Reduce Stress, Get Great Content & Get it Read

Welcome to the 'Bermuda Triangle' of the year. It's that time of year when all the holidays sneak up and attack you and your life disappears! It's a great time to work out the kinks in your newsletter projects though. If you caught the last issue of Newsletter Resources, you've got your newsletter redesigned and looking great. Now all you need is some great content.

Form it up:
If you're working with a group of contributors to supply you with copy for each issue, it can be a real pain getting people to respect your deadlines and get their stories to you on time. Contributors usually have good intentions when they agree to supply content. The problem tends to be in time management. You can make their job easier - and reduce your stress level - by switching your strategy. Create a simple form that's easy to fill out to get all the facts that you need. Have a place for their contact info (phone and email); the article type (general info, customer/employee profile; new product; coming event; etc.); why this info is important; who is involved; quotes (including the person quoted with their contact info); what's next or what you want readers to do; and a list of other potential contacts.

This form will make collecting information for your newsletter much less frightening to your contributors. Have them fill it out and return it to you - since it's so easy to fill out the form, they can return it to you the same day in most cases! You simply flesh out the article and return it to them to approve. Offer to give them the byline when they approve the story. People love to get credit, so they'll be more likely to contribute again in the future.

This idea also helps to generate new story ideas. Create a form for your readers asking what they'd like to read, what they need to know, or what's bothering them. With this input, your newsletter will be tailor made to you audience. Readers tend to stay tuned when they feel that they're being listened to and their input is valued.

Give people some time to get used to your system. Once they become accustomed to your process of dealing with contributions, they'll join in. But it does take a few issues, so don't abandon your system after the first issue. Make readers aware that you're open to their contributions.

Now let's get it read!
There is so much information coming at us in today's society that it can be a real challenge just to get your readers' attention. Making your newsletter as eye-catching as possible will help to get it picked up, but what next? Readers automatically scan for information that's relevant to them. So place your information with that in mind.

Place the most important info where it's going to get read:
Headlines: People read headlines first. A good, grabbing headline is long (lots of info), informative and action packed, plus it's easy to read. (like: "Long, Action-Packed Headlines Double Newsletter Readership.")

Subheads: Keep this fairly short - one or two sentences - to give a little more information and draw your reader closer to the actual article copy.

Photos and captions: Be sure that your photos show action and, when possible, have plenty of eye contact. Craft your captions to tell some of the story - not just identify the people in the picture. For some tips on getting a good newsletter photo, check out September's Newsletter Resource article.

Lead-ins: (those first few bold words that drew you into this sentence) give the scanner an anchor point to jump into an article when they see something that interests them.

Body copy: Unfortunately, only about 5% of your readers will get here - and it tends to contain about 95% of the persuasive content! Be sure that it's easy to read. Keep your font simple and straight forward. Also, keep your sentences short and relevant. Don't try to puff up the content with long-winded words. That won't make the content sound more important and you'll just scare off those that are reading it.

Respect your readers and they'll stick with you
Remember that your readers have a lot of demands on their time and attention. Give them relevant information in a format that's easy to scan and digest. If you're using your newsletter to boost sales, be sure that you're providing at least 80% non-sales content first. The sales info should come last - almost as an afterthought. You know how you feel about people who only contact you when they want something - don't do that to your readers. That's what building relationships is all about.