| If your newsletter, like mine, is an important piece | | | | 5. Vary the material in each issue, not just from |
| of your marketing plan, I encourage you to give it | | | | issue to issue. Appeal to divergent interests and |
| the time and money it requires, because I know it | | | | points of view and needs for information. It's fine |
| will get read. Your readers will comment on it and, | | | | to give some tips or advice, but get some human |
| when you offer an item for sale, they'll place | | | | interest in there too. Report on an interesting |
| orders. | | | | recent event in your personal life, or offer an |
| Now, my business is very small, and my mailing | | | | opportunity for your readers to engage with you, |
| list has not yet reached 200. The advice I'm | | | | perhaps enjoy a discount or enter a fun contest. |
| offering is not for large companies that print 1,000 | | | | Offer several "flavors" in each issue. |
| or more newsletters and have them mailed by an | | | | 6. Use color photos! Not clip art. Or at least use a |
| administrative assistant who doesn't know half the | | | | combination of the two. Take pictures of your |
| people who will be reading them. This advice is for | | | | customers' grand openings or successful |
| the small business owner wanting to deepen | | | | installations of your equipment. Feature casual |
| relationships and create some buzz around a | | | | photos of your staff at work, or picture a recent |
| young, growing business. I take time with my | | | | fund raiser for charity or your latest |
| newsletter and treat it with respect, and I always | | | | representation in a trade show. Pepper your page |
| follow these ten rules: | | | | with interesting photos, not just text or a mixture |
| 1. Keep the publication schedule fluid. Send a | | | | of text and clip art. |
| newsletter when you have something to say. | | | | 7. Create a document that is both readable and |
| Don't lock yourself into a monthly or quarterly | | | | appealing. Avoid goofy fonts that call attention to |
| publication schedule and then scrounge to find | | | | themselves or are hard to decipher. Keep your |
| newsworthy material to fill the space. Sometimes | | | | layout clean and neat, with some white space. |
| I mail a newsletter two months in a row; other | | | | Jazz it up with line and color-and those important |
| times I have a gap of three to four months | | | | photographs! |
| between issues. Do you think our readers keep | | | | 8. Copy in color! And on decent paper! The |
| track? I don't. | | | | finished product must look and feel appealing if it |
| 2. Send it by snail mail, not email. An e-newsletter | | | | is going to be read. Find a printer who will provide |
| can (and will) be deleted in one mouse click, | | | | clear, clean copies with good photo resolution and |
| perhaps read first, more likely skimmed, very | | | | color reproduction at an affordable price. You |
| possibly ignored because this is not the right | | | | might consider saving money by printing the front |
| moment to stop and view an e-newsletter. A | | | | in full color and the back in black and white, but |
| paper copy, though, if not read immediately, will | | | | don't cave in to all black-and-white copy. It's just |
| hang around, waiting to be read. You'll see your | | | | too dull. |
| newsletter on a friend or client's desk. | | | | 9. Personalize every copy-by name. I leave a bit |
| Sometimes, during a phone conversation, an | | | | of space (truly just a bit) for a handwritten |
| individual will say, "I've got your newsletter right | | | | message, and every newsletter gets a few |
| here in front of me." The difference in delivery | | | | words from my pen, even if it's as simple as, |
| method represents a huge difference in cost; I | | | | "Just keeping in touch, Chris." If you're not going |
| think it's worth it. | | | | to make it personal, it's not worth the paper and |
| 3. Change your newsletter every time. Tinker | | | | ink you've paid for, and it's surely not worth the |
| with the layout, even just a little, but especially | | | | next and final tip. Read on. |
| change up the content. Again, don't lock yourself | | | | 10. Send it in an envelope-First Class. What |
| into a book review each time or a recipe corner | | | | percentage of the mail you receive these days |
| or "Ten Tips of the Trade," because you might | | | | comes to you in a sealed, First Class envelope? |
| not have anything really powerful to fill that | | | | Not much, if your postal mail is anything like mine |
| particular space next time. Besides, the routine | | | | has become over recent years. And how many |
| gets old-hat after awhile. Present the news of | | | | pieces of First Class mail do you open in a month |
| your business, however it might play out in this | | | | (in a year... in a lifetime!) that have all of these |
| particular issue. Don't worry about standardizing it. | | | | qualities: |
| (Even if you use a template, which I do not, | | | | - Attractive, appealing and readable material |
| change the material substantially.) | | | | - Offering interesting, useful or entertaining reading |
| 4. Make your newsletter a celebration, not a | | | | - Bearing a handwritten message to you, |
| sermon or warning or reference guide. Showcase | | | | personally, from the sender? |
| your customers and clients. Focus the spotlight on | | | | Do you see now why my newsletter is special to |
| members of the constituency that will be reading | | | | the 150 readers who receive it? There's nothing |
| the mailing. In that way you build anticipation: Who | | | | else like it in their pile of mail-ever! Follow my ten |
| will be in the spotlight next time? Might it even be | | | | self-imposed "rules" and you too can send out a |
| me or my business? | | | | newsletter that gets read and even anticipated. |