Tips to Write a Newsletter

Writing a newsletter can be a terrific way to communicate with your audience, but to make your newsletter truly readable there are a few hints and tips that are well worth bearing in mind.

Know who you are writing the newsletter for?

I think that newsletters work best when you have a very clear idea about who you are writing the newsletter for. So when you sit down to write a newsletter think to yourself – “Who is my audience?”.

As an example let’s just assume you’re writing a newsletter for your Tennis Club. I want you to actually imagine the kind of person who might be reading your newsletter. We already know a few things about them…

• Your newsletter reader is probably sportier than average – or wants to be.
• Do they already have advanced knowledge of Tennis or are they newbie?
• And so on…

Once you’ve defined who your readership is then writing your newsletter will be a lot more straightforward.

Remember you are narrow-casting

What does this mean? Well, unlike other forms of media, newsletters are typically designed for a particular interest group. A sub-section of the general population who are particularly interested or perhaps even expert in your subject matter.

Everything you write in your newsletter should therefore reflect this reality. You’re writing for a bunch of people who may already have a bit or a lot of knowledge and that will mean that your newsletter writing style should reflect this fact.

You don’t need a huge list of newsletter subscribers

I know… this sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but the truth is that 100 highly targeted readers could be more important to you than 1,000 less focused individuals.

Now for your particular market and newsletter those numbers might be wrong. Perhaps you need to have a base readership of 1,000 or even 10,000 to make your newsletter worthwhile – but the basic principle still applies.

In my experience of producing newsletters of all different types and formats across a wide range of sectors, it’s always the quality of your subscriber or distribution list which proves more important than the quantity.

The tips above are just a starting point and there are of course many other considerations involved in learning to write a newsletter. How should you distribute the newsletter? What technology are you going to use to write your newsletter? And so on…

I get into all of this in much more detail in my award-winning How To Write A Newsletter toolkit. Containing classic advice on writing a newsletter this toolkit is designed for you whether you’re writing a newsletter for business or pleasure. You can get more information and pick up a copy at http://www.howtoWRITEaNEWSLETTER.com