How To Publish A Killer Newsletter
By Steven W Johnson
There are many ways to improve the value and effectiveness of your newsletter. The following is a list I compiled (in no particular order) that should set you on the straight and narrow:
Make A Table Of Contents - Tell them where you're going, then give them the good stuff, then remind them where they have been.
Keep your writing concise. Think Occam's Razor (essentially less is more) People lead busy lives. Don't waste their time! Get straight to the point. Be brief, but cram lots of useful information in as few words as possible.
Use Bullet Points. Few tactics are more effective than bullet points. These stand in stark opposition to lengthy pieces of flowery prose. They are in-your-face, on point, and highly consumable. Use them.
Use Subheads. And BOLD them. Subheads steer the scanning visitor towards the material better than almost any other tactic. If the Subheading is written effectively, and there is a match between the content it contains, and the reader's needs, it's a done deal. They'll read it.
Tell a story. People love stories. They elicit emotions. They remind them of people, and events they have experienced themselves. A great story that illustrates a point or strategy will be more effective and carry more long-term weight than any other method of teaching. And after all, in most cases, marketing is about educating people. About a product. About an idea. About a tactic. It's showing the way.
Vary your sentence length. It amazes me how rarely this strategy is followed. Be different! If you think about your writing in terms of sentence length, and begin to develop the habit of injecting short bursts of words when they are more powerful than droning on and on some more, you will be rewarded with delighted readers. You'll be praised. They'll think you're the new Hemingway! Ok, maybe not Hemingway. But you get the idea!
Use Humor! An all-important, and often elusive technique, but one which wields extraordinary power. Life is far too serious. Make it fun! Humor breaks things up, especially highly technical stuff that nobody wants to struggle with anyway. You set yourself apart from the crowd if you can cobble together even the MINUTEST amount of humorous material. Borrow it. Steal the idea and re-write it! Don't plagiarize people. But, make it your mantra to think with your tongue in your cheek - at least some of the time.
Avoid the "Promo Whore" syndrome. You know the type I'm referring to. Every day (or even every 6 hours), they offer the best deal since sliced bread was invented. It's enough to make you nauseous. Don't do it! Give your members worthwhile tips and links to free resources that will leave them begging for your next issue. When the time comes, and ideally with your own product, they'll become paying customers. Don't expend your political capital on your mailing list on a daily basis. It will come back to haunt you.
Get an editor. This may require that YOU are the editor - an extremely tough situation. Even the best authors have editors. If you don't have a friend or family member who can preview your newsletter, you'll have to do everything you can to don your "editor" hat after you are done. Read every word. Use a spelling checker AND a grammar checker. And resolve to get an editor at your earliest convenience.
Ask for feedback. If your newsletter is all one-way: You dictating to them. You on your soapbox and your readers having to listen all the time, you will lose effectiveness. Get them involved! Do a survey. Take a poll. Start an interactive contest. Weave them into the fabric of your online business and you will have more participation, more click-throughs on links you supply and more responsiveness to everything you offer.
Your newsletter can stand out from the crowd and retain it's readership while earning you a comfortable income. Just follow the above tactics and you will be well on your way to owning a powerful online business asset.
