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Newsletters Shouldn't Be Snoozeletters
By David P. Kowal
If properly developed, a newsletter can be a valuable tool in any company's marketing program. Unlike most communications,
newsletters can keep you in contact with your market on a regular basis. They can make your services tangible, enhance your
image and help to position your company as a leader in
its field.
But newsletters often fail to accomplish these goals. Most newsletters are snoozeletters. The typical newsletter is a two-color
rehash of company press releases and is filled with the kind of photos no other publication would print - the slightly
out-of-focus photos of people shaking hands and smiling at the camera.
To work effectively, newsletters should be stimulating, not sedating. Companies that would rather use their newsletters to keep
the competition awake at night than to put their customers to sleep should heed the following advice:
Set a schedule and stick to it. If you're not going to publish regularly, don't bother. The worst thing to do with a newsletter
is to publish an issue or two, then to lose interest.
Newsletters require an ongoing commitment of time and resources. Outsourcing the work is often a good way to ensure that the
newsletter is published regularly. The agency or freelancer producing the newsletter should keep the newsletter on schedule,
because it has a financial incentive to do so.
Write for your audience. The contents of the newsletter should be shaped by the audience. An employee newsletter obviously will
have different information than a newsletter for potential and existing customers. Once you've identified your target audience,
interview members of your audience to determine the type of information they would like to read in your newsletter.
Newsletter content should be both informational and promotional. Your newsletter should include information that will make
reading it worth the recipients' valuable time. Remember that if there's no "news" in it, it's not a newsletter.
Differentiate by design. Somehow, you need to make recipients aware immediately that your newsletter merits their attention. If
your newsletter looks like everyone else's, forget about anyone reading it. Few people will even notice who it came from before
tossing it in the recycling bin.
Your newsletter has to grab the recipient visually. Consider printing it on an odd stock size. Use color wisely. Choose
photography carefully. Few companies have the resources to use color photography, but duotones can also add zing to a
newsletter. If you don't have professional photography to use,
rely on other visuals, such as illustrations, charts, graphs and "call out" quotes.
Be creative with copy. Newsletters should not be staid and boring. Along with your product and personnel announcements, consider
including at least one off-the-wall feature, such as a trivia contest or a cartoon. A contest is unlikely to draw a huge
response, but it will at least make the newsletter interactive.
In general, copy should be short, but consider including a single in-depth feature that jumps from the front page, so that
readers will be taken inside your newsletter. Always keep the newsletter's goals and objectives in mind. Can your objectives
best be met with case studies? Customer profiles? "How to" articles? Trend articles?
Print extra copies - and use them. In most cases, the newsletter is a direct-mail piece. As with any direct-mail piece, the
mailing list is the most important consideration. You may start by mailing it to existing customers. You may also rent a list or
use an internal database of potential customers.
In addition, consider including your newsletters in your sales kits and press kits. If appropriate, hand them out at trade shows
and seminars, and consider mailing them to editors on your media list.
If your company has a web site, consider making your newsletter available online. It's one way to ensure that you are
consistently adding fresh information to your site.
For your newsletter to succeed, you will need to give it your attention regularly. If your company doesn't pay attention to its
newsletter, neither will your customers.
David P. Kowal is President of Kowal Communications, Inc. of Northboro, Mass. He can be reached at kowal@kowal.com.
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