A highly effective avenue for communicating with your various constituencies – customers, employees, prospects or business partners – is a newsletter. A useful, informative newsletter can enhance the credibility of your company, build customer loyalty, create goodwill among prospects and partners, improve morale among employees – and improve your marketing ROI.

That said, nothing gets deleted or trashed quicker than a newsletter that does not offer the reader a fast, positive answer to WIIFM (what’s in it for me?). A newsletter must be informative and offer value; otherwise, it risks becoming a waste of resources and time.

WIIFM

What type of information is valuable to your audience? The short answer is information that readers can use in their daily business or personal lives that they could not have gotten elsewhere (or would have had to make an effort to find). This can include innovative ways to solve problems, analysis of current or emerging trends, and tips on how to better achieve their goals (do their jobs, handle their finances, etc.).

Seamlessly relating these insights within the context of the products and services your company offers – and doing so on a consistent basis – will strengthen your image as a leader in the minds of your key audiences and set you apart from the competition.

There are several ways you can combine WIIFM with the benefits your company offers:

• Lead off each issue with a “Message from the CEO” addressing a particular strategic theme of importance and communicating the vision/culture of the company. Let the message set the tone for the content of each issue, and link the articles to this central theme.
  
  
• Include case studies that illustrate how clients solved a business problem by utilizing one of your products or services. Discuss how the product or service met the client’s needs, and the benefits it provided (cost savings, additional interest earned, etc.). And include an interview with a client representative to provide their perspective and endorsement.
  
  
• Discuss a timely or relevant trend and link that to a specific product or service feature that addresses the issue. Describe the benefits, usefulness and types of businesses for which it is best suited, its cost structures, etc. If possible, include quotes from your product manager who is responsible for that specific product or service.
  
  
• Consider expanding the newsletter to include employee communications as well. A regular or occasional feature on an employee (product manager, business line expert, new employee, etc.) will introduce that person to clients, create “cross-sell” opportunities by educating employees and customers about other divisions within your company, and boost morale.

Print or Electronic Format?

The newsletter can be produced in either a printed or electronic format – or both – depending on your constituencies. If most of your target audience is online, create and send an .html or .pdf version via e-mail, which will keep production costs at a bare minimum.

If the newsletter is a large file, e-mail readers a link to your Website, where they can view the posted newsletter, as opposed to attaching the document to the e-mail. (Some corporate servers restrict attachment sizes because of the sheer volume of e-mail they must handle; other readers may still be using dial-up.)

If a significant portion of your audience is not online, make available both a hard copy and electronic version. Print copies have the advantage of being a visible leave-behind on sales calls and can be used in marketing and press kits.

Either way, promote the newsletter in your other marketing materials – brochures, ads, Website – encouraging readers to take advantage of a free subscription. At a minimum, always post the newsletter to your Website to capture surfing traffic, and create an online sign-up form for new subscribers. In doing so, you will build a database of contacts who are interested in hearing from your company.