Determining Your Newsletter’s Purpose, Part 2: Reasons to Have or Create a Regular Newsletter

Newsletters rarely serve only one single purpose. Some of typical reasons that people and organizations start a newsletter include to:

• Inform — technical information, social events, accomplishments, goals, benchmarks, upcoming changes, trends, follow up announcements of important information with more details.
  

• Motivate — encourage, recognize, applaud, spotlight, build morale, increase sales, build community, build relationships, achieve results.

• Solicit — ask for volunteers, donations, contributions, special funds or needed items, attendance at events, help for organization or others, wish lists, questionnaires, polls, feedback, actions, outcomes.

• Educate — (similar to inform but with an eye toward action or outcomes); tips, how to do something specific (a recipe, cleaning tips, change a procedure or protocol, learn/reinforce a new skill), phone numbers, addresses, provide information which enlightens, changes minds, where to find an item to purchase, announce new services, introduce new staff /partners, teach something new to the reader.

• Market — sell products and services, promote, brand a company or organization, build awareness, outreach.

• Communicate —overarching multiple purposes which usually include any combination of the above and any or all of the other reasons for a newsletter’s existence.

It's up to you to determine (and document) which purposes your newsletter will serve, but the time spent analyzing and focusing before starting it will save you many headaches along the way.

These tips are offered as a way to help you get started, to encourage your group to do some brainstorming and to help you gain some clarity regarding the all-important purpose of your newsletter.

Future topics will include decision-making tips regarding your newsletter publication frequency, publishing schedule, choosing a printer length/size, layout, design, and very importantly — editorial guidelines: how to determine the content of your newsletter: types of stories, articles, columns, images, charts and the process of deciding what to include (or reject or avoid). Effective planning includes how to present the content and information which help achieve the purpose of your newsletter.

Your Newsletter’s Purpose, Part 1

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Your Newsletter’s Purpose, Part 1