tip: The two worst things you can do in your email cover letter closing are coming off as needy (I’m sure I’d make a great employee, just give me a shot!) or generic (Thank you for your time and consideration).

For more ideas on strong and compelling ways to finish your cover letter, go here: How to End a Cover Letter the Right Way

6. Formal Sign-Off

Once you’ve written your email cover letter for a CV, you just need to put a formal greeting at the very end.

Write “sincerely” and follow it with your full name.

If you’re not a fan of the well-worn, “sincerely,” feel free to use any of the following synonyms:

Sample email cover letter sign-offs:

• Thank you,
• Best regards,
• Kind regards,
• Sincerely,
• With best regards.

Pro Tip: Under your sign-off, put the necessary contact information, such as your LinkedIn profile, email address, and telephone number. To save yourself the effort of adding them every time you send an email covering letter, you can include them automatically in the footer of your email. You can also include a digital copy of your handwritten signature. It will add a nice, professional touch.

7. Attachments

So you’ve just written your perfect, short email cover letter. Now you’re basically guaranteed to land that interview, right?

Wrong.

Let me just quote what one recruiter wrote in her LinkedIn article:

Don’t think I need to explain further, do I?

And it is fine to say ‘Please find attached my CV’ (though there are better alternatives).

It makes all the more sense to write that because Gmail will see the word attached/attachment, check if you have in fact attached anything, and prompt you if you haven't!

One last thing to keep in mind:

Choose a professional CV file name:

Key Takeaway

To write a perfect cover letter email for a job application, follow these steps:

• Use a clear, strong subject line.
• Open with a proper greeting—address the hiring manager by their name.
• In the first sentence, explain why you’re writing and what position you’re targeting.
• Write a brief main paragraph that outlines your most relevant experience and achievements.
• Close with a call to action—ask to schedule a meeting and reiterate your offer.
• Sign-off with a ‘sincerely’ synonym and your full name.
• Put your contact details in the footer.
• Don’t forget to attach a CV to your cover letter email.

And, for the final piece of advice:

Keep it short.

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your CV will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Got any additional questions about writing and sending a cover letter email? Want to share your experience with applying by a direct email message? Give me a shout in the comments. I can’t wait to hear out your thoughts. Let’s chat!