Your newsletter is an effective, low-cost marketing tool that delivers information about your company, product, personality, and values to engage people, spark interest, and build customer relationships. Keep these guidelines in mind for your newsletter:
Do lay out your newsletter with plenty of headers, subheads, boxes, figures, or illustrations.
Don’t invest in expensive four-color printing; desktop publishing, Web distribution, or photocopying are best unless you have a large, paid circulation.
Do build and nurture your own in-house list of customers, leads, and referrals.
Do understand the difference between an e-newsletter that annoys the recipient and a valuable e-newsletter people look forward to receiving.
Do send your newsletter to a media list to generate publicity.
Don’t charge money for your newsletter unless you want to make it a serious product on its own rather than a publicity piece for your business.
Do provide useful information, tips, and news about your industry in every issue.
Don’t go into your own products in too much detail; otherwise, readers won’t value the newsletter as an objective source of information.