Developing Ideas
Coming up with ideas for your newsletter content can sometimes tax even the most creative
among us. If you are like me, you have times when new ideas just seem to pop into your head
unasked but, frustratingly, other times when you can rack your brains for hours and still
not come up with anything very inspiring. What's even more frustrating is that those times
when your creative neurons are working best is often the most awkward for recording ideas—with
the result that most are forgotten. This article, then, is written in the hope that it will
lead you down a few new avenues for developing ideas and give you one or two creative
prompts along the way.
The Common Interest
The first thing you need to consider is who your readers are. Once you have a picture of
them firmly in your mind, the next step is easy—just step into their shoes. Then ask
yourself what you would want to read about if you were one of them. Are they members
of an organization such as a club? Or does the newsletter go to supporters of an
organization, such as donors to a charity? What is the link (or links) that bind them; the
thing that they all have in common? One of the secrets to producing a newsletter that people
want to read is broad coverage of the things that most interest them, including those
outside the narrow focus of the obvious.
Of course parents expect to read about school activities in the newsletter that carries
the school's logo and motto so prominently on its front page. But, because they're parents,
they are also interested in all those other topics that parents in general are interested
in: education trends, child psychology as it relates to children of similar ages to their
own, holiday activities, nutritious versus junk food, children's entertainment etc.
It may be feasible to broaden the scope of your contents even more. Using the school
newsletter again as an example, parents might very often all belong to a similar social
group and have a common ideological viewpoint. This could lead to even more suitable
material for inclusion.
Stepping outside the boundaries like this can be very fruitful in helping to spice up an
otherwise stodgy newsletter. Be aware that it has its dangers, though. It is possible
sometimes to stray into areas so far off topic that you start to lose readers instead of
stimulate them. Equally easily, it is possible to unwittingly get involved in issues of
controversy that you might otherwise have preferred to avoid.
Standard Topics For Inclusion
Most non-profit organization newsletters would probably have some or all the following
information:
- The newsletter's contact information, format details, deadlines etc (usually all
included in the masthead)
- The organization's contact information, after-hours numbers etc
- Key staff details and contact information
- Committee members and other volunteers, their responsibilities, contact details etc.
- Financial updates, Treasurer's report etc
- Statement from the Secretary, membership report etc
News And information
The sort of news they would want in their newsletter might include:
- The organization's coming events and activities, perhaps using an event calendar
- Updates and progress reports about planned and mooted projects
- Articles, together with pictures, covering recent events
- Reminders about membership benefits, discounts available and so on
- Recaps and analyses of past events, comparisons to current ones etc
- Requests for volunteers, subscriptions, donations, membership renewals etc
- Stories, including pictures, about individual members, staff, volunteers, donors,
people helped by the organization, local and visiting celebrities linked to the
principal organization, corporate sponsors...
'How-To' Articles And Features
Additional material that could be appropriate for many newsletters might include:
- Health, safety, fitness and weight-loss
- Home and garden improvement
- Recreation, sport and relaxation
- Travel and automobiles
- And many more...
Balancing Material
Last, but by no means least, nearly all newsletters would be better 'balanced' by use of
some of the following:
- Jokes, ditties, funny stories and other humorous text
- Cartoons, comic strips, caricatures and other graphical humor
- Amazing statistics and little-known facts
- Quotations, proverbs, and other 'pearls of wisdom'
- Word games, puzzles and quizzes
- And much more...
Include a liberal amount of the above types of material into your not-for-profit
organization's newsletter and readers will actually look forward to each edition.
Layout
One last word on layout, though. Don't clutter your pages with masses of tiny typefaces
so that it looks as if you only just managed to squeeze it all in. White space can be
valuable and, if used wisely, can give your publication a clean and orderly appearance.
Illustrations are also important. For example, if you include statistical information of
some sort, use a spreadsheet program to present the information in the form of a chart.
© 1999 Mike Alexander (Revised 2003)
(The next article in this series covers content for 'for profit' newsletters.)
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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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