Marketing Best Practices

A Winning Recipe Seven Ingredients for an Effective Marketing Newsletter

By Dale W. Hutchings

A newsletter can be one of the most powerful tools you can use to market your product or service. But it has to be done right. How? By following a tried-and-proven recipe for success. Here are seven ingredients every newsletter should have to give you the biggest bang for your buck in promoting your business:

1. A Distinctive Name. There is probably nothing wrong with calling your newsletter simply, “The XYZ Company Newsletter,” but it’s about as exciting as watching wet paint dry. At the same time, unless your company’s name clearly explains who you are, potential readers won’t have the foggiest idea what your publication is all about, unless they take the time to read further. Therefore, give your newsletter a title that conveys for the reader the benefits he or she will receive from reading it. For example, isn’t “Your Family Law Consultant” a far more meaningful name for a law firm’s newsletter than “The Family Law Firm of Smith & Jones Newsletter”?

2. Headlines That Are Reader-Friendly. Headlines should be short, concise and to the point. Use white space to make your headlines more effective and easier to read. White space will act like a magnet, drawing a reader’s eyes to your headlines. White space above headlines will also help to make your publication more reader-friendly, separating articles from one another.

3. Frequent Use Of Sub-Heads. Articles should be as short, as possible, but there may be circumstances where you really need to say more to make your point. Longer articles can easily be made more reader-friendly by using frequent sub-heads. Sub-heads are an excellent way to get the reader to “read-on.” It provides the reader with an understanding of where you are going next with your section.

4. Body Copy That Is Easy To Read. You would think this would be obvious, but too often businesses use the wrong font for their newsletters. Try to stick to familiar serif fonts. Many studies have shown that serif fonts (such as Garamond, Times Roman or Palatino) are easier to read than san serif fonts (such as Arial, Helvetica or Verdana). That’s because experts say that serifs guide the reader’s eyes along from letter to letter.

5. Images! Images! Images! I have repeated this word for a very good reason. Too often I see newsletters that are 90% text, and 10% art. Would you want to read a newspaper that was strictly text with no images? Would you buy a magazine that was 100% copy and no art? Then why would you want to publish a newsletter that is heavy in text and has little or no art? Strive for an image to compliment every major article in your newsletter. If you plan to have regular columns with each issue, then develop some kind of art to go with these columns (e.g., headshot of person writing the column, an artistic-looking header, such as “News Briefs” in some kind of easy-to-read, yet distinctive type, etc.) Whether it’s actual pictures, line art, or a combination of both, it doesn’t matter. Just keep in mind: images, images, images. It will greatly increase readership potential.

6. Content People Are Definitely Interested In Reading. Keep your “sales copy” – how great our company is, specials, coupons, etc. to a bare minimum. Concentrate instead on such subjects as:

• Industry news, trends and insight about your field. Short articles on these subjects will help to build credibility for your business -- a reliable new source for what’s happening in your industry.

• Success stories/case studies. Make these kinds of articles highly personal. Describe for your readers what the problem was that the client or customer was facing and how your business’s product or service was the solution. In doing so, try to provide snippets of helpful information/advice (how-to procedures, reference resources for finding out more on this subject, etc.) that readers can use in dealing with their own challenges.

• New products or services. Try to write articles on these subjects without taking a hard-sell approach. Inform readers of the advantages of your new product or service over the competition. Tell them the history behind getting this product or service to the marketplace – how much R&D was involved and what the reason was for developing this product or service.

• Surveys/studies. People are always interested in the results of surveys and studies that have been done about various professions or industries. Do a little digging and publish interesting results from various studies done in your field.

7. Consider Making A Certain Portion Of Your Newsletter Fun. This approach will not work for all businesses, but for many, injecting some humor in one form or another can do wonders in enhancing readership. Tastefully done cartoons, trivia contests or humorous historical facts about your industry can add just the right spice to make your newsletter unique.

Okay, now that I have given you the ingredients to creating a successful newsletter, start cookin’. Potential newsletter readers are waiting to hear you! Just use this recipe and you won’t disappoint them.

Dale W. Hutchings, APR, who specializes in “out of the box” marketing, has more than 30 years of Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising experience and has had his own practice since 2001.  Dale can be reached at hutch7@verizon.net

Article Published September 2007, Bay Area Business Magazine

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