By
Jeff Rubin
The Newsletter Guy
Guess what's the most frequent question I'm asked about publishing
newsletters? OK. The second most. After people want to know how
much it costs, the question I hear the most is, “what should
I put in my newsletter.”
It's a good question. I know because I see a lot of
bad newsletters that contain information I'm not interested in and
don't pertain to my business.
How do you get the right mix to keep your customers,
potential customers and/or employees reading? Here are some of my
thoughts.
EXTERNAL NEWSLETTERS
These are for your customers and potential customers.
What are they interested in? Do you think they'd like to hear about
who in your company got married, had a baby or celebrated a birthday,
or about how your new product or service can save them time and
money and make their businesses more efficient?
Give your readers useful information:
A few ideas they can implement immediately.
Updates on
trends in your industry which may affect them.
“How
to” information so they can do things themselves (you can't
expect your customers to buy EVERYTHING from you).
General articles
that help them save time and money and make their business and personal
lives more meaningful.
A great way
to honor a customer is to highlight them in your newsletter. This
not only creates good will between you and the customer you're writing
about, but shows others that you value your business relationships.
INTERNAL NEWSLETTERS
What do employees want to know? A survey conducted
by the International Association of Business Communicators yielded
the following results:
Organizational
plans for the future — company goals, expansion, etc.
Job advancement
opportunities.
Job related
“how to” information.
How local,
state, world events or changes in the business climate affect their
job, their company and their customers.
Productivity
improvement.
Human Resources
policies and practices.
Staff changes
and promotions.
Benefits
information.
How we're
doing vs. the competition.
Recognition
of employees for achievements.
Human interest
stories about employees/customers.
Personal
news (birthdays, marriages, anniversaries, births, etc.).
News of what's
going on in departments/divisions.
Financial
results.
How profits
are used.
Advertising
and promotional plans.
Company's
community involvement.
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