Guest Author - Pamela Blackmon

So you’ve been asked to do a newsletter, an exciting but perhaps scary proposition, particularly if you have no clue where to begin. Start with the knowledge that, regardless of your skill or experience, you can produce a high quality newsletter that meets your goals and objectives. Then, answer the following three questions and you’ll be on your way.


Who Is Your Target Audience?

Remember the line from Kevin Costner’s “Field Of Dreams” which says “If you build it, he will come”? “He” was Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of eight Chicago White Sox players banned from baseball for throwing the 1919 World Series. Ray Kinsella (Costner’s character) knew who his target audience was.

Defining your audience helps you decide the content, frequency and even length of your newsletter. If you’re marketing to retired senior citizens with more time and money to read and spend, you may be able to write a longer publication. If it’s small business owners with limited time, quick blurbs about maximizing time and money may be the key. Hobby enthusiasts welcome more extensive stories about their favorite hobby, particularly if it’s a “how-to” that helps them learn or improve a new or existing skill.


What Does Your Target Audience Need (and Want) To Know?

If your newsletter is client-based, offer them information about new and existing product and service lines, discounts and sales promotions and even suggestions on how to best use or maintain equipment they’ve purchased from your company.

Employee publications, on the other hand, are a great way to keep up with the major events of your co-worker’s lives (births, weddings, graduations) as well as publicize company events and policies.

What Type Of Format Will You Use: Electronic or Hard Copy?

Remember the days of snail mail newsletters? Companies shelled out big bucks to write, design, print and mail their publications hoping for a decent return on their investment through increased sales and exposure. The advent of the Internet, of course, now means that newsletter distribution is as quick and easy as clicking a button which sends your words barreling into cyberspace to be potentially read by hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

For most people, it’s a no-brainer: an electronic format saves time and money. However, not every audience benefits from online newsletters. Snail mailing your newsletter to clients seeking high-end products and services may be worth the expense of hard copy newsletters, particularly if it’s well written and designed.

The goal of your newsletter as well as the target audience is key to helping you choose your format.

Starting and maintaining a newsletter can be a daunting task but it is doable.
All you need is a little inspiration, perhaps some training and a few more basics like the ones above and you’ll be on the road to success.