Publishing a customer newsletter is one of the smartest ways to grow a business. Yet, few give real thought as to the importance of newsletter design. Newsletter writing is critically important yet without proper design, your newsletter may not get read! In this article I’m going to discuss the largest and perhaps most important part of design.

The masthead is the major graphic element at the top of the front page of the newsletter and includes the newsletter title. The masthead should identify your company. It may say that you (your company name) “presents” the newsletter title. It may include your logo or a symbol that represents your kind of business. A spine is a good symbol for a chiropractor. A professional speaker might be represented by a microphone.

In most cases, the newsletter title you develop should not be the name of the company. It should, however, be a name that sticks in the mind, that rolls pleasantly from the tongue, and, along with your graphic of choice, easily conveys what the newsletter is about.

The tagline is at the bottom of the masthead. You can think of it as a subtitle. The newsletter title and the tagline should work together. They should tell anyone who picks up your newsletter what it’s about. It should give them a clue about the benefits of reading your newsletter. One last point. Remember the old expression, “too cute by a half.” What you think is cute and ‘clever’ may leave your readers utterly confused. Learn more about newsletter design in my book, The Magic of Newsletter Marketing – The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life available at Amazon and my Web site.

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Getting your customers and prospects to actually read your newsletter requires you to follow a few important design steps. That’s right, there’s more to publishing a great newsletter than simply good writing.

If you want people to look at something in your newsletter, you should present it in a way that attracts the eye. You can see examples of each of these in our samples at the end of this chapter. You should also try looking at other print publications.

Color and contrast draw the eye. A colored element on a black and white page attracts the eye. So does a thick, black border around a text box. It isn’t absolutely necessary to produce your newsletter in color. With the proper use of shading, reverse text (white text on black background), borders and bold fonts, you can design a black and white professional newsletter.

Headlines draw the eye. Decades of newspaper reading have taught us to look for headlines. We look for them to get an idea of what to read. We scan the subheads to pick up on the key points.

Position draws the eye. Without anything else to draw it, the eye comes to rest about two thirds of the way up the page and slightly to the left of center. That’s a good place to put something interesting.

Pictures and graphics draw the eye. We love pictures. They may not be worth a thousand words, but pictures and graphics draw our attention. That may be why the captions on photographs are among the most-read parts of any publication.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there’s more to producing an effective newsletter than simply good newsletter writing. Your newsletter design must be pleasing to the eye. You can learn more about effective newsletter design in my book, The Magic of Newsletter Marketing – The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life or by visiting No Hassle Newsletters.

Writing a newsletter is not as easy as you think, otherwise more companies would be doing it! Learning how to produce a newsletter is a skill that can pay huge dividends. In this posting I’m going to talk about the ‘main article’ of a customer newsletter.

The main story of a newsletter is typically found on the front page. The main article is one of the most important stories in your newsletter. As the lead “work stuff” article, this is usually where you will write about your products and services. Take note that when you write about your products and services, it is important to do so in a way that does not appear to be selling your customers anything. Remember, your customers expect to read information, not sales brochures.

One way to achieve this balancing act is to tell other customers’ success stories. Share how a customer benefited from using one of your products or services and, if possible, include a customer testimonial and evidence of the benefit received.

The main story on the front page is also a good place to tell your customers what else you do. Keep in mind that customers usually begin a relationship with you based on a single transaction. Unless you’re the greatest sales person in the world or have the most unbelievable follow-up program, chances are very good that your customers are unaware of the many other products you sell or services you provide.

I want to give you another big secret on why monthly customer newsletters are so effective. It is because you are marketing and communicating with people who are already buyers.

Put your main article in the same place every time and make it easy for your readers.

Special note: No article, including the main article, should “continue” more than once, or at all, if possible. Don’t make your reader constantly flip through the pages to finish reading an article.

As I mentioned earlier, effective newsletter writing is a skill that can pay huge dividends in terms of more repeat and referral business. However, don’t make the mistake that many companies make by writing your newsletter all about boring ‘company stuff!’ Your newsletter will produce much better results if it has the proper balance.

If you struggle with writing newsletters that your customers, clients, and prospects actually like to read, then check out my wildly popular ‘Done-for-You’ No Hassle Newsletter program called Success Advantage 2.0! Not only do we provide ready to use newsletter templates, I also offer my ‘Concierge’ newsletter printing and mailing service!

Producing great company newsletters is not as easy as you think! Newsletter writing is a skill that once learned pays huge benefits. Many companies make the mistake of writing all about what I refer to as ‘work stuff’ – big mistake!

Great customer newsletters are written with things that customers want to read. Most customers want to read articles and stories that are interesting and informative. Sure, some articles will obviously have to do with your company, products, and services. But there is a limit to how much your newsletter should be about your company, or you risk turning it into another sales/marketing piece—and that’s not the goal of a newsletter. If customers perceive your newsletter as just another marketing piece, they will not eagerly read it every month.

I recommend you maintain a 50/50 ratio—50 percent of your newsletter focused on your business, products, and services (I call this “work stuff”) and the other 50 percent on the “other stuff.” The other stuff consists of articles and stories that are fun, interesting, and informative, and typically have nothing to do with your business.

I’ll give you a big clue—while the other stuff has nothing to do with your company, it is the real secret to the success of many customer newsletters. It is what your customers enjoy reading, and as such, they keep reading your newsletter. That builds top-of-mind awareness for you and your company.

You may be asking, “Jim, what do you mean by the ‘other stuff’?” I am talking about short, interesting, and informative articles, factoids, tips, cartoons, humor, and sometimes even puzzles. The secret is, this is what your customers enjoy reading, no matter what business you’re in. This is what they look forward to, what brings a smile to their faces.

Reader’s Digest is one of the most widely subscribed to magazines. It is largely a collection a stories on a variety of subjects, and one of their most popular categories is humor. This should not come as much of a shock when you consider that so much of what we read and hear is either bad news or negative. People appreciate reading good news. They appreciate learning something, and they particularly appreciate when you do not bore them.

As I mentioned earlier, effective newsletter writing is a skill that can pay huge dividends in terms of more repeat and referral business. Don’t make the mistake that most companies make by writing your newsletter all about boring ‘company stuff!’

If you struggle with writing newsletters that your customers, clients, and prospects actually like to read, then check out my wildly popular ‘Done-for-You’ No Hassle Newsletter program called Success Advantage 2.0!