Tips for writing a more effective newsletter article
1. Tell Your Reader A Story If you were talking to a friend about your topic or event, you probably wouldn’t start with the basic facts. (Ex: “Hey friend! Let me tell you about this event. On Monday, January 1st…”). Likewise, you shouldn’t start your newsletter article that way. Instead, introduce the piece by describing the significance of the topic or event, or hitting one of the highlights. Hook your reader by telling them a story!
2. Describe the Atmosphere Just as important as the who-what-when-where-why-how of an article is the intangible: describing the mood and atmosphere. What was the emotional undercurrent? Were people excited to attend an event, proud of their accomplishments, entertained by a particularly fascinating speaker? Describing the intangible helps attract and captivate the readers.
3. Make it Conversational This step can be tricky; it is challenging to make the transition from professional or academic writing to more conversational language. But for a platform such as a newsletter article, you want to draft the content so that it is easy for another person to quickly read and comprehend. For example, “the panel presentation afforded attendees an opportunity to express their gratitude to members of the judiciary” can be re-written more conversationally as “attendees had the rare opportunity to meet the judges and thank them for their service.”
4. Include Insightful Quotes Quotes can make an article more personalized and engaging. Plan on including them if 1) an article is about a specific person and they wish to comment, and/or 2) someone can provide insight, clarification, or advice about a particular topic or event. Avoid using quotes as space fillers. Sometimes, more words are just more words.
5. Provide Additional Resources A newsletter is a document with a limited amount of space, and accordingly, articles have to stick to a specific word count. But there are ways of continuing the conversation outside of the publication. Newsletter articles should direct readers to more information about the topic or event, describe how they can get involved, and include contact information for the author.
6. Don’t Forget About Visuals A reader is more likely to pick up your newsletter or click on your publication link if there is some sort of visual element. Therefore, when you are preparing to research or write your article, don’t forget to ask yourself: what sort of photo or graphic would complement this piece? If you already have a few high-resolution images, great. If not, now is the time to generate a graphic or ask someone to snap some event pictures for you.
Need help writing your next article, designing your newsletter, or putting together visuals? Contact Hodgkiss Consulting LLC at Megan@HodgkissConsulting.com or (678) 664 – 4634.