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Corporate newsletters are a traditional piece of communication and have the power to tell your story, inform your audience and inspire change.

Whether it’s a single touch or multi-prong approach, the presentation and delivery of your newsletter should be tailored to the organization's objectives and audience's needs. Extending your reach with purpose, meaningful content, and cross-promotion will deliver value every step of the way.

Here are some best practices:

Designing Physical, Printed Newsletters
A physical publication puts you in the hands of your audience, delivering a personal experience of your narrative in their environment.

• Introduce a grid and establish design standards to provide page-to-page consistency.
• Incorporate quality imagery to visually tell your story (side note, photo captions are some of the most read parts of any publication).
• Create content standards, such as using consistent naming conventions, grammar, etc.
• Guide the audience through the newsletter with clear design hierarchy and pacing.
• Introduce negative space to add breathing room to content heavy spreads.
• Use color to attract the reader’s eye.
• Consider using pull out quotes to create a reading pace.
• Include a table of contents for longer publications.
• Proofread, proofread, proofread.
• Overall cohesiveness is key.

Creating Digital, Email Newsletters
Share a glimpse of your content directly in your audience’s inbox – linking to your website or online newsletter for the full story. You can also increase deliverability by following basic email do’s and don’ts, exploring the benefit of teasers and keeping your contact list up-to-date.

• Be responsive and mobile-ready.
• Write engaging subject lines specific to the theme of the newsletter.
• Consider introducing personalization, such as “Dear, First Name.”
• Keep balanced image-to-text ratio.
• Limit the length of content.
• Tailor your footer to allow recipients a way to share, communicate and opt out.
• Test your email across devices and email clients.
• Send consistently (same time; same days) to create optimal audience experience.
• Track and optimize your sends and results.
• Overall cohesiveness is key.

Developing Digital, Online/Blog Newsletters
This is your digital hub for content, where your audience can view individual articles, gain access to full content, and search historical archives in an organized environment.

• Be responsive and mobile-ready.
• Implement hierarchy standards to create a uniform look.
• Plan site structure, links and post tags/categories to create an easy-to-navigate user experience.
• Break up text with quality imagery, lists or other dynamic content.
• Include a space for the audience to share feedback.
• Consider allowing visitors to comment on article posts.
• If public facing, sharing ability and keywords matter for SEO (search engine optimization).
• Test your online environment across devices and web platforms.
• Overall cohesiveness is key.

Telling your story via print, email, corporate blogs and intranets are valuable communication practices; and following newsletter best practices will ensure efficient efforts time and time again.

Aedieno is a boutique creative agency. For print or digital publication strategy, design and development, please contact us.