Before you begin launching your newsletter program you must first determine the purpose of your newsletter - why it exists. Some of the more common purposes of a newsletter are to:
-- Market Products or Services
-- Inform
-- Educate
-- Entertain or Lightly Humor
-- Challenge, Think or Persuade
-- Motivate
-- Advise
Frequently, the purpose entails more than one, or even several of the above listed reasons, but you might try to focus on three or less. This is what you need to first decide before launching your newsletter program so that you can make a consistent replication of your newsletter each issue.
It is like a map-- you need to know where you are going before you start your journey, and then you can plot your course to get there after you know your destination.
So your homework assignment for this article is to determine which elements of purpose you wish to incorporate into your newsletter. In many cases it will be completely obvious, but depending on your situation you may need to think a little bit about it. Whatever purpose( s) you incorporate into your newsletter I recommend keeping them consistent though from issue to issue.
Now lets examine these purposes in greater detail.
-- Purpose: To Market Products or Services-- Of all of the purposes that people launch online or offline newsletter programs, marketing products or services seems to be the most prevalent reason.
Email marketing is a very very powerful resource, which you will find reflected in the number of online businesses that have an email newsletter or other form of online correspondence. The key point to remember though with any form of email marketing whether through use of a newsletter or otherwise is to provide your subscribers with something of value instead of garbage.
Some common examples of marketing purposes can include motivating subscribers to take action such as a phone call, a visit to your business or event, a visit to your website, and purchases of products and services online.
-- Purpose: To Inform-- The purpose of informing your subscribers could be well used by Stock Brokers, Insurance Agents, Realtors, Loan Officers, Churches, fund raising, or charity events.
Essentially people, businesses, or organizations which may have timely information that needs to be communicated to their members, customers or participants can use an online newsletter and/ or blast email correspondence to achieve this purpose.
-- Purpose: To Educate-- The purpose of educating your subscribers is pretty strait forward - provide them with insight on your topic of expertise.
The opportunities to educate others through the use of broadcast emailing, and newsletters are endless, and I can't recommend it enough. It is a great way to provide your material to the masses in such a way that anyone can access it at their convenience.
-- Purpose: To Entertain or Lightly Humor-- Which came first? The nim-wit or the nit-wit? Neither-- it was the moron ...:-RRB- Ok, OK bad joke:-RRB- But my point here is that adding light or GOOD humor keeps your audience from getting bored, distracted and unsubscribing, and is good for many people to incorporate.
Educational content is less prone to requiring entertainment because people want or need the information already, and aren't necessarily expecting to be entertained as much as they expect the benefit of learning the presented material-- but add some if you think it is appropriate as it keeps readers fresh & drawn in. Bands (are you a Rock Star?), Comedians, Artists, Poets, and many others who are in the entertainment genre may need this to be one of the primary focuses of their newsletter program.
-- Purpose: To Challenge, Think or Persuade-- Some of you may need to challenge your subscribers, may need them to think about a perspective, or may need to persuade them on the topic of your newsletter.
This could be applicable to personal trainers who need to challenge their clients to take it to the next level/ political advocates/ talk show hosts, and special interest groups etc.
-- Purpose: To Motivate-- Motivation is used by many newsletter writers who are providing most things other than simple information such as a schedule of events. The reason is because nearly everyone who writes a newsletter or uses email marketing is attempting to attain more followers, more business, more interest, more publicity, more attention, or more money.
My guess is that if you are interested in writing a newsletter you have an end result in mind. The purpose( s) we are discussing can help you reach your desired result if done consistently.
Some examples of newsletters that may be especially prone to motivate or encourage would be Motivational Speakers, Coaches, Personal Trainers, and as I said many others.
-- Purpose: To Advise-- Advising people is probably most applicable to professionals who recommend or counsel their clientele on a specific specialty-- for instance an expert who writes a technical publication, or an industry update etc. Also, this would be applicable to Financial Planners who provide stock picks, Insurance Agents who want to tell clients about a new annuity product, Chiropractors who are informing clients of a new technique they are offering, or Lawyers reporting a significant case or change in a specialty of law that they practice to their clients who are under their counsel.
If you think of other purposes for your newsletter beyond those listed above that is great - just keep in mind that you need to know what your newsletters purpose is for society, and perform that purpose as well as possible while keeping your end result in mind to achieve your desired goal & outcome.
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