To be successful a newsletter needs to contain lots of meaningful content. This doesn’t mean words of wisdom or correct grammar (these certainly help, of course) but content that the reader finds meaningful. The more you know about the reader, the easier it is to determine what content is meaningful.
1. Niche Markets
Most newsletters, especially subscription newsletters, are aimed at very particular segments of the population, or in today’s buzzword terminology, niche markets. That makes choosing meaningful content a lot easier for publishers of those types of newsletter. As with most newsletters, the market is the readership. Find material appropriate to that market and you won’t go far wrong. Always bear in mind, though, that the degree of appropriateness still requires a little thought.
Not all markets can be neatly divided according to niche but it is usually not difficult to determine the demographic readership. For example, a neighborhood, or ‘corner’ store might send out a monthly newsletter to surrounding homes. The market, then, would be the people who live in that area. If most residents were young, struggling families on low incomes then ‘meaningful content’ would be orientated around child-rearing, budget shopping, education etc. It would very different if the average resident was relatively affluent and retired. Then the concentration might be in holidays, investments and so on.
2. The Need For Empathy
The biggest problem that most communicators have is understanding what type of material is most appropriate for their market. Their own product, or the service they offer, tends to dominate their thoughts to the exclusion of everything else. They fail to empathize, to see the world through the eyes of their potential readers. People are not (necessarily) interested in what you find interesting; they are interested only in what they find interesting. Now, this may sound like a statement of the obvious but you really do have to stop, put yourself in their shoes, then ask yourself what you would most like to read.
3. Avoid Alienating Your Readers
I’m reminded of a newsletter that I came across a few years ago produced by a young life insurance salesman. Full credit was due for having the initiative to put out a newsletter at all. And it really wasn’t so bad. It didn’t contain a whole mess of spelling mistakes and typos. He obviously had an in-depth understanding of his field and knew what he was talking about. The grammar was good and, if you like that sort of thing, quite readable. But notice I said “if you like that sort of thing”. After the first issue I didn’t read another word and I doubt if anyone else did. The technical difference between a term and an endowment policy does not come within my area of interest. I found a dissertation on the intricacies of actuarial calculations impossible to finish. It was hopelessly boring! That salesman was building his newsletter around subjects that he wanted to talk about and alienating his potential market in the process.
4. Offering Solutions
So, I hear you ask, how can a life insurance salesman’s newsletter be made interesting? That’s easy. Fill it with material that the target market would want to read! I can’t remember how the newsletter in question was distributed but whether it was hand-delivered to targeted homes, posted to previous customers, or put into the hands of prospects by some other means, the target market is the key to the inclusion of meaningful content. Does that mean it shouldn’t include anything about life insurance? Of course not, but it is most effective if it is low-key information written in language understood by the readers, like answers to frequently asked questions etc. As an expert offering solutions to your prospect’s problems, you will always have keen readers.
Provide examples, if you can, and include specific information where possible (times, dates etc) to prove the solution you are putting forward. The value of personal endorsements for your solutions, from people in similar situations to your readers, cannot be overstated. Use anecdotes freely, as well; people always relate more readily to situations that they can picture themselves in and this is the best way of doing it.
5. Using Pictures
Include pictures if they help explain a point or illustrate something discussed in an article. Always include pictures of actual readers whenever you can. Nothing is more interesting to most people than stories about themselves, or people just like themselves, or people close to them—and actually seeing themselves ‘in print’ is compelling. Don’t include unnecessary pictures that have nothing whatever to do with the text, especially if they have garish or distracting colors.
6. Using Humor
Do include humor whenever you can do so without offending the rules of good taste, particularly if it can be linked to a topic that appears on the same page. It may take the form of a joke, an amusing ditty, a cartoon, etc. Humor used properly is a very effective way of introducing balance to a publication. Too much weighty material can be depressive and have the opposite effect to that intended. Your newsletters should be optimistic and cultivate a feeling of goodwill towards you and your message.
7. Keeping It Simple
In conclusion, try to keep your language simple, or at least appropriate, to the degree of sophistication of the people who make up the target readership. Be sincere and try to ‘speak’ on a one-to-one basis. Honesty and sincerity have a way of shining through whereas insincerity invariably raises suspicions.