We have previously discussed tips for boosting your resume, but don’t forget about your cover letter. Your cover letter is an equally important part of your resume and could be the difference between you getting an interview or not.

While your resume is a great place to showcase your skills and experience, your cover letter lets you explain them in more detail. It also offers employers a glimpse of your personality and your motivation behind applying for their open position.

If you want to give your cover letter a boost, read on for our top 20 tips for writing a cover letter that stands out above the competition.

20 Cover Letter Tips

Use the following 20 cover letter tips to help you application stand out above other candidates.

1. Write a Custom Cover Letter for Each Job

Many candidates will write one cover letter and simply change the company name mentioned on it. This is not a good practice!

Hiring teams want to see that you are specifically excited about working for their company. Therefore, you need to create a company-specific cover letter for each job that shows why you want to work for them.

While some small parts of the cover letter could stay the same, focus on explaining what about each company and job position really appeals to you. Add to that by mentioning what you bring that matches what the requirements they are looking for.

2. Include Keywords from the Job Description

When writing custom cover letters, include keywords from the job posting if you can incorporate them organically. Like with resumes, your cover letter may be run through software and only those applications featuring keywords from the job posting will be selected to move on to the next stage.

However, include fewer keywords than you will have on your resume. Of course, only include keywords that you can discuss in a relevant (and truthful) way.

Write an individual cover letter for each job you apply to that’s customized to the company and position.

3. Think About Who You Address the Cover Letter To

If possible, always address the person the cover letter is being sent to by name. If a recipient's name is not included in the job description, try to find out who the head of the hiring department is. If you cannot find this, see if you can determine who the head of the department you’re applying to is.

Some job descriptions will specifically ask you to address your cover letter to someone as a way to make sure you have thoroughly read the job description. Be sure to pick up on this.

If you cannot find someone to address it to, use “Dear Hiring Manager” instead of “Dear Sir or Madam”.

4. Write an Attention Grabbing Opening

The opening of your cover letter is the first chance you get to connect with the hiring team and stand out.

Due to this, make sure your opening sentences grab attention. Straight away explain who you are and what you’ll bring to the position and the company.

Use this area to begin showing your personality too. Avoid standard openings with little personality, such as “I’m a journalist with 6 years of experience, and I think I’d be a great fit for this role.” This is quite an obvious statement and will not have much of an impact on the hiring team.

5. Don’t Just Repeat Your Resume

Another common cover letter mistake is repeating exactly what is on your resume. Instead, expand on points from your resume and try to paint a more all-around picture of who you are as an employee.

You can use your cover letter to explain certain accomplishments in more detail. This can include explaining how a certain experience is directly relevant to the job opening or how an experience can help in solving a problem the hiring company has.

Do make sure that your cover letter complements your resume though. Don’t discuss skills, qualifications, or experiences that are not mentioned on your resume at all. Build on things mentioned on your resume, and provide examples and how this relates to you being successful in the open role.

6. Highlight the Most Relevant Experience and Qualifications

If you are discussing previous responsibilities, make sure you choose those that most relate to the job posting.

Look at what responsibilities you will have and what qualifications/skills you must bring and show that you meet these requirements. Try to highlight the most advanced of those requirements, and highlight skills/qualifications/experience listed as “nice to have” to make yourself stand out.

Don’t just repeat your resume in your cover letter. Expand on the info in your resume and show your personality.

7. Focus on What You Bring to the Company

While you can include a line or two about why you want to work at the company and why it is a good fit for you, try to put the most focus on what you bring to the company.

Identify the problems the company is looking to solve with this hire, and show that you are the best solution.

8. Show That a Lack of Experience Won’t Affect Success

When lacking some experience or skills needed for a position, many applicants will say something like “despite my lack of experience in….”

Try to avoid phrases like this. Instead, show how the skills and experience that you do have can translate to success in this position.

Also, only mention what you are missing if it is quite a big part of the requirements. If you’re missing experience or skills in one or two areas of a list of eight requirements, there is no need to highlight this.

Tips for Those with Less Experience

If you are a new graduate, new to the workforce, or changing your career path completely, you may not know what you can put on your cover letter.

Luckily, most of those you're competing with will be in a similar position, as the position you're applying for will be entry-level.

In this case, look at the job responsibilities and requirements. Then highlight those you meet. Also, highlight transferable skills that can be applied to the responsibilities you will have in the open position.

Experience and skills to include can be those gained from an internship or part-time job (even if it is not related to the industry or position you are applying to). You can also mention volunteer work and school project experience.

Don’t forget to also mention why you’re interested in the industry and the job position.

9. Avoid Cliches

Avoid cliches commonly used in job applications. This includes terms like “go-getter”, “self-starter”, “problem-solver’.

Instead, use simple everyday terms and/or keywords from the job posting.

10. Back Up Information with Facts

Any skills or experience you mention in your cover letter need to be backed up with facts.

To do this, mention the skill/experience, then describe the situation, why and how you were successful in this situation and the effect of this success. Then explain how that relates to being successful in the open position.

11. Include Numbers

If you can, always quantify achievements in your cover letter and mention goals and KPIs you met and succeeded. For example, don’t just say you are a great fit for a sales manager position because you helped increase your company’s sales. Say that you implemented a strategy to increase the company’s sales by 20% each quarter over two years.

Types of quantifiable data to mention Include:

Success Rates: by how much did you exceed targets, for example, increased sales by 20%
Management Numbers: for example, that you managed a team of ten employees across three departments.
Other Metrics: for example, the number of clients you had or the amount of budget you handled

In your cover letter, focus on what you bring to the company and how you can help them with their goals.

12. Mention Cultural Fit

Many companies use cultural fit as a factor in determining who will move forward in the hiring process and ultimately be hired.

You will also likely be looking for a company that is a good cultural fit. Research the company culture by looking at their core values, mission statement, and “About Us” page. You can also look for information on their website and social media about company life.

Then mention why their culture appeals and how you are a good fit.

13. Mention Previous Knowledge of the Company

If you have some connection with the company, mention that. This could include mentioning that it’s a company you have been interested in working at for a long time or mentioning where you first heard about them and why you were attracted.

If you know someone connected to the company, you could mention that too, especially if they recommended you to apply.

14. Try Different Formats

If in a creative industry, you could try a different format to the standard letter-style cover letter. This could entail anything from making a video cover letter to creating a listicle-style letter.

If in a design-based industry, try to showcase some of your design talents through your cover letter design too.

15. Find the Right Tone

The tone you use in your cover letting will be dependent on the industry you are in and the company you are applying to.

However, try not to be too formal. While you want to sound professional, you don’t want to sound completely devoid of sentiment. Try to add personality and write as though you were talking to the person face-to-face.

Don’t be overly informal either! Even if applying to very laid-back companies, don’t use slang or be overly familiar.

To choose the best tone, read over the company’s website, and things like social media posts and blog posts, then try to match that voice.

16. Finish with a Strong Closing

To close your cover letter, add a sentence reaffirming your interest in the job and the reason that you’d be a good fit.

Then offer contact info again, even if it’s on your resume. You may also want to mention an interview. For example, “I look forward to an interview to further discuss the position.”

End the cover letter with a professional greeting, such as “sincerely”, “regards”, “best”, or “respectfully” and your full name. You could also add a signature.

Within your cover letter, include reasons why you’re a good cultural fit for the company.

17. Keep it Short

Cover letters should be no more than one page. Try to only include the most relevant information and edit for length and conciseness as much as possible.

Like with a resume, blank space is your friend! Keep sentences around 20 words long, and paragraphs to a length of three sentences or four to five lines at most. Aim for three or four paragraphs in total at most and between 250 and 500 characters.

18. Proofread and Edit

Make sure you edit your cover letter thoroughly before sending it. Along with trying to shorten the text as much as possible, check for grammar, spelling, and readability too.

If you can, leave the draft you have for a few hours or overnight. Then look at it later with a fresh perspective to see how it reads and what could be changed or removed.

Once you think the cover letter is ready to be sent, read it over again and check grammar and spelling one more time.

Get a Second Opinion

If possible, have a friend check the cover letter too. This could be done by anyone to check grammar, spelling, and readability. Also, get an opinion on if it sells you well.

Ideally, get someone who works in the industry and/or in a similar position to the one you are applying for to check it. If the individual has hiring experience themselves, that’s even better.

19. Use a Standard Format and Make Use of Templates

If sticking with a letter-style cover letter, keep the layout simple.

Some design tips to keep in mind include:

Use a 12 point standard font, such as Arial or Times New Roman.
Set margins at 1 or 1.5.
Use line spacing of 1.5 or 2.

Also, match the style of the cover letter with your resume’s style. Use the same font, colors, and design to show they belong to the same application.

Templates

If you want to use a slightly more creative design, you can make use of cover letter templates found online. There will often be a matching cover letter template with resume templates which will help keep both parts of your application consistent.

20. Check You Have Followed All Instructions in the Job Posting

As discussed earlier, be sure to pick up on who to address the letter to that will be listed in the job posting.

Also, don’t miss out on any other instructions in the job posting. This includes where to send your application and how to format application documents. For example, they may want documents in PDF as opposed to Word format. Check if each file should have a certain file name such as “Your Name CV for Job Position” as well.

If emailing your CV, is there a certain subject line you must use?

Some postings will even mention a keyword to include in your cover letter or something specific to discuss. These instructions are included for a reason! Ignoring or missing them will likely get your application thrown out straight away.

In Conclusion

Many candidates don’t take the time to optimize their cover letter with many sending basically the same document to each company. Unfortunately, this is not a good practice and those candidates are unlikely to get an interview.

To really impress the hiring board, make sure you follow the above cover letter tips to help you stand out and get on to an interview.

At Lynne Palmer Executive Recruitment, we have been helping professionals with their job searches in the publishing and medical communications industries for over 60 years. If you would like help with your next career move, feel free to get in touch!

Was your application successful at getting you an interview? Be sure to check out our top interview tips for candidates to wow the hiring team and land the job.

20 Tips for Writing a Cover Letter that Stands Out