Design a Customer Newsletter
that Gets and Keeps Attention
A customer newsletter is an excellent way to establish and grow your relationship with clients. Because people typically see newsletters as an information source, not just an advertisement, they're more likely to read them. That's why it's your job to make sure yours
is informative, educational and even entertaining.
Plan Your First Customer Newsletter
Before you send your first issue, think about what you want to accomplish. Answer these questions:
- What's my primary purpose? To keep my company name in front of customers? To tell them about new products? Remind them about existing products? Entertain? Educate? All of the above?
- Who is my target audience? What message do I want to convey to them? What categories of information would interest them?
- What is my budget?
- Do I want to write all of my own material or use other resources? Should I run a regular feature or column?
- How often will I publish -- bi-weekly? monthly? quarterly?
- Do I want a print or electronic format or both? (To find out more about electronic newsletters, visit the
e-newsletter
page.)
- What will I name my customer newsletter?
Design Your Newsletter
The design of your customer newsletter should reflect the personality and image of your company. If you have a consistent look with other marketing materials, make sure to continue this branding.
Get design ideas by looking at other newsletters. Look at sizes, color, nameplate (the section carrying the title) and content. Look at templates at
Xerox Small Business Resources,
HP
or
Microsoft Office Online.
Once you have ideas, approach designing in one of several ways.
- Use a template. Find one you like online or pay someone with graphic design skills to create one. Either way, save the basic template to your computer, so you can build each issue with it.
- If you don't feel comfortable doing your own designing each time, you can hire a
freelance designer.
Also, if you use a commercial printer, you might pay a designer there to create your customer newsletter. Even if you hire someone to design, I suggest that you still write your own content, if possible.
- Once you have a template, choose your method of printing. If you print a small quantity, use your computer printer. For larger quantities, bid the job out to commercial printers to get the best price. Take a look at the
HP Print Calculator
to help you decide the most cost-effective approach.
- If you'll be using a commercial printer, talk to several while you're still in the designing phase. They can direct you on color choices and how it will affect your printing costs.
- Incorporate your logo on the front and back of your customer newsletter. Always include your contact information, location addresses, phone number, web site url and email in each issue.
Write Your Content
- Make sure your newsletter content is written for your target audience. If you're writing for very different age groups, you probably need a different newsletter for each group. The design and content of each one would vary to appeal to a particular age group.
- Write in a conversational tone. Your customer newsletter should be informal and without hype. The person reading it should feel as if it's a letter from a friend.
- Strike a balance between promotional articles for your business and "other" articles. Promotional articles inform customers of an upcoming sale or new or existing products. Make sure promotional articles focus on "you" not on "us." Make certain the article focuses on the benefit to the customer.
- "Other" articles could be consumer education articles that pertain to your business. "How to" or "technical advice" articles related to your area of expertise. Question and answer columns. Helpful tips. These "other" articles aren't just fillers. Select interesting articles your readers look forward to reading.
- If you're in search of content, look at some of the sites that provide free content. Look at
Marketing-seek.com,
Authorconnection.com
and Web-source.net.
- Involve readers when possible. Include a clip and return survey and print the results. Run a calendar of events that community groups can submit information to. Run coupons for your products or for non-competing businesses. If you strike a deal to run another company's coupon, make sure they'll do the same for you.
Some Final Newsletter Tips
- Don't be overly ambitious when deciding how often to publish. Creating a customer newsletter takes more time than many people think. Print often enough to ensure information is timely; allow enough time between issues to create a truly impressive newsletter.
- Before printing or distributing, always have at least two other people proofread. It's very easy for a newsletter editor to overlook typos or unclear wording. (Since the editor wrote it, it seems clear to him or her!) Yes, I'm saying it again. Your customer newsletter is a reflection on your company and the way you do business. It should represent you well.
