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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