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Promotional
newsletters
Would you pick up your
company newsletter in a dentist's waiting
room?
Too many promotional newsletters are not newsletters
at all - they are just 'WE WE WE' publications
containing nothing but
'stories' which set out to tell the reader how
wonderful the company and its products or services
are. Very few people are going to read this kind
of material.
To make a newsletter work, you need to include
information which is of real interest and use to the
reader, so it doesn't go straight into the bin.
Topical industry information, warnings on new
legislation or reference material about events are good
examples. An element of light entertainment (a
cartoon, a quiz or a story about the training manager's
pet crocodile) also helps, to encourage them to read it
in the first place.
If your newsletter comes across as dull and self-centred,
the reader will imagine you and your colleagues are dull
and self-centred as well. If it's readable, entertaining, interesting
and informative, on the other hand, it will win you
friends.
Chris Newton Communications works with specialist
newsletter designers to produce publications which are:
- Designed to look and work like
real news publications.
- Sharply written, with punchy
headlines, subheads, pull quotes and banner copy.
- Lively and entertaining.
- Cost-effective.
- A credit to your company.
Staff newsletters
- how they should work
If your staff newsletter is simply a management
propaganda vehicle, the staff won't read it. If
it's just a ragbag of staff news and gossip on the other
hand, the company
will gain little from it. What you want is a
cunning blend of both. Your newsletter should
have these aims:
- To encourage staff to think and
work together.
- To communicate information from
management and between departments about plans, policies and how the
business is doing.
- To build pride and morale by
recognising and celebrating achievements, both
personal and corporate.
- To make employees and departments
more aware of each other's roles and needs.
- To provide a forum for debate.
Staff magazine,
Gloucestershire Royal NHS Trust
Design by Bob Milsom
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For
an in-house publication do its job:
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Staff at all levels should perceive
the magazine as 'theirs', not just management propaganda.
This means they should have input into the magazine and a
voice in its design and content, while senior management
retain control.
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The design and editorial style should
match the size and character of the organisation.
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A wide range of material should
be included from around the organisation.
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The publication should be seen as
reactive and responsive to its readers.
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To be seen as authoritative, it
must act as a genuine source of company news, both
good and not-so-good. It should also appear regularly
and reasonably often.
"It's amazing that the amount of
news that happens in the world every day always exactly
fits the newspaper" – Jerry Seinfeld
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SURVIVAL
OF THE FITTEST
Has it occurred to you to
wonder how the popular newspapers and
magazines we see on the racks at W H Smith
got to look the way they do? Where the
screaming headlines, provocative crossheads,
teasers, pull quotes and straplines came
from? They got that way through
evolutionary pressure - because these are
the design features that make people buy
and read them and so enable them to
survive in the publishing jungle.
Think about that when you next look at the
Chairman's Statement on the front page of
your company newsletter...
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Making it happen
To reduce the risk of your staff magazine being stillborn,
an editorial panel of senior and junior staff across
the company should meet at least once per edition to
contribute ideas for material, agree editorial policy
and fix the content of the next issue. The editor retains
the casting vote.
A professional journalist/copywriter or PR consultant
is likely to be needed to advise on the editorial and
production process, act as a catalyst, write or research
some of the material and sub-edit copy.
Design and production may be bought out or arranged
in house according to resources. Chris Newton Communications
has the expertise and experience to supply house journal
concept, design, copy and production to the highest
standards.
Wessex regional newsletter
for the National Trust
Written and edited by Chris Newton Communications
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The newsletter
of the Friends of Bristol Eye Hospital -
design by Bob Milsom Associates
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