A newsletter is one of the most important tools of marketing communication. It is in fact one of the least expensive tools in public relations for attracting customers (existing and new) to your site or business.
In this article I would discuss the challenges and possible perspectives on creating a newsletter. Now, if you are somebody who is planning to start a newsletter, give it a second thought for it cannot be a one-off activity; but a long term activity conducted with method and diligence.
Newsletters are part of marketing and web content strategy. In the former the focus is on keeping your clients informed about your business in a compelling way such that they remained excited about their association with you.
In web content strategy the focus is on writing and posting new content on the web more often. The idea is let search engines find you before they find the competition.
Getting started
The first step after you decided on publishing a newsletter is giving it a name, choosing a format and deciding how frequently you want the newsletter to be published.
Don’t panic, you will not arrive upon the best format and layout in the first go; focus more on bringing it out and getting the content right. Just ensure it keeps evolving with time.
What do you write?
Before you start writing you need to think of your target audience. In most of the cases it is your business partners / customers. The content, therefore, naturally has to be something that grabs his eyeballs; relevant information, facts and figures, future plans, their challenges – your solutions etc.
Also, let your customers know that it is their platform. Encourage them to share and send material for publishing on the same.
Language
I was recently interacting with the head of market development for agro nutrient multinational organisation. His challenge was that his employees and his customers spoke a different language. They outsourced the job but felt somehow that what published wasn’t a true reflection of what is!
I am sure it is true of many other organisations.
Keep, therefore, the language in mind. Let it be what your customer speaks – sophisticated, crude, exact, inexact, terse, long.
The idea is to let him relate to that piece of writing such that he actually looks forward to reading the next issue. In another write I will attempt to give you some tips on making your (e) – newsletter successful.
Hey Yasir,
Could not agree more with the point you shared about looking at newsletter as a long term and continuous.
You also talked about reaching your target audience before your competition does. I digress. The focus should on making your newsletter content and wares stand out – without bothering about who is reaching the customer first.
Liked rest of the post, and love to read more such posts.
Hi Nilofer,
Thanks for liking the article!
I stand for quality content. Read my article on content marketing.
I agree with you but the point I made is about e-newsletters where the focus NOW is on churning out more content, more frequently where quality sometimes takes a beating. It is an industry norm and not necessarily reflective of my opinion.
I value your opinion and am with you. Have posted a new article
Trust you like it!