15+ Best Cover Letter Writing Tips to Get a Great Job in 2022

Consider this. You’re applying for a new job to start or continue your career. Make the right first impression. You need the best tips for writing a cover letter to set you apart.

A cover letter serves as an introduction to you. While most jobs require a resume, not all will ask for a cover letter. Either way, using the best cover letter tips is the perfect way to jumpstart your job search. It sets you apart from the crowd and gives you a chance to speak for yourself on why you‘re the best candidate.

We’ve compiled a list of the best cover letter tips for 2022. These are easy-to-implement ideas to build your confidence and land an interview. 

1. Treat Cover Letters as an Opportunity

Let’s think of what a cover letter can do. It’s easy to get bogged down and view cover letters as a hassle. After all, many of us agonize over getting a resume just right. Cover letters can seem like one more chore. They can seem arduous, tedious, and you might even feel that hiring managers won’t read your letter.

But in fact, the best way to write a cover letter is to treat it as a golden opportunity. Remember, resumes are essentially sequential lists of qualifications. They speak more to your expertise and background than your goals and vision. When you know the top tips for wiring a cover letter for a resume, you can seamlessly bridge this gap.

Plus, many jobs require a cover letter in 2022. This means that your letter will be compared to many others, just like your resume. This is where the best tips for writing a cover letter come in. Mindset is everything, and when you think of a cover letter as an opportunity, you’ll write it to advocate for yourself. 

2. Design in Style With Premium Templates (2022)

Are you staring at a blank document, wondering where to begin? Writing a cover letter can be stressful, and in the job hunting environment, you don’t need any more to worry about. That’s why you should turn to premium cover letter templates from Envato Elements.

Envato Elements is a resource for creatives with a powerful offer: unlimited downloads. It’s true – for a flat rate, you’ve got instant access to thousands of stunning cover letter templates today.

Great tips for writing a cover letter share two things in common. They save you time, and they help ensure a winning impression with a hiring manager. Turning to premium templates meets both of those goals. Premium cover letter templates are designed by creative experts. Each is filled with sleek design elements that you can’t create yourself.

Consider the CV Resume & Cover Letter Template here. Available now on Envato Elements, you can see the design effort that went into the template.

Text stands out, offset against a cool modern header with photos included. All you’ll have to do is write the cover letter. You won’t have to spend precious time designing layouts from scratch!

3. Be Job Specific

You’ve likely heard that it pays to tailor your resume to specific jobs. This helps you focus on aspects of your background that best fit the job you’re seeking. It’s true with resumes in many cases, but it’s essential for cover letters. A bland, generic intro gets you dismissed almost immediately.

Why? Because it doesn’t tell the hiring manager anything useful. They’ll know – or assume – that you’ll state how driven you are, how motivated you are, and so forth. No matter how true these statements may be, they don’t deliver a lot of value. You need to be specific, targeting your letter for the specific role.

 Craft a narrative that cleanly ties your background and goals to the job you’re seeking.

With job-specific content, you’ll demonstrate how you view yourself as a good fit for the role. Capture this idea, and you’ll find hiring managers sharing it. Remember, those who read cover letters have seen hundreds of them. It’s easy for them to tell that you’ve taken extra effort. This stands out and speaks well to your work ethic.

4. Get Beyond Bulleted Data

So far, you’ve chosen your favorite premium cover letter template in 2022. You’ve learned to be job-specific, planning to tailor your message to specific roles. You’ve seen that it pays to do your research so you can craft a letter aimed at key stakeholders in the hiring process.

Now, it’s time to consider the contents of your message. One of the best cover letter tips is this: transcend your resume. If you’re only restating key facts from your resume, you’re wasting everyone’s time. Instead, focus on building a narrative.

This narrative should consider facts like your education and past work experiences. It should then combine them with a focus on how these factors best qualify you for the new role. In a cover letter, you can provide key – brief – examples of your work and relate them to how you plan to excel in your new role.

5. Match Your Resume to Your Cover Letter

The CV Resume & Cover Letter Template includes a modern resume design too. This is one of the most fundamental cover letter tips. Your resume and cover letter should always match. Using mismatched templates, or cluttered layouts, sends the wrong signal. It tells hiring managers that you’re not taking either document seriously. This can damage your prospects for an interview.

Need a stunning premium cover letter, but want to purchase only one? Envato still has you covered, all thanks to GraphicRiver. It’s a pay-per-download marketplace.

There, you’ll find thousands more cover letter templates available for individual purchase. Visit today and choose one. Once you’ve downloaded your favorite template, it’s time to dive in and start writing.

6. Use Names Whenever Possible

Don’t forget in the process to try and address the hiring manager by name. If you can’t be sure of it, try for the role title or anything beyond a generic, impersonal salutation. Those make a bad impression, never something you want in the first sentence of any cover letter! Often, even cursory research can deliver the names you need to succeed.

A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.” – Dale Carnegie

By keeping things job and manager specific, you can leverage cover letter tips 2022 to land a dream job.

7. Be Positive and Creative

Remember, your cover letter is a grand opportunity. It lets you describe exactly how your background and experiences qualify you for a role. The trick here is to be positive and think creatively. Chances are, those very skills are being sought for the role. Always think ahead.

Resumes are by nature historical. They focus on what you’ve done in the past. Cover letters let you explain in detail exactly what you’ll bring to a new role. Think of resumes as an outline, and cover letters as the full story. Use your cover letter to paint a full picture of you.

8. Fit With the Culture and Tone

How well you fit in with a company’s culture is important. It’s a gauge of how well you’ll perform at the job. Plus, it helps you measure how much you’ll enjoy your work (or not.) One of the best tips for writing a cover letter is to match it to the tone of the company.

You can gauge tone in many ways, most easily on the company’s website. Some firms tend to use concrete, fact-heavy prose. Others are more creative and upbeat. And some of this will depend on the nature of a job. Startup company cover letters will differ from Fortune 500 cover letters.

Your tone might be different if you’re applying to be a yoga instructor instead of a data scientist. No matter what, hitting the right tone helps show how well you’ll fit into an organization.

9. Focus on a Few Key Points

Focus on discussing only the most relevant skills that you bring to the table. It’s far better to have a few powerful key points, rather than an endless list of small details. Add too much information, and any reader will become bored. Plus, it gives the impression that you’re packing your cover letter with filler details.

10. Style Fonts to Stand Out

While tips for writing a cover letter for a resume often involve the written word, don’t forget to style your text! Everyone has seen Arial and Calibri, default system fonts found in many applications.

To stand out in a subtle, but important way, try a different font. Of course, you must choose one that’s completely clear and readable.

The best place to find winning premium fonts is Envato Elements. As a subscriber, you’ll get access to thousands of cool modern font options. These are built by design experts, and you can use them to craft your next memorable cover letter.

11. Match Your Narrative to the Role’s Description

No two jobs are exactly alike, even if they’ve got the same title. One of the cover letter tips to keep in mind is that your letter should match the role’s individual description.

For example, a “customer service representative” may do very different things. In some organizations, it’s a sales-based role. In others, it may be product support. Read the job description carefully. Then, focus your narrative so that it best fits the details found in the job posting.

12. Don’t Work Alone

The best cover letters are ignored if they’ve got spelling or grammatical errors inside. But there’s no shame in admitting that these happen to all of us sometimes. The key point here is to get help. Use spelling and grammar features in your favorite word processor for a quick review.

Have a friend review your cover letter. Others may catch errors that you never will. Plus, they can help you gauge the tone and provide helpful feedback too! This is one of the essential tips for writing a cover letter: never work alone.

Learn how to compare two copies of a Word document so that you can merge in changes once you’ve got feedback:

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  How to Compare and Merge Two Microsoft Word Documents
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13. Brevity Always Wins

As you tell the story of your past successes and future goals, brevity is key. The best tips for a good cover letter get you nowhere if it’s tossed out for being too long. While it’s easy to go on at length, your prose should be clear and concise. As we’ve already seen, choosing a few key points about yourself helps with this.

Remember, a cover letter introduces you to a specific job role. It doesn’t serve as your autobiography.

14. Use PDFs If You Can

Many companies have specific portals and formats to upload and submit cover letters. But if they don’t, take advantage of the popular PDF format. PDF files offer important features. Namely, they’re easy to share and are readable on a vast array of devices, including mobile phones.

PDF files lock in formatting. A text file formatted perfectly on your screen may appear in disarray on another screen. By using PDF, you can share your winning cover letter without worry that it’s rearranged.

These cover letter tips are your best bet for 2022. By using them, you’ll be writing a great cover letter in moments. Remember, by using premium templates, you get a big jump-start. From there, it’s up to you to tell your story, bridging the gap between experiences and vision.

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15. Summarize and Close Strong

Cover letter tips give you an advantage when you’re searching for a new job. Remember, your cover letter can be your ticket to your dream job. In it, you’ve already stated how your background and goals qualify you for the job. In closing, you should quickly summarize this idea one final time.

In a few quick sentences, summarize exactly how you view yourself as the ideal candidate. Touch on the key details you’ve already included but be creative.

16. Be Professional, But Not Boring

Odds are, you’re excited for new job opportunities. It’s fine to convey some of this in your cover letter – but in a professional way. Rather than using space expressing these feelings, you can channel them in other ways.

For example, you might say “thank you for the chance to apply for this incredible opportunity.” Plus, saying thank you never hurts.

The Best Source For Cover Letter Designs (With Unlimited Downloads)

Here’s a secret: the best tips for writing a cover letter are already built into premium templates. The best source for cover letter designs are found on Envato Elements, an all-you-can-download platform that’s totally affordable.

As we mentioned earlier in this post, templates are your best friend while writing a great cover letter. In a sense, they’re like a prompt: they give you everything you need inside the file. All you need to do is add your details. Then, you’ve got a cover letter that helps you stand out to a hiring manager.

Elements includes so many extras, too – custom fonts, graphics, illustrations – you name it, they’ve got it. All of these can enhance your cover letter, and they’re all included. Templates truly include the best tips for a good cover letter.

If you need more tips for writing a cover letter for a resume, we’ve got another option for templates. On GraphicRiver, you can purchase single templates that are packed with design ideas. In effect, that gives you ready-to-use cover letter tips 2022 viewers will love!

Learn More About Writing Your Cover Letter

Still seeking inspiration for writing a great cover letter? It takes practice to learn the best way to write a cover letter. The work is always worth it so that you stand out when you apply for your dream job.

We’ve got you covered with more resources with the best tips for writing a cover letter. Check out these helpful tutorials, loaded with more tips for a good cover letter.

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Start Using These Tips for Writing a Cover Letter

You now have over 15 tips for a good cover letter. Even incorporating just half of these drastically increase your chance of landing your next job.

My favorite cover letter tips leverage the power of templates for readymade designs. Many of the tips for writing a cover letter for a resume are already built into these pre-built templates.

Now, you’ve got the skills you need to write your best cover letter ever. Incorporate them, proofread your cover letter, then press submit with complete confidence!