Printed Newsletters—
Tangible reminders with High Pass-along Value

Strategy

Printed newsletters keep your customers informed while soft-selling your brand. Content-rich, well executed newsletters, especially those that include customer success stories, have 4X the readership and a greater perception of credibility than traditional ads. This Play provides a framework for making newsletters a valuable weapon in your marketing arsenal.

Assignments

Successful newsletters share twelve common traits, each of which are the Marketing Team’s responsibility:

1. Develop an editorial calendar—Establish the main topics well ahead of time (e.g., six months) and work to identify content providers and subject-matter experts before you need them.
2. Success breeds success—Success stories work well; include customer quotes and customer-provided ROI.
3. Attention-grabbing newsletter name—Draw readers in. Instead of “Bakery News” try “What’s Cooking.”
4. Objective writing style—Let your writing style be more newspaper-like. It’s not a sales brochure.
5. Write to express, not to impress—Keep the big words in the office.
6. Proofread, proofread, proofread—Read your copy backwards for a final clean-up.
7. Use front-page articles to draw in readers—Follow the lead of USA Today. Also keep in mind articles that are important to your company aren’t necessarily important to the average consumer.
8. Use at least one graphic per page—Graphics (and headlines) are the first things that readers’ eyes are drawn to when they turn to a new page. They provide much-needed visual breaks from solid blocks of text.
9. Sharpen your photos—Adjust the color and brightness levels.
10. Have a professional graphic designer do the layout—Use eye-catching accent colors and tints.
11. Have them professionally printed.
12. Use recycled paper—Look for 10­–50 percent post-consumer fiber.

Achieving success requires commitment to deadlines and follow-through by your staff and clients. Make sure they understand the importance of returning phone calls from writers and are willing to get client story approvals.

Coaching Points

• Unless you have the staff and the internal commitment, writing and publishing your customer newsletter should be done by an independent third-party like CompanyNewsletters.com Inc. They’ll keep you on-schedule and on-budget since producing company newsletters is all they do.
• Find places and opportunities to give your newsletters away.
• Post newsletters to your web site.
• Consider offering free ad space to your clients in exchange for space in theirs.
• Consider designing the newsletter to be a self-mailer so it can be sent without an envelope.
• Don’t expect your Sales Team to drive the content and schedule for your newsletter. You’ll be wasting valuable selling time which is something that affects everyone in your company.

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