Newsletters play a key role in effective communication in organizations. Organizations are cluttered with communication through various media both digital and non digital. Due to the unique proposition of offering information from diverse areas in a rather small package, newsletters still have the potential to top the game. What businesses today need is a newsletter that stands out and offers value for its reader.
So how can you put your ideas together? Writing an amazing newsletter starts simple. Here are a few things that will help you when you design your next one:
Provide Worthy Content
What comes to your mind when you think of picking up a newsletter to read? For me, newsletters are all about content. The idea is to inform, entertain and generate interest in your publication and print ads seldom provide any of these.
Keep the content pertinent, useful and interesting. Look at the market trends. A bit of google search will tell you what people like. Don’t let that interfere with the content that your publication is known for. Diversify your content with this in mind that your readers expect a certain quality from you. Give them no less than that. Items like top tips, professional advice, news and stories increase the chance of sticky readers.
Create Attention Grabbing Headlines
These days newsletters are so common, you need to find a way to make sure your readers want to read your newsletter as soon as they see it. Your headline needs to scream “read me now” not “ignore me”.
Ninety percent of the time, a newsletter will not get read if the subject title is not compelling or jumping out at you. Make your headline that reason.
Establish Trust between You and Subscribers
Make sure there is consistency in your newsletter’s objectives and its content. That way your subscribers know what to expect when they see your newsletter and are able to understand the information you are disseminating through it. For example, an HR newsletter should carry people’s achievement stories, team building activities and tips on improving employee relations.
Another great way to write an amazing newsletter is by offering variety and originality. Consistency doesn’t necessarily have to be boring. So by getting a little creative in the way you write your story, you can continue to give the same messages in many different ways.
Write Content for Readers
You may be an expert in your field, but it is most likely that your readers are not familiar with the topics you want to talk about. So make it easy to understand.
Explain your subject content in layman’s terms. Make sure all terminology, abbreviations and acronyms are explained thoroughly and punctuation is not breaking the flow of your content, in fact should help to add value to the fluidity of your stories.
Keep Content Short and Simple
In this day and age, everyone is busy. No one has time to read long drawn out articles that ramble on when they don’t need to. Cramming your articles with too much information is a no-no.
A bad idea, which many employ, is filling the first issue of the newsletter with plenty of articles, each several thousand words. By the next issue, you will run out of ideas and will not be able to pull your own weight.
Keep your content constrained to a few hundred words. A great way to manage your newsletter is to restrict each section to a word count. This way your language will need to be simpler and your content will be automatically more crisp to meet space needs. Think long and hard before you decide to include long articles. Unless they provide invaluable information, it is best to avoid that route.
Being Regular goes a Long Way
If you published your first two newsletters a week apart, and then published the third two months later, the newsletter will most likely be at the bottom of your subscribers’ piles. It is a good idea to go with a frequency that matches the pace of your company’s business. Discuss this before you come to a decision. Quite often, the frequency becomes an issue especially when there isn’t enough content being generated in the company.
There are many ways to writing an amazing newsletter but there is always a way to start. Starting right is simple yet can be confusing. Try out these basic steps and do let us know if they were helpful in any way.
On that note, have a great weekend!
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