You have finally finished writing your resume. You're now sure that you now have a perfect resume for the web designer position.
Your resume demonstrates all the skills an expert web designer should have, such as the ability to independently execute all the stages of the website design process, the knowledge of how to use the best design practices to ensure positive user experience, as well as strong communication skills, creativity, and excellent technical skills.
You can’t wait to submit your next job application.
But wait for a second - before you do so, there is one more thing you need to do.
For a perfect job application, your resume needs an equally impressive cover letter.
Let us help. Here you are going to learn:
► how to write a perfect web designer cover letter that actually gets read by employers
► how to format a cover letter to stand out among the rest
► what to do before you send your cover letter
Finally, you’ll get a word-for-word web designer cover letter template. Just replace the keywords, and your cover letter will be ready in no time.
How to Write a Perfect Cover Letter?
A cover letter should complement the content of your resume.
In 300 to 250 words, you should put your skills and experience in the context of the job you're applying for to convince the employer that you are the best candidate for the open position.
Considering the limited space, don't merely copy the content of your resume to your cover letter.
Instead, use this space to:
build your brand and position yourself as an expert in the field
express things that cannot be added to a resume, such as your motivation for the application, the story behind your most impressive achievements or the reasons why you want to work for this company.
A cover letter allows you to build your brand, position yourself as an expert, add value to your application and express things that cannot be added to a resume, such as your motivation for applying, the story behind your most impressive achievements or the reasons why you want to work for this company.
To do so, here is the proven structure you should follow:
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1. Greeting
Start with a greeting.
It may look like a minor detail, but this part sets the tone of your cover letter. Hence, it can easily be a deal-breaker. Make sure you do it right.
Greetings to avoid: Do not use obsolete, unnatural and over-used greetings such as ‘To Whom It May Concern’ or ‘Dear Sir or Madam’. Some hiring managers immediately stop reading a cover letter if they see one of those two phrases, so avoid them.
Address personally: Address your letter to the hiring manager directly. If no name is listed with the posting, use LinkedIn to find out the department director, recruiter, or other contact associated with the position.
Or: If you can't find a name, start the letter with ‘Dear Hiring Manager’ or ‘Dear XYZ Team’. (Insert the department you'd work at instead of the XYZ.)
But don’t: Don’t combine too many options starting your cover letter with ‘Dear Sir/Madam/Hiring Manager/Mister/Miss’. It makes you look unconfident and indecisive.
2. Opening paragraph
Grab the reader's attention with your opening paragraph. This sentence should provide immediate insight into the value you can bring to the company.
To make it right, in one or two sentences:
tell them who you are
summarize your experience
and express your enthusiasm for the role.
For example, you could start by saying:
As a web designer with three years of experience in creative and web design, I was excited to see your advertisement for a web designer position in the marketing department.
The sentence above grabs attention more effectively than:
I am writing to apply for the web designer role advertised on the XYZ job board.
Writing an informative and specific opening sentence will set you apart from other applicants.
3. Body
Spoiler alert: This is where you win employers over!
This is the most important part of your cover letter.
It consists of two to three short paragraphs where you answer two main questions:
What experience, skills and knowledge do you have that is, of course, relevant to the job?
How do your experience, skills and knowledge add value to the company you want to work for and to the job you are applying for?
Showing that you have researched the company is vital for this section.
Demonstrate your knowledge of the organization's current situation and how your background, interests, and experience can contribute or help them resolve problems. The best way to do this is by highlighting your achievements, as they are the best proof of your abilities.
When describing achievements, do the following
Include numbers. Metrics effectively grab attention and make it easier for readers to understand the impact of your actions. So, let the numbers speak for themselves.
Put the spotlight on your achievements by creating a short bulleted list of two to three key achievements. Visually, this will draw attention to this part of your cover letter.
So, instead of this:
I have improved existing and developed new websites in all my previous roles, which in turn has increased the revenue and profit of my employers. I want to bring the same success to the web designer position at your company.
Write this:
As a Web Designer, I have redesigned existing websites and turned them into responsive websites, resulting in:
Increased traffic by 43%, and a decreased bounce rate by 21%, which led to $2M more in revenue
Improved client satisfaction score by 53% from 5.7 NPS to 8.8 NPS
Seeing that your company is currently growing and working on expanding its client base, based on my previous accomplishments, I am confident that I can bring the same success to your company.
And that's how you create an exciting cover letter that employers actually read.
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4. Closing paragraph
In the closing paragraph, summarize what you've written.
Restate your interest in the position and interview. Finish on a positive note. For example, write:
I am confident that my skills and experience would make me a great fit for the web designer role. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my application in more detail.
Additionally, express your appreciation for the hiring manager's time and consideration. The final greeting can be “Sincerely”, “Best”, or “Best regards”.
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How to Format a Cover Letter?
Unlike resumes where the perfect length is not set in stone and depends on different factors, a cover letter shouldn’t be longer than one page.
If you aimed at 300 to 350 words of tailored content, this shouldn’t be a problem.
In terms of layout, resumes and cover letters both need to be visually appealing.
Like a resume, a cover letter also needs be a polished, carefully crafted and well-structured professional document.
To wow employers and come across as a motivated, professional and detail-oriented candidate, make the formatting consistent throughout all job application documents.
Since cover letters are typically sent along with resumes, it means those two documents should have a matching format.
If your resume is already aligned with resume-formatting best practices, simply copy the same style.
Copy the same header and footer.
Apply the same font style and size in both documents – both for the body text and headings.
The same works for the white space – apply the same spacing between rows and margins as you have used in your resume. Make sure you have enough white space that makes the document easy on the eye.
If your cover letter looks cluttered and you need to change the font style or other formatting elements, go back to your resume and do the same to have complementary documents.
In case you need to re-format both documents, here are some actionable tips that can help:
A. Choose the right font style.
Select a professional, readable font. Avoid too complex, unprofessional or hard-to-read fonts.
Here is a short list of the best and worst resume fonts:
Best resume fonts: Calibri, Arial, Corbel, Cambria, Georgia, Source Sans Pro/Light
Worst resume fonts: Comic Sans, Book Antiqua, or any cartoonish or handwriting font styles
Another factor in making your words highly readable is setting an appropriate font size. Generally, you should stay between 10 and 12 points.
Additionally, if you want to highlight some information, apply the bold font. Don’t underline it, as underlining hurts the readability of the text.
B. Add bullet points to highlight relevant achievements.
To break the monotony of the text, include two or three bullet points to describe and highlight your achievements.
It’s a visual trick that will make the most impressive part of your cover letter more eye-catching.
C. Manage the white space.
Last but not least, the element that contributes to the readability of your cover letter is the amount of white space - an area of your document that remains unused when separating sections and paragraphs of text.
Lack of sufficient white space can make your cover letter look cluttered and disorganized, whereas too much can leave it feeling bare and lacking in content.
So, to make a cover letter easy on the eye, it’s important to achieve the right balance between white space and content.
Pay attention to:
Spacing between rows: If your cover letter looks packed, increase the spacing between lines from 1.0 pt to at least 1.15 pt. The latter makes it less cluttered without taking up too much valuable space.
Spacing between paragraphs: Instead of having a jammed-packed block of text, cover letters should have a clear structure with four to five distinctive paragraphs. The easiest way to create it is to increase spacing between the paragraphs to 1.5. Or you can simply add an empty row between two sections.
Margins: Margins (white space around the content) will depend on the amount of text you have. It should be between 0.5’’ to 1’’. Play around with it until you get a layout that looks the best.
Alignment: The most common recommendation is to align your text to the left. An alternative solution is to justify it (align both to the left and right, distributing your text evenly in a line between margins). This depends on your preferences. The only option that needs to be ruled out is centering the entire content – it’s OK for headings but not for the body of a cover letter.
What to do before sending a cover letter?
1. Read your cover letter out loud.
Cover letters usually require a lot of editing, copy-pasting and re-organizing sentences a million times. This can inevitably lead to some oversights. Reading your cover letter aloud helps you ensure that the content is correct and that it flows smoothly and sounds natural.
2. Ask someone to proofread your cover letter.
Give your cover letter to someone else who can proofread it for you. A proofreading buddy is your 2-factor authorization for job applications. After working on your cover letter for some time, it's easy to miss a typo.
Since spelling, grammar or punctuation errors are not acceptable, you need to share it with someone to make sure your cover letter is safe to send.
3. Save in the requested format or PDF.
Make sure you have saved your cover letter in a format requested by the employer. The most common formats are .docx or .pdf.
If the employer hasn’t specified the format, save your cover letter as a PDF file to preserve the formatting and ensure your cover letter looks the same on every computers, regardless of the operating system someone is using.
4. Name your cover letter professionally.
Name your cover letter professionally.
Don’t send it as ‘Cover letter - final Company X FINAL v7’. They don’t need to know how many times you edited it. Instead, save it as ‘Name Surname_cover letter’.
Now, let's see how these tips work in practice.
Web Designer: Cover Letter Template
Just replace the underlined keywords, and you'll have a cover letter that works for you!
Dear Mrs Smith,
As a Web Designer with three years of experience in graphic and web design, I was excited to see the advertisement for a Web Designer position within Company X. Being well-experienced in website design for eCommerce and corporate clients, I believe that my expertise and personal characteristics make me a strong candidate for this position.
In my current position, I am responsible for managing all digital-design projects. Some of my responsibilities are designing websites following the clients’ branding policies, editing the content, ensuring website stability across devices, and offering relevant project ideas.
During my employment with Company XYZ, I have achieved exceptional results, including:
Designing responsive websites resulting in a 53% increase in organic traffic
Creating landing pages for all products, resulting in an increased conversion rate by 45% and $2 million more in profit
Seeing that your company is currently onboarding new clients and recruiting a team of web designers to deliver upcoming projects, I am confident that I would successfully liaise with the new group of peers and deliver client projects with the same success as in my previous roles.
On a personal level, I pride myself on being creative in solving problems and diligent in my approach to work. At the same time, by having strong communication skills and being open to different views and ideas, I can efficiently collaborate with colleagues on all levels of seniority to merge our knowledge and skills in order to achieve the best results for our clients.
I am confident that my experience and skills would make me an excellent fit for the web designer position at your company. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my application in more detail.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Name Surname
And that’s it! Your cover letter is done and ready to impress employers.
LET'S RECAP:
A well-crafted cover letter sent with your resume can give you a competitive advantage. When done correctly, a cover letter shows the employer that you're the right person for the job.
Your cover letter should have four main parts: a greeting, opening paragraph, body and closing section.
In a cover letter, showcase your expertise by describing and quantifying relevant achievements. Connect them with the company’s current situation to show you have done your research on them, and that you understand how you can add value.
Match the formatting with the style of your resume. Make sure that the fonts are professional and readable, that you have enough white space, and that achievements are highlighted in a short bulleted list.
Let someone proofread your cover letter. Once approved, save it in the right format, name it professionally and send it along with your resume.
Do you have any questions about writing a perfect web designer cover letter? We’d love to help! Book a FREE coaching call with our job search experts and have all your questions answered in 30 minutes.