Youth Venture

Distributing a newsletter online is a great way to reach your supporters. Most people have email accounts, and sending your newsletter via email is cost-efficient and saves time. Below are some tips for writing and distributing your newsletter.

Tips for Writing Newsletters

• Know your audience:

  Make sure your writing speaks to the audience you hope to reach. An internal newsletter for your Venture Team should be quite different from a newsletter targeted to the local business community.

• Keep it interesting:

  Many organizations send out newsletters. Keep yours engaging to ensure people read it.

• Stick to the current events:

  Keep the articles and stories in your newsletters up to date so your readers will feel like they’re learning new things, not re-reading the same old news.

• Make titles stand out:

  Most readers won’t take the time to read your whole newsletter, so
  

  Stick to your deadlines:

  Newsletters that are sent out on a regular basis are much more likely to be read than those that are sent sporadically. Decide if you want to create a monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly newsletter and get it out on time. If you stick to your deadlines, readers will know to look for your newsletter and will be more likely to read it.

Tips for Distributing Newsletters

• Have a strategic contact list:

  Make sure that your newsletter is only going to those people who have subscribed to it. Individuals who don’t know about or aren’t interested in your work are unlikely to read an email about it.

• Make sure the sender’s name is recognizable:

  If the sender’s name on the email is the name of your organization, it is more likely that people will open and it read it, rather than delete the email. Many people don’t accept email from unknown senders.

• Keep subject lines relevant:

  The subject line should also include a reference to your Venture. If the subject line is too general, people may not recognize it. A consistent format for the subject line will help solve this issue. For example, the subject line could read, “Running for a Reason June Newsletter” to avoid any confusion.

• Good content is the key:

  The newsletter should include well-written text, as well as eye-catching photos and graphics to grab the reader’s attention. Be sure to include bolded headlines and captions with all photos so readers can skim and get a quick update.

• Make it easy to unsubscribe:

  Although you don’t want to lose readers, it’s important to give everyone the option to unsubscribe to your newsletter if they don’t want to receive it.

© Youth Venture, 2007. All rights reserved.