How many newsletters do you view daily? Being in the public relations industry, I sign up for every newsletter I can, so my inbox is full of them. Most of the time, I just skim through, but there are a handful I read every day. An online newsletter can be a very effective communication tool for businesses, if it is designed the proper way.

Such as any other communication tool, strategy and content is key to capturing your audience’s attention. Nowadays, internet users are inundated with advertisements on every website as well as junk emails. To stand out, your newsletter must serve a purpose and be targeted toward your customers. Below are a few key tips from Al Czarnecki, APR FCPRS, that are essential to the life of your newsletter.

Begin with good basics and build a solid ground. Develop each newsletter around a central theme. Also, I suggest that you have certain segments that appear in each newsletter with different content, such as an employee profile, advice from management or industry news.

‘Clean and simple’ spells ‘effective.’ Don’t try to be too creative with graphics or fonts, especially in an email newsletter. If you have too many graphics, it will be slow to load and you could lose your reader. It is also a good idea to have a table of contents at the top of the email for lengthy newsletters.

Look for reader feedback. Reviewing the analytics for your newsletter is critical. This can tell you the specific behavior of your readers. It’s very important to take into consideration what links are being clicked so you can continue to provide content your readers are interested in.

For more information about writing a newsletter from Czarnecki, click here to read the full article. And, if you aren’t signed up for many newsletters in your industry, I recommend jumping on the newsletter-news bandwagon to see how others in your field are utilizing this communication platform.