Newsletter Publishing Objectives

Before we get to the email objectives, let’s elevate to the overall newsletter objectives:

1. Sender Value Perception – the brand is perceived as valuable because of the deliverable.
2. Content Value Perception – You’re only as good as your last newsletter.  People making a content value judgement either increase or decrease based on the recent memory of your content. Organization and editing count.
3. Conveyance of News, Announcements or Knowledge – having a positive value expectation based on the information delivered to the reader.  The appropriate types of information communicated (content mix) is the foundation for the readers value perception of this presented content.
4. Visible Content Reactions – Any social reaction, sharing, or reference to the content we produce that’s visible to other members or the public (potential participants) elevates the interest of others to engage this content and also influences social algorythms for promotion of this specific post and future content even if just the social is the url to full issue.  Readers will return to the originating social post (or could be referenced linked from email or inside the edition to social reactions for key social platforms where the association has posted the latest issue) and begin a valuable comment thread if they have an opinion about the enclosed content or are encouraged and motivated to do so.  Tip: Always have a seed group to begin these social reactions.
5. Campaign Conversion Engagemnet – The holy grail of our newsletter publishing objective is to cause our audience to further participate in both digital and in-real-life programs that demonstrate our members interest in topics, ideas, and programs we host and endorse. This include event registrations, ecommerce such as membership renewal or purchase from a sponsor or partner which can be attributed to the organization as the source medium.

First – The Content
This is an area we assume you’ve got covered.  And if you don’t have to worry about the email delivery objectives, you can spend more time on “the content.” Developing content should be where 90% of your time is spent anyway right!  And yet we find people and resources are often split with creative professionals spending time on configuration of the newsletter technical configuration deliverable.  If the publishing operation budget still supports print layout and mailing a newsletter publication, then it certainly makes sense to allocate time for that editorial design production in InDesign.  The premium digital publication is produced from the Adobe InDesign editorial design and layout file with advertising included or just allocated.  Ads can be delivered separately.

Based on a standard weekly communication, and maybe this (for certain membership associations or corporate publishing teams) is a similar email each day of the week branded to a specific deliverable interest should produce a long term value set of editions. These newsletter editions provide long term value beyond the traditional concept of searchable archive of newsletters. A proper premium newsletter design platform utilizes taxonomy to produce a sequence of content with long term value to new readers and preserves evergreen content and re surfaces this content in current editions for readers that may have missed the original content.

Next – The Inbox Delivery
Yes, there’s actually an email template involved in this stage, we know you knew. But as important as this email is for fulfillment, it should only be the trigger to get people to the Part 3, full digital newsletter.  This is an area still within the association or company control. It’s an art to get the perfect mechanics set to make sure every email lands in a visible location for the recipients. We’ve included some valuable email software tools for confirming proper email configuration below. The creative email you utilize to capture attention on mobile devices and desktop inbox must be a strong teaser for your content.  One key focus items with a large and obvious button to “View this Edition.”