Newsletters!

What is the purpose of your newsletter??

• Function– What is the purpose of your newsletter? What are your goals?

• Design– What is the best way to present your information in an easily

digestible way?– How interactive will it be?

• Schedule– How often can you come up with new content?

• Relationship between newsletter content and your website content– Will you be directing people to action alerts, fundraising,

conservation activities?

Function• Connections

– How will your newsletter be connected to your Chapter? • The Insider connects to Sierra Club Books, Radio, blogs….

• Information– How can you give people information in an engaging way?

• The Green Life uses short, often funny passages which then link externally to the whole story, part of Keeping it Short!

• At the end of each Plugged In, there is a summary of news articles

• Events– Get people to attend your events

• The first item in every Dallas News newsletter is information about their general meetings.

• For more formal events where you want people to RSVP, the Events function in Convio is useful

• Action Alerts– Engage your audience to take action!

• Fundraising– Text asks vs. banner or tile ad

Design

Promoting your newsletter

• How are you going to grow your newsletter?– Make it very easy for people to sign up for

your newsletter.

• Create content that has a pass along value– Make it easy for people to Tell a Friend about

content in your newsletter

Some tips….• Know your audience, ask what they want, and deliver it.• Send on a consistent schedule -- if you have good content.• Make it personal.• Make the next step as easy as possible.• Put an unmistakable name in the “From” field. Like: Cara Longpre,

Sierra Club• Use a specific, benefit-laden “Subject” line. Our most popular one

this year “What to do about $4 a gallon”.• Design a simple, clean newsletter that’s mostly text – and not too

much text!! Your draft should generally not be longer than 2 pages in Word!

• Write and design for the preview pane.• Appeal to skimmers: Use lots of headlines, subheadings, and short

chunks of text.

» Source: Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com

What do you think?

• Share: – Ideas on something you want to try in your

own newsletter?– Timeline for newsletter launch?