Important question to ask yourself when planning your newsletter effort is: what should appear in every issue?
Answering this question will make it easier (and more fun) to create, print, and mail your newsletter each and every month.
First of all, dependability is more than just sending out your newsletter at the same time every month.
It’s being consistent with the kinds of articles you include and where you place regular articles.
Of course, your readers are smart enough to find their favorite article by hunting around, but why make them work for it?
Why make extra work for yourself by plotting a whole new layout each month?
Follow the lead of the Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal has the same basic layout every business day.
Readers don’t have to wonder where to find the top story.
It’s always in the same spot.
The most important stories in your newsletter should be in the same place in every issue.
Also, follow your shopping cart through the grocery store.
If you go into your grocery store, you always know you can zoom up this aisle and zoom down here to get the bread.
You know exactly where the milk is.
Now once in a while your grocery store will move things around because they want to have you look at more items.
I’ll be honest with you, that ticks me off.
So don’t do that in your newsletter.
Make sure you’re consistent with the kinds of articles you include and with the format of where you place them.
With all that in mind, we can now plan what should be in every issue.
You should have the following:
- a main article
- a back page article
- other stories
- regular features
- an offer
- a response mechanism
We’ll discuss each of those in upcoming posts.
You also have everything you need to get started right now.
Want to do it yourself?
On Page 53 of The Magic of Newsletter Marketing, you will find an Issue Planning Form that organizes every piece of your effort – use it to help you plan every issue.
Better yet, let us do it for you.
The Success Advantage content you get every month as a member of No Hassle Newsletters fills in almost all of these sections for you – just copy-paste and go.
We can even write you a custom “main” article every month, in your own voice.
Once it’s done, we’ll print it and mail it for you (No Hassle Newsletters members get special discounts).
You can be on your way to your next customer newsletter in just a couple minutes from right now!
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