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Newsletters that Work

Offer a newsletter in a time frame that will be easy for you to manage.

Although doing a newsletter is a great idea, do not be too quick to jump on the bandwagon. Almost everyone is doing it but not all are doing it well. The newsletter with the greatest frequency can get quite annoying for the recipients unless it is packed full of useful information. Only those that have the relationship with your company will continue to subscribe.

Even though you may have great information to give away, you must also consider the time it takes to put a good newsletter together. If you are doing a daily, you will need to spend at least 3 hours putting it together and another few hours editing, polishing, and answering queries. If on the other hand you decide weekly is good, then you will still need to spend that 3 hours, but this time it will be once a week. You also need to determine what day of the week the newsletter will be distributed. You may want to do some research to find out when is the best time to deliver. Some times are better for getting read than others.

If you do a monthly, you are more like an e-zine. You will be expected to have more than just a few great articles; you will need to add graphics and other images to enhance what you have to say. You will also need to research the background of submissions from other people. It is sometimes easier to ask for submissions but you do have to make sure the articles fit with your business principles. A monthly can often take more work than anticipated; you will likely want to have everything in hand to publish at least three months in advance.

Doing a newsletter requires a commitment of time and also effort. If you promise to deliver at a certain time each day or week or month, then you will need to deliver on time. If you do not, your credibility will be jeopardized. A way around this might be to produce white papers.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people's attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the "Networking Queen". Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2005. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com