When do you use 'To Whom It May Concern' as a greeting? Is it an up to date way of formally greeting a professional through a cover letter, business letter or legal letter? And what's the proper grammatical way to put it into a letter? All of these are great questions which we're going to help answer in this comprehensive guide to that formal greeting.

Let's go ahead and dig right in!

Table Of Contents

• When Should I Use “To Whom It May Concern”
• Is Using “To Whom It May Concern” Effective?
• Finding The Hiring Managers Name To Use For Your Letter Greeting
• Capitalization, Formatting And Spacing For "To Whom It May Concern"
• SPAM Filters And “To Whom It May Concern” In An Email
• Alternative Greetings You Can Use
• Sample Letter Using “To Whom It May Concern” As The Greeting
• To Whom It May Concern VS. Popular Incorrect Alternatives

When Should I Use “To Whom It May Concern”

When should you use this introduction? It’s not all that confusing, actually. Normally, you would use this formal greeting when you don’t know the person's name who will be reading your letter.

The types of letters that this greeting can be used for are:

• Cover letters.
• Letters of recommendation.
• Cold emails (usually requesting some type of information back).
• General business letters (like those addressing a law firm on behalf of another law firm).

You should know that by using this introduction it may cause some issues with the effectiveness of your message. Let’s jump into that right now.

Let’s say you are writing an email to a generic contact email address, like hello@company.com — should you use “To Whom It May Concern”? The answer is no. If you are addressing an email to an unknown party, try something slightly more informal. For example, “Hey all”. Which is less formal but may receive engagement on the email, resulting in a reply to your inquiry.

Is Using “To Whom It May Concern” Effective?

Using “To Whom It May Concern” is not effective and here’s why. It lacks personality and personalization that is key to online engagement in any form.

Using this greeting could indicate to the reader that you:

• Didn’t spend the time to investigate who might receive your letter or note.
• Are attempting to “cold sell” them on a product/service, ultimately making them confused.
• Are potentially SPAM (yes, SPAM!).

We’ll get into why you shouldn’t use “To Whom It May Concern” for SPAM reasons in a moment. But before we do, it is highly recommended that you find an alternative to this formal greeting. Ideally, you find the name and contact information for the person you are attempting to get in touch with.

Caitlin Proctor from Zipjob.com told us, "If you can find the name of the person in charge of hiring for your job, use it. If you can't find the name of the hiring manager, start your cover letter with "Dear Hiring Team." This is a bit more personalized than "To Whom It May Concern," especially as final hiring decisions are often a team effort."

Finding The Hiring Managers Name To Use For Your Letter Greeting

Here are two effective strategies on using LinkedIn to find your job posters first name.

Strategy one

Sometimes, a job listing might be posted somewhere other than LinkedIn jobs. If that's the case, go to LinkedIn and see if the job listing is there. 30% of the time, the job posters name is listed on the right of the job advertisement. Here's what to do:

• Step 1: Search for the company you're applying to in the LinkedIn search tool, for example "Arc Worldwide".
• Step 2: Go to the company page on LinkedIn and on the left sidebar you'll see "Jobs", click that.
• Step 3: Search for the job you're applying for to see if the posting is available there and if the job posters first and last name is listed.

Strategy two

When the job posters first and last name isn't listed in LinkedIn, it makes it slightly more complicated but also achievable to find their name. Here's what you'll want to do:

• Step 1: Search for the company you're applying to in the LinkedIn search tool, for example "Arc Worldwide".
• Step 2: Go to the company page on LinkedIn.
• Step 3: Where it says numbers of employees, for example "1,370 employees" — click that.
• Step 4: Near the top of the page you'll see a link that says, "All filters" — click that.
• Step 5: Scroll to where it says "Title" towards the bottom left of the page, then add "Human Resources" to the title.
• Step 6: From here you'll see a list of HR directors who may receive your application, pick the director or person you believe will see your cover letter to include as your greeting.
• Step 7: Your final greeting should look like this, "Dear John & HR Team—"

Capitalization, Formatting And Spacing For "To Whom It May Concern"

When using “To Whom It May Concern”, let's say for a cover letter, how is it phrased, capitalized and placed grammatically? Here is an example of the perfect way to use this greeting:

To Whom It May Concern—

We use capitalization on each of the first letters due to the fact that this is a formal greeting. And then we use an “m-dash” to indicate that we are addressing the person who is reading.

SPAM Filters And “To Whom It May Concern” In An Email

Here’s the biggest thing you should know about using this greeting, it can trigger SPAM filters via email. Let’s say for instance you are sending your cover letter and resume to a company contact email address (info@company.com), by using this greeting it could send it to SPAM and never make it to the eyes of the team.

“To Whom It May Concern” is often used by spammers. Those who are sending emails to company or personal email addresses hoping for a response. You might have seen the classic “Nigerian prince asking for money” SPAM technique. When these are sent, they often begin the email with “To Whom It May Concern”.

Even if you use it in your cover letter and not in the email, it may still trigger SPAM. That is because email tools like Gmail and Outlook are starting to scan PDF/Word documents before they land in the inbox. If that keyword is used, even in an attachment, it may still trigger SPAM.

For this reason alone, it’s highly recommended you don’t use this greeting. You want your email, cover letter, letter of recommendation or note to be received. Using this greeting could risk that.

Alternative Greetings You Can Use

Here are some formal and slightly informal greetings that you could use as an alternative, depending on the type of letter you are writing. But let’s say it’s a cover letter or letter of recommendation. Here’s what you might want to pick instead:

• “Dear Future Employer”
• “Dear Employer”
• “Dear Manager”
• “Dear HR Department”
• “Hello Team”
• “Human Resources Representative”
• “Dear Reader”

Adrienne Cooper (Chief People Officer at FitSmallBusiness.com) told us, "I like "Dear Hiring Team." This greeting is both friendly and savvy. It acknowledges that the process involves more than one person, especially if you continue through the stages, and gives a nod to teamwork."

Sample Letter Using “To Whom It May Concern” As The Greeting

Here is a sample letter using “To Whom It May Concern”, so you can get the idea for where and how you might be able to place this greeting. It’s important to note that below this letter is an alternative sample letter you could use, utilizing one of our alternative greetings instead.

Cover Letter Sample

Which should end up looking something like this:

Cover Letter Sample (With Alternative Greeting)

Which should end up looking something like this:

To Whom It May Concern VS. Popular Incorrect Alternatives

There are some popular alternatives people often choose to use. Here's how they stack up against each other in terms of greetings.

• To Whom It May Concern VS To Who It May Concern: This is a popular mistake. When addressing a person with an unknown identity, be sure to use "whom" instead of who. While this isn't an alternative, it's simply bad grammar.
• To Whom It May Concern VS Dear Sir Or Madam: If you had to choose between these two, pick "To Whom It May Concern". The greeting "Dear Sir Or Madam" is often used in SPAM and SCAM emails. It's recommended that you pick another greeting.
• To Whom It May Concern VS Dear Hiring Manager: If you are picking between these two, definitely pick "Dear Hiring Manager", it reads in a more native-English way. Though, this greeting can only be used for cover letters, emails to Human Resources or other job-related matters.
• To Whom It May Concern VS Hello: Simply saying "Hello" as a greeting is okay, but it is informal. If you are sending a cover letter, email to your Human Resources department or some other type of professional letter, pick an alternative such as "Dear Hiring Manager".

About the author

Patrick Algrim is an experienced executive who has spent a number of years in Silicon Valley hiring and coaching some of the world’s most valuable technology teams. Patrick has been a source for Human Resources and career related insights for Forbes, Glassdoor, Entrepreneur, Recruiter.com, SparkHire, and many more.