Keep Your Company Newsletter Out of
Circular File Copyright 2003, The Write ExposureYou spend a considerable amount of time and money on your print newsletter and only way your investment pays off is if your readers actually interact with your newsletter in a positive way. Unfortunately, most company newsletters don't do a very good job of encouraging any such interaction.
How can you make sure your newsletter's one of successful few? Here we have five key questions your newsletter must answer to leave a lasting impression on your readers.
Who's it from? How's it relevant? Is it interesting? Why read it now? Why keep it?
Who's it from? You wouldn't believe number of companies that neglect to make it obvious who newsletter's from. It's often not enough to include your company name on newsletter somewhere. Rather, consider each newsletter an opportunity to introduce your business to people who've never heard of it before. Your mailing label should include your company's slogan (and a bit about what you do if it's not obvious) and logo. Ask someone who's unfamiliar with your company to take a look at your newsletter and guess who it's from and what they do. If they can't, perhaps it's time to make some changes.
How's it relevant? Your readers don't have much time. Clearly they don't want to spend what little time they have reading something that's not going to apply to their lives. You might prove your newsletter's relevance by putting a table of contents near mailing label (don't list article by title, rather list them by benefit). You'll find some great examples of proving relevance at newsstand. Take a look at magazines available and see how they convince readers that's what's inside is worth reading.
