Many newsletters suffer from the same "good information; poor delivery" syndrome. The facts are there, but the reader is not able to - or not interested in - finding them. With that in mind, I offer some suggestions for being heard and appreciated: Pick one idea. I always find it kind of funny that the biggest worry people have about producing a newsletter is "running out of content," and yet the biggest problem I see is "too much content in each issue." You don't need to explain your entire field of expertise in each issue any more than you need to review everything you know each time you eat lunch with a client. Break it up into little pieces. You'll have more content to choose from next time and your readers will find it easier to hear your message. Boil it down. An E-Newsletter is really just a glorified email, and mixed in with all the jokes, appointment confirmations and pieces of information that fly into our respective in-boxes every day, this is not a medium that lends itself well to lots of detail. Be prepared to edit, simplify and throw out information on your way to getting to the heart of the matter. Speak like a human being. I don't know who started the rumor that business communication must be formal to be valuable, but it seems to have caught on nonetheless - that's an opportunity for you and me. Your readers will find it a breath of fresh air to "hear" the people behind the newsletter. Nobody is interested in reading one more "critical communication" from a company that claims to be, "the leading provider of cross platform broadband solutions" (or whatever). If you can't read your newsletter out loud to your spouse without bursting out laughing, you've got too much marketing-speak in there. Bottom Line: You've got 800 words of opportunity each month to get your message across. Sure you've got to have something useful to give your audience, but remember that these people are busy, tired and often just plain bored. Make your publication the one they wait for and you'll never again live in fear of the delete key http://www.constantcontact.com/
