Newsletters let you discuss new products in depth. Photo: sxc.hu.

Google recently launched a quarterly e-zine aka online  newsletter. The newsletter covers its consumer and marketing research methods. The fact that a well-known brand created a newsletter to inform readers is proof of the newsletter’s importance.  Online newsletters can inform and entertain customers by turning them into devoted readers. Newsletters communicate more complex ideas than Twitter or other forms of social media, so consider publishing one as part of your corporate communication strategy.  There is no standard format for how often business newsletters should be published or their content, but you can create a great newsletter by writing things your readers are interested in. Start by deciding how often you want to publish. You can start a quarterly newsletter and increase the frequency once you store up enough articles.  Online newsletters can help establish a good reputation for your business and communicate with your readers.

Start writing. Good writing can make the difference between readers throwing out your newsletter or saving it and discussing it with others. Hire a professional writer or writer/editor so the content is polished. You can hire someone with any kind of writing background, but if you are in a technical industry, make sure to hire someone who is used to writing about technical subjects for a broad audience. Find writers through profession organizations like the Editorial Freelancers Association, whose members are dedicated professionals with lots of experience. The EFA site has rates and guidelines on how to work with writers. The greatest advantage of a pro is that they understand how to make your company look good and the basics of publishing. Encourage readers to write to you so their feedback is included in the letters section of the next newsletter. Common articles in newsletters include new product reviews and opinion articles.

Edit the content. Even if you are a skilled writer with enough time to write the content, at least have an editor take a look at your work. It’s incredibly hard to edit yourself and editors can do a good job quickly. Make sure there are no grammatical mistakes and that the content is accurate.  Images should be clear and relevant to the newsletter. The images should be 300 dpi (dots per inch) or smaller so they download quickly when readers open the newsletter. Editing will make the newsletter look more professional. Make sure hyperlinks to other sites work.

Save the newsletter in a format that will be easy to read. You can save the document in a common format such as a PDF or Microsoft Word document. You can also write the newsletter into the body of an email using HTML, but this may limit the kind of formatting you can do. Beware of formatting errors when copying and pasting the newsletter in the body of the email since emails tend to change the layout once it’s delivered to recipients. The changes are due to HTML formatting. If you insist on this method, you must use someone who knows HTML and CSS so that the newsletter format is consistent or create the newsletter in a template like Constant Contact. Otherwise, just stick to creating the newsletter as a separate document.

Send the newsletter. Double-check that the right email addresses will receive the newsletter. If the newsletter is in PDF or Word format, attach it to an email and send the email to subscribers. Include an option for recipients to stop receiving newsletters by adding an unsubscribe or removal link at the end of the email.

If you’ve mastered Twitter and other social media, it may seem odd to add a traditional form of media to your communication strategy. The key to well-rounded communication with your audience is offering social media that is easy or quick to read, along with something with more substance, i.e. the newsletter. Newsletters are the best way to give readers in-depth information on topics that are important to your business.

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