Newsletters are a popular way to keep in touch with people, from current and prospective clients to members of associations to friends and family. Before launching one, whether it’s printed or electronic, take some time to think about why you want to send a newsletter, who is going to read it, how you’re going to send it—oh yes, and how you’re going to keep it on schedule!

Schedule? What schedule?
It’s tricky to keep the “news” in newsletter if you publish infrequently. The general wisdom is that quarterly is a minimum; monthly is even better. If your company is going through a period of intense change such as a merger or restructuring, weekly isn’t too often. Whatever your publishing schedule, set deadlines, or you may find your “weekly” newsletter slipping to a “whenever you get to it” newsletter.

E-mail or snail mail?
E-mail newsletters are fast and they certainly cut your postage budget! Before choosing this form of newsletter, you need to know if most of your intended audience has the right technology. In an office, that may mean having a PC and access to e-mail, and you may know that everyone has both. (Or, they may not. Double check.) Over the Internet, it’s a little trickier. The clever graphics that load quickly for you on your Pentium-powered high-speed access may take forever for those readers (and you’re almost guaranteed to have them) with old computers using dial-up access on painfully slow modems.

E-mail or snail mail, think about how you’ll encourage people to sign up for or pick up your newsletter. An employee newsletter has an almost captive audience, but you still need to make the newsletter appealing and interesting or employees won’t read it.

What about content?
It may seem obvious, but your intended audience will to a large extent determine the content. A little research is always a good place to start. Do you have customer or employee surveys, feedback forms or call centre records that will point out general areas of interest, confusion or concern? What are the demographics of your readers?

You also need to clearly define what it is you want the newsletter to do. Help build a relationship with customers? Encourage visits to your web site or retail store? Educate customers about your products or services? Educate employees about the issues your company faces? Once you’ve defined your purpose, the content will be a logical extension of it.

Newsletter items can be a mix of what readers want to know and what you want them to know, but your stories should always answer the unspoken question from your reader: “What’s in it for me?” In other words, be sure to explain the benefit of your new program, provide the “big picture” and how employees fit in, give the reasons why readers should log on to a particular web site, and so on.

And remember that while you want to provide some useful information, you can do so in a way that lets your personality and sense of humour shine through.

But didn’t they read it in the newsletter?
Don’t think that just because you’ve published something, you’ve communicated. Yes, you’ve put the word out there, but that doesn’t mean people (1) received it, and (2) read it. Your newsletter should be only one of a variety of tools—discussion groups, face-to-face meetings, comment cards, postcards, e-mail messages—used to communicate in a manner appropriate to your company and your purpose.

What about costs?
If you’ve asked a freelancer to help you produce a newsletter, be aware that you and your colleagues can make or break the relationship. How promptly do you return phone calls and respond to e-mails?

You can expect a range of costs, depending on the amount of work required. Do you want a writer to edit material that you provide, or do the research and interviews to write from scratch? What size will the publication be? Do you already have a template that will be used for production, or do you need a graphic designer to create something new? (In this case, there may be a one-time setup charge plus production for the first issue, then separate production cost for ongoing issues.) How simple/intricate is the layout? Are there photos, scans and graphics? Will the freelancer shepherd the project through approvals, deal with designers, proofread and see it through distribution? Each step can add significantly to the time spent on the newsletter and how much that’s worth.

On projects that may span several months (such as a quarterly publication), expect to be billed in stages. This could be half of the projected fee when writing begins, and the balance when the final draft is turned over to you. This assures the writer of some payment while working on the publication for several months, rather than no income during the work and an additional 30-day wait at the end.

If you’re hiring someone to produce a newsletter for you, keep in mind that you’ll get what you pay for. Sometimes what may seem high (perhaps comparing hourly rates) actually comes out to be more cost-effective, because an experienced freelancer should do the work quickly and deliver a finished product that doesn’t need extensive rewrites.