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A polished, professional company newsletter is a great way to keep your clients up-to-date with what’s happening with your business.

Newsletters can come in a variety of formats and, as a longer-form marketing piece, give you the space to create something unique that can really resonate with your customer base.

Of course, a good newsletter takes work, but the results are worth the effort. If you’re considering putting together a newsletter for your business, or overhauling one you already have, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Decide on design

Like all your marketing materials, the company newsletter should reflect the quality of your brand and work to enhance your reputation. It’s a good idea to engage the services of a professional designer – it will make a huge difference to the finished product. Once you have a great layout sorted, it can be reused for every edition.

Think carefully about the appearance. To start with, it should be ‘on brand’ and tie in with all your other marketing materials. But as a newsletter, it needs to be readable and have its own feel. Do some research and look at examples of other newsletters, or even magazines, to get an idea of the style you want to use. Think about elements like pull quotes and breakout boxes, and ensure the company logo is prominent.

Images are vital. Few people will take the time to read something dense and wordy, and photos are generally what catches the eye.Think also about the stock you print your newsletter on, because quality paper lends your product a certain level of prestige.

Get creative with content

Next to the design, the content of your newsletter is the most important element. Take some time to plan your content and put it all together. Fact check to pick up on any incorrect or out-of-date information, and proofread to catch spelling errors. As with the layout, having a professional editor or copywriter handle the content makes a real difference.  

When it comes to content, the possibilities are endless. It’s up to you what information is important, and what impression you want to create. At the very least, an introduction and an update on where your business is at should appear somewhere. Other ideas include upcoming events, success stories, feature articles, Q&As, information on community partners, news, tips and hints to help your audience, industry goings-on, market analysis, local events, reviews, and frequently asked questions.

The newsletter needs to be picked up and read, and the best way to make sure that happens is to provide content that’s interesting and useful. Answering questions for your customers or providing them with practical advice is perfect. If your newsletter is longer than four pages, include a contents to make information easy to find. And while the newsletter should promote your business, avoid being aggressively salesy – it’s insincere. Give your readers useful, relevant content and they’ll associate your products and services with being useful and relevant too. 

Timing is everything

The timing of your newsletters is vital. An all-too-common mistake is letting too much time elapse between each edition. Often companies get excited about the possibilities of a newsletter, and start off by putting one out each month … before they realise a good newsletter takes time and effort. Then the frequency of their newsletters tapers off as the day-to-day grind takes over.

That’s a huge mistake! An irregular, infrequent newsletter is as bad as no newsletter at all. It’s screams disorganisation, and looks wildly unprofessional to your clients. A great newsletter will be something they look forward to getting. Something that appears in their letterbox randomly and rarely looks too unimportant to bother with. Don’t give your customers the wrong impression, or give them time to forget you.

Schedule the newsletter to arrive at regular intervals – for example, weekly, monthly or quarterly. Make time in the lead up to each edition to organise the content and have them printed. Again, this is where the services of professional designers and copywriters will be useful, because they’ll take care of the bulk of the work for you.

And a few final things…

• A printed newsletter lends a personal touch often missing from email newsletter, but it shouldn’t to act in isolation from the online elements of your business. Include details of your website and social media profiles in your newsletter (you can even use a QR code so smartphone users can navigate instantly to your online offerings).

• Inject some personality and make sure your newsletter is something people want to read. Embrace whatever’s unique about your company.

• Include a call out to inspire your readers to take action of some kind. It could be as simple as following you on Twitter, entering a competition, or submitting a question.

• Print extra copies. Mail the bulk of the newsletters to your clients directly, but keep a few around to hand out, or leave a stack in the office for people to help themselves to.

How do you make your company newsletter stand out? Tell us in the comments below.