Front Page News
Be prepared: Prospective readers will judge your newsletter by its cover. If the front page doesn't contain interesting, useful articles, most people will glance at it, consider it to be junk mail and throw it away. Cutting corners on stories may help you meet your deadline, but it won't help your readership base. Take the time to develop interesting stories and your readership will increase.
Colorful Company Newsletters
Your newsletter will be competing with colorful magazines, newspapers and other high-budget publications for your readers' time. A splash of color on your pages will make your newsletter much more visible to prospective readers. Use vibrant colors that are appropriate to your readership. If your company has a palette of colors that support its branding, use those.
The Professionalism of Your Company Newsletter
Company email newsletters represent the professionalism of your company to prospective customers and/or employees, depending on who receives the mailing. It should look impressive, has polished writing, and before of typos and grammatical errors. Proofreading, revising and rewriting are absolutely necessary to ensure a polished product.
Logos & You
Your company logo is a great graphic for your newsletter. Just make sure of a few things before you attach it to your document. The logo should be clear. Any lettering should be easy to read right away. Resizing your logo may be necessary in order to achieve this. When resizing, be sure the integrity of the graphic is in tact. no pixilation or blurring should occur.
Internal vs. External Company Newsletters
Who will receive your company newsletter? If your newsletter is internal, you're in luck. The only mailing list you need is the list of addresses in your company email. External company newsletters (like customer email newsletters) can be more difficult to obtain addresses for. You will need to develop a mailing list by advertising and/or having prospective subscribers contact you with their email addresses.
Morale Boosters
One of the best ways to boost company morale and retain readership in your company newsletter is to mention names! People love to read their own names in any publication - even if it?s the first time they?ve been listed in the telephone book! Some of the ways you can do this are by including features like "Employee ("anything") of the Month," recognition of special honors and awards both inside and outside of your organization, and the introduction of new employees, members, etc.
Timing is Everything
Choose a day of the week to send your newsletter when your subscribes are most likely to read it. For example, Monday is an opportune day for internal newsletters. Employees are fresh off the weekend and ready to start the new work week. It's a great time to fill them in on company news and gear them up for the next five days.
The Tone of Your Company Newsletter
Although a company email newsletter can be an excellent way to promote your company's products and services, make sure it does not read like a sales brochure. A newsletter should be a "soft" sell and provide useful information to readers, much the way a newspaper does. A newsletter that's full of propaganda will quickly be tossed by potential readers.
Using Graphics in Your Company Newsletter
Graphics within a story are important because they provide visual breaks from solid blocks of text. If your newsletter offers nothing but row after row of endless text, your reader will be bored. Strategically placed graphics that break up the text into smaller, less-imposing portions will attract more readers.