Dissecting A Marketing Newsletter

I’m a fan of simple momentum. Getting started with any small task can be enough to build momentum and drive an entire organization toward success. So I’m very pleased that we were able to create and mail not just one, but two newsletters. After many months of wishing we had a newsletter, we managed to actually pull it off. The momentum has been great.

My goal for this post is to share our experience and gather feedback. I want to learn from everyone else, too.

The final product

I’m going to break down the newsletter into pieces, but if you’d like to see the whole thing you can download a PDF of the newsletter and follow along.

We sent this newsletter to parents of campers from the last two years and anyone who had opted-in to our list.

If a kid can do it…

The lead story is all about how a camper helped raise money to send someone else to camp. Part of this story is to show how passionate our campers are – because Camp is great – and part is to spark the idea of helping to sponsor a campership.

Photos > Words

Sometimes your organization’s mission is hard to visualize. Photos help people connect your words to your mission. Choose images that are eye-catching – we made sure to include a stack of pancakes with one story because food seems to really grab attention.

We take a lot of photos throughout the summer, and every winter I’m glad we did: there’s a lot to work with for our newsletters, brochures, and annual report.

One-two punch

Mentioning our upcoming weekend events drew in calls and set up the direct marketing piece that followed. A one-two punch works well: it establishes awareness so that the sales or ask piece works much better.

They Will Judge a Book by its Cover

The outside of any direct mail piece is critical. Your recipient doesn’t have to even open the piece to get at least part of your message. This is why postcards can be so effective.

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