I often spend some time researching best practices process or new ideas we can recommend to our portfolio companies as a part of OpenView Venture Partners' operational support. Recently I came across a great resource any expansion stage software company can review in order to develop a newsletter as part of an overall content marketing strategy. Why newsletters?
First off, why should your company consider starting a newsletter? A newsletter can be used to develop thought leadership, promote your brand, increase awareness of your company and your products, as well as provide value to your customer and prospect base.
Getting started
Blogger Robin Good has created a comprehensive set of guidelines for creating, designing, and delivering an e-newsletter. Instead of summarizing all of the steps here, I encourage you to take a look at his post. The key things you need to think about are: goals, format, design, writing style, distribution, and spam control. Good offers an excellent list of other essential tips to keep in mind.
Here are my favorites:
- Choose a catchy subject line to make your newsletter grab your readers' attention
- Keep it readable by including a large enough font, white space, and short descriptions
- Make it relevant and newsworthy - do not send something out, purely to send something out
- Don't forget about any privacy or disclosure statements
Next week, I will write more about optimizing your newsletter.
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