If you are writing to a person whose name you know, address that person by their last name; Dear Mr. Smith, or Dear Ms. Smith (as the case may be). If you do not know the name of the person whom you are addressing, you can just use Dear Sir or Dear Madame (again as the case may be). It is also possible to address the company itself; Dear Acme Products.
Before the body
Right above the salutation.
None, open punctuation means there is no punctuation after the salutation or the complimentary close.
The salutation for a business letter should always be formal, even if the business letter is to someone you know well. Examples: Dear Sir/Madam, Dear Mr. Shepard, Dear Ms. Huang, Dear Prof. Sampson, Sales Manager, To Whom It May Concern, The close of a business letter should always be formal as well: Sincerely, Very Truly Yours, Most Sincerely, Yours Truly, The salutation for a personal letter is determined by your relationship with the recipient of the letter and can be formal or very casual. Examples: Hi Mom, Dear Aunt Anna, Hey Rollie, Sweetie, Dear Friends, Fred and Ginger, The close of a personal letter can also be formal or informal. You can close with words much like you would use if you were speaking to that person.
Parts of a business letter:letterhead (or senders address for plain paper),date,inside address,reference line (if applicable)salutation,body,complimentary closesignaturename of sender printed or typedenclosures listed (if applicable)
A proper salutation for greeting the president of a business is "Dear Mr. President". To conclude a letter, the proper word is "Sincerely" and a the name of the writer.
After the salutation of a business letter, the correct punctuation to use is a colon.
Dear Mr. President is a salutation of a business letter. The salutation goes at the beginning, thus that's how you got Dear.
In a business letter =P
A salutation is an addressing to the person that the letter is addressed to and in a business letter you should always start with "Dear" and then add something like "Sir" or "Madam" immediately after it.
To whom it may concern
Rabbi and Mrs.
Dear Counselors:
salutation
salutation
Before the body
It is always proper to use a complimentary close in a business letter unless you are writing a simplified letter, in which case both the complimentary close and salutation (i.e. "Dear Mr. Jones") are omitted.