| 20 May 2009
- No Aim – When you started your company you set specific goals that you wanted to achieve. You should treat the newsletter design process the same. Your newsletter should have attainable, measurable, and specific goals. It’s not enough to say you want to reach more customers or increase sales. You need to outline the ways you expect your newsletter to perform in order to reach those goals.
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Low Budget – One of the most common problems companies run into is not setting an appropriate budget for a newsletter publication. All elements of the newsletter must be considered – from newsletter design to newsletter distribution. You’ve heard the old saying “You have to spend money to make money.” It doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune on your newsletter publication, it just means you have to set priorities when it comes to your budget. Do the important stuff first and limit the rest.
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Don't Be Vain – Being too creative can kill a newsletter. The goal of a newsletter publication is to build a rapport with customers or prospects by informing them of the benefits of a particular product or service. Instead of trying to stand out, make sure your newsletter is full of information that is relevant to your company and important to your readers.
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Avoid Arrogance – Your readers want to read your publication to learn how to run their business better, become professional or learn ways to make their lives better and more meaningful. They buy your product or use your service because it solves a problem for them, not because you have the prettiest newsletter design. Focus your content on ways to solve problems for your readers and they’ll keep coming back for more.
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Don’t Be Lazy - Avoid the mindset of thinking that once your newsletter is published, readers are going to become customers automatically. To remain competitive you must constantly evaluate your customer’s needs and find ways to meet them.
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Don’t Be Neglectful – Newsletters are powerful publications and one of the most cost-effective ways to reach customers and prospects. However, to make them worth more, combine them with sales aids, special reports or other forms of advertising to reach the broadest range of customers.
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Be Faithful – A newsletter is an effective way of keeping your company in the front of your customer’s minds. If your newsletter is only published once a year you will not be able to accomplish this effectively. To fully make an impact, your newsletter should be published, at a minimum, four times a year or quarterly but monthly is ideal.
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Stop Apologizing – If your newsletter has bad news to convey, do it, but don’t let your entire newsletter take on an apologetic tone. A good balance of the bad news and positive articles will help make the newsletter show both sides of a situation.
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Don’t Let Your Ego Get in the Way – Sometimes, particularly if the newsletter is produced in-house, egos become a part of the production. There is no room for the writer to become more important than the content of the newsletter. As the editor of the newsletter, it is your job to edit anything that doesn’t pertain to the article or the content of the newsletter.
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Avoid Monotony – As your newsletter continues to grow, be sure to keep track of the content you publish. While it’s true that your newsletter is used to establish brand recognition, using the same layout issue after issue is boring. It’s ok to change your columns around and add or take away artwork to keep the newsletter design fresh.
Newsletter design and production is a science and if not treated as such, it could cost your company unnecessary grief, not to mention time and money wasted.