3 Steps to Regular Email Newsletters

In this blog post, Mathew Patterson offers these 3 tips to help you send out newsletters on a regular schedule:

1. Create a publishing calendar
   Pick a realistic frequency, whether that's weekly, monthly or whatever, and add recurring tasks to the calendar.

   Don't forget to add in special notes for emails close to major events like Easter, Christmas or relevant times like school holidays as appropriate for each client.

2. Appoint an owner for the newsletter
   Make sure a single person knows that it is their job to make sure each issue goes out on time. They can solicit content and help from others, but it is their job to get everything ready to go.

   It's just too easy to think 'someone else will do it' when a group of people are all responsible.

3. Keep an ideas file
   Keep an ideas file in a shared location, where you can record ideas and information.

   When the newsletter owner comes to put together an issue, they can go through the file and slot items in. Other content sources could include blog posts, customer feedback and industry news that occurs between issues.

By creating some lightweight structure, you can remove a lot of the barriers to regular email newsletters, and create consistent, effective publishing.

Source: Campaign Monitor

Comments

[Rob Enslin]

I like the third tip: 'Keep an ideas file'.

You could also add a directory on a shared network drive as well as a shared mailbox ('Email-Ideas') where anything inspiring is kept - an inspiration folder.