Business Communication
Newsletters are an excellent form of communication at any time but it is in business
newsletters that they really shine. Big business, small business, non-profit business and
the self-employed, all could improve their communications by running one or several business
newsletters. There are so many options too. Promotional newsletters, employee newsletters,
customer newsletters... the list of possibilities is practically endless.
Weighing Up The Pros And Cons
To get to the point where an owner or manager decides on a certain course of action to
promote her business, it is first necessary to ascertain the pros and cons involved. So what
needs to be taken into account when evaluating business newsletters (or business ezines) as
a promotional activity? After all, it's not an enterprise to be embarked upon lightly. In
order to produce a newsletter that will sustain a reasonable level of readership, a lot of
work is likely to be involved in the planning stage as well as on an ongoing basis. On the
other hand, the potential rewards are considerable; often far outweighing the effort and
costs involved.
Primary Considerations
Newsletters really come into their own as tools for communicating with members of a
group. In the case of business newsletters the group concerned is invariably made up of
customers, potential customers and prospects. The sorts of questions that need to be asked,
therefore, are:
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Who are the members of the group (defined by age, gender, income level, religion or
any other parameters)?
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What main interest do they have in common?
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What are their secondary, or peripheral, interests?
Objectives
Define the aim of the newsletter. Is it mainly to disseminate information or to generate
an atmosphere of goodwill and a favorable trading environment (bearing in mind that any good
business newsletter will have these objectives to a lesser or greater degree)? If the aim is
to sell something, in the direct sense, then a newsletter is the wrong vehicle to choose.
Disguising a brochure or catalog as a newsletter not only doesn't work, it is usually
counterproductive.
How the company or organization is perceived by the readership, and what the preferred
perception is, would also be taken into account when defining the objective.
Planning
Regularity of production is a vital component of successful newsletter marketing. How
often it should be produced though, depends on the particular field of endeavor, as well as
on other variables such as seasonal considerations, cost etc. As regards content, sourcing
suitable material needs to be undertaken in advance and the means of copy preparation
decided on (eg is the business owner going to write all, some, or none of the copy?). It
would be usual also to draw up a suitable schedule or calendar of features for inclusion at
this stage.
Budgeting
How it is to be formatted and printed, the proportion of illustrations to text, how many
colors used, how it is to be distributed, anticipated circulation figures, how many pages
long it will be, and many other factors need to be taken into account in order to determine
the costs involved.
Evaluation
Evaluating the viability of using newsletters to promote a particular business will help
to determine whether it's a course worth pursuing. For most businesses, it usually proves a
very attractive means indeed of getting across a positive message about a company and its
dealings. However, evaluation is an ongoing thing. There should always be ways of measuring
readership responses over and above the circulation numbers. One of the most effective ways
is by interactive features such as a 'letters to the editor' section or simple competitions
and quizzes etc. It is by these means that an owner or manager can monitor the effectiveness
of the newsletter's penetration into the minds of its readers - and therefore its
penetration into the market.
© 2000 Mike Alexander (Revised 2003)
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Mike Alexander is the creator and owner of '101 Newsletter Answers', the 'How-To'
place where the focus is on 'Power Communicating' with newsletters. http://www.101newsletteranswers.com
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