How to create a great company newsletter

Company newsletters are a good way to stay in touch with existing and prospective clients, but how can you be sure yours is a must-read, and not another candidate for the recycle bin?

Relevance
Your content must be important to the reader. You need to understand your audience so that you can touch on what matters to them and offer helpful insight on issues, events and information. If you offer readers information that helps them understand something, answers key questions or shows them how to succeed, then they will take the time to read it.

Visually appealing
Powerful headings, eye-grabbing images and strong opening lines are important for pulling in readers, because some people may only browse through the newsletter. Good headings create curiosity and interest, but keep them short and impactful. Images can tell a story or highlight something which would otherwise be hard to explain in words, so use the best you can get your hands on.

Format
Try not to be too text heavy. Use lists, rather than chunky paragraphs, so that topics can be quickly glanced through. Emphasise the main story or highlights with vibrant colours and fonts, while creating a consistent tone throughout for cohesiveness and good flow. Edit your copy for grammatical mistakes, typos and clear messaging.

Important details, such as email addresses, phone numbers and other contact details, should be easy to locate in case readers want to follow up on some aspect of your business.

Frequency
Depending on your business size and how much fresh content you generate, newsletters can be distributed on a weekly or monthly basis. Don’t distribute newsletters just for the sake of ticking a box. If you’re in a fast-moving industry, then frequency is good, but if your business has longer cycles for generating information, you can space out the frequency of your communication and reserve it for when you are sharing important news.

Don’t use the newsletter as a soap box. Updates, if relevant and helpful, are great, but selling your company incessantly can be annoying. Balance out your content between being informative, interesting and selling your product and service in an inventive and fresh way.

Puseletso Mompei is a Communications Consultant and Trainer. She offers Communications and Media training for corporate executives, spokespersons, managers, entrepreneurs, government officials, diplomats, academia and public relations officers. Contact her at puseletso@kwazicommunications.co.za, or visit: www.kwazicommunications.co.za for more information.