Elements of a successful newsletter: 1 - The Reader

This is the first in a serious of posts about the elements of a successful newsletter.

1. The Reader.

Probably the most common mistake novice company newsletter publishers make is this: writing about the wrong person.

What do I mean by that? Simply, that it's not enough (and it's not effective) to write about you, your company and your product or service. The fact is this: while you are no doubt incredibly interesting to you, unfortunately, no one else will share your interest.

Instead, they'll just say "so what?"

So while you'll want to include information about who you are and what you do in some way, the bulk of the newsletter should be about topics that will interest the reader.

This doesn't mean you have to steer away completely from writing about your product or service. But instead of writing about the features of what you offer (saying, basically, how great you are) write about how your product or service will benefit the reader of the newsletter.

Here's how to do it.

Imagine, for example, you run a dance school. You might be tempted to write about your qualifications, the capacity of your studio and how many years you have been in business.

They're all important facts. But what readers really want to know is things such as:

• the health benefits of  dance lessons (and how going to a class regularly with you will help them)
• how to exercise safely (and how you always warm up in a class to avoid injuries)
• success stories that they can emulate (how one of your former students is now in a professional company)

You see, each of these articles is about something that is likely to interest your reader. But you also get to promote your services at the same time.

There are several benefits to doing it this way:

1) You interest the reader right away, making it more likely they will read the story
2) Your article won't seem like an ad and it won't seem like you are bragging
3) You offer a real, genuine benefit to using your service, and back that up by proof that you deliver what you promise
4) You demonstrate your expertise in a non-threatening and no-pressure way, building credibility as a provider of that service rather than just a vendor of that service

Follow these guidelines and you'll create a newsletter that people want to read - and that will make it more effective overall.

(Photo on this post by asifthebes)

Comments

[Kiss3]

It does work the way you descibe it. We send out a monthly newsletter (Wood You Like, Natural Wooden Flooring) to existing customers and prospects - don't forget to put them on your list! - , normally 4 to 5 topics per newsletter.
Last one send out yesterday, 10 minutes later followed by an email from a happy customer: one of the tips we gave in the letter came just on time for him.
Makes you proud ;-)

[simon]

Thanks, Kiss3. Glad newsletters are working for you. Sounds like you send out an email newlsetter, right (rather than print)?