Doing Newsletters Right

Hello all,

As I am finishing up my research for my newsletter and have started designing the final product. I decided to jump on here and do a little reflection over the process. If you have not done so yet, please check out my first blog post about my newsletter, Designing for Newsletters.

Decisions, decisions...

The first thing to do before designing your newsletter is to think about what type of newsletter is best for your company. Consider your audience, your message and what information you want to convey. I did my newsletter for Boeing, a global aerospace manufacturing company. My target audience is potential clients, current customers and partners, employees and other stakeholders. Based on this information, I knew I should do a business newsletter that includes information about recent company developments and other topics that are relevant to the stakeholders. I kept this goal in mind as I looked through the articles on the company's website to decide which are most relevant and most interesting to the target audience.

More decisions...

Once I decided on the style of newsletter and the articles, it was time to think about pictures. It is important to have pictures in newsletters, so your page isn't just filled with words. Pictures can add meaning to your story and help to organize your newsletter. One thing I made sure to think about when selecting pictures was whether or not they complemented the article. Do they give the reader a visual of something discussed in the article? Do they develop a better understanding of a concept? Do they provide additional information? I decided to read each article and decide what images would enhance the readers experience. You don't need a ton of pictures, though. For this assignment, we did one per article.

Don't forget the layout...

After you have your newsletter type, your articles and your pictures, it's time to think about layout. It is so important that you have a smooth, clear and organized layout so your readers can follow it easily. One perfect way to ruin a great newsletter is to mess up the layout. As mentioned in the article linked above, I sketched out my layout on paper before I began designing to ensure it flowed well. Check that post out if you want to see my sketch. Remember to think about balance and harmony when designing. Every element of your newsletter contributes to the overall effectiveness, including the pictures, font, colors, logos, layout, headings, etc. Refer back to my previous article Ten Design Elements Everyone Should Know for a refresher on those elements.