12th Nov 2007
Newsletters: 4 mistakes many people make
Are you losing customers without knowing why? According to research carried out by TARP 68% of customers stop doing business because of perceived indifference, often because of lack of communication.
Printed newsletters are an ideal way of keeping communication channels open with your customers and prospects. Keep your customer up to date with information about your products or services plus little gems of insights that will help him and anything happening in your company and you make him feel he is important to you and you are interested in him.
BUT - be careful not to fall into the ‘newsletter trap’. Make your print newsletter effective by avoiding the 9 biggest mistakes people make (as described in my book); here are 4 of them:
Mistake 1: Boring Headlines
Use descriptive headlines to attract your reader’s interest. Give the promise of something worth reading. You can turn a boring headline into something more appealing by simply expanding it, as in these examples:
Boring Headline: New XL987 Widget
Interesting Headline: New XL987 Widget Increases Production by 30%
Boring Headline: New Website Launched
Interesting Headline: Download Free Report from Newly Launched Website
Boring Headline: Message from the Managing Director
Interesting Headline: Managing Director Announces New Process Cuts Delivery Times in Half
Use attention-grabbing words to give your Newsletter headline more impact, such as ‘new’; ‘announcing’ and, where possible, be specific. It’s no different to creating headlines for your sales letter. Boring headlines are not going to keep his attention.
Mistake 2: Headlines Are The Same Size
Glance through any newspaper and you see the headlines are different sizes. It makes the paper more attractive to look at and guides the reader to more important articles.
Design your newsletter to do the same. Generate more interest in your main stories with larger headlines and use smaller headlines in those that are less significant.
Mistake 3: Woolly Opening Sentences
Keep your reader’s attention with your opening sentence. Keep it specific and relevant to your headline.
Once your reader has been caught by the headline, don’t disappoint him with a boring statement; it discourages him from finishing the article.
For example if you are writing the article for an in-house company newsletter for the XL987 widget headline an uninteresting start might be:
The new XL987 widget was launched at the company AGM on July 18th in London.
Your reader doesn’t care when or where the new product was launched - the sentence offers nothing of real interest at all – it’s likely to elicit the question “So what?”. Whereas this one clearly states something more remarkable:
“As well as increasing production by 30%, the new XL987 widget will cut costs by 10% and is likely to add £1,747,000 to the company turnover,” claimed Managing Director, Charles Forthwith, at the AGM.
Newspaper reporters know they must get the most important information over first to encourage readers to finish the article. You need to do the same.
Mistake 4: Too Many Font Styles
Resist the temptation to ‘pretty up’ your newsletter with a myriad of font styles and colours. It makes your newsletter too busy and difficult for people to read. It also looks very amateurish.
Choose a maximum of 2 fonts - 1 for headlines and 1 for the main body of the text. You can change the size of the headline font to create variety - as previously mentioned.
Do not change the font size for the articles. Write enough text to fill the space you have. Don’t increase the size to fit a gap or reduce the size to fit more in. It looks inconsistent and unattractive.
The bottom line is whatever you use to communicate with your customers and prospects keep it interesting for your reader; think ‘What’s in it for them?’ why should they spend their valuable time reading it?
~ Carol Bentley
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