(This is a two part article on newsletters – part 1)
Every coms person has come across this – the newsletter
phenomenon. It’s when suddenly everyone in the organization is overwhelmed with
the need to communicate (a job too well done by the coms head, perhaps?). Admin
wants a newsletter to tell people they’ve recently upgraded the washroom. CSR
wants more volunteers. Businesses want multiple newsletters – one for sales
teams, one for customers, and one to let global know they’re on the job. Change
programs want one because for the life of them, they can’t justify their very existence
on the very intricate multi-colored graphic from their ppt slide with the
objectives and methodologies in font size 8.
Now just to be clear. I love newsletters.
As a communications device, a well-designed and thoughtful
newsletter is the chocolate cake of coms – looks delectable, delivers just the
right information right to your mailbox, so easy to consume. And if crafted
with care, leaves you wanting more. Which is exactly the coms person’s evil
design – to ultimately lead you to the mothership, the intranet or website.
But just like the chocolate cake, if eaten every day for
breakfast, lunch and dinner, ugh. Overkill. No longer interesting to the reader
nor useful for the sender. If everyone is serving dessert at their stalls, no
one wants to buy any.
We must understand the humble newsletter as a communications
tool - in the context of the purpose,
the time, and the pulse of the receiver. Typically, a newsletter is useful in
these scenarios:
1.
When an
organization is vast and unstructured – In organizations with multiple businesses,
each one needs to reach out to their people to create a sense of core team or a
shared vision. The same goes for customers – a conglomerate selling a diverse
portfolio needs to create separate nuggets of relevant and exciting news for
the customers of their specific industry, product or technology.
2.
When the
intranet or website is ineffective – The more sustainable way to communicate
is intranet or web. But many intranets or websites are ill structured making it
frustrating to find information. In this case, a newsletter is an interim
solution, curating content and linking it with web or intranet, so that people
know where to find what. At times too, an older audience or one that is not
well on-boarded into the technology may struggle.
3. When change is in the air – Especially in times of change, it is
important to over communicate, so that there is a sense of reassurance or
something to focus on. A newsletter in this context is extremely high impact.
4. When there’s too much to say, but all to
the same audience – In the coms maturity cycle of any organization, there’s
usually a time the newsletter phenomenon hits hard. Then your mailbox is filled
with them, and pfft…it’s over. Overkill. If there is a common audience, and
many teams trying to communicate to them, it makes sense to have a single aggregator
newsletter.
The newsletter has evolved from a simple communication containing
information to one that is dynamic, and can deliver return on investment. Far
from becoming outdated, it has redefined itself to the current digital
environment and can now offer advanced tracking and effectiveness metrics. A
newsletter can let you know who read it, how much time they spent, which
article interested the reader most, and entice people to act. For internal
audiences, this could help put a metric to that nebulous HR parameter - employee
engagement, or for customers it could generate and qualify sales leads, and
become the first touchpoint to reel in the person to a longer conversation.
No doubt about it. Newsletters are still around, still
making waves, and still stealing the show.
Wait for part 2 of
this article: The newsletter phenomenon – Behind the scenes
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