Newsletters are a great tool to drum up business as a freelance writer. Many small business owners use a newsletter to keep in contact with customers or generate new sales leads. It lets them foster personal relationships that are crucial to growing their business.
Running the business can leave a business owner little time to focus on tasks like writing a newsletter. That’s where a skilled freelancer content writer comes into the picture. They can help the business owner create a newsletter that meets their marketing goals while freeing them up to focus on day-to-day business operations.
A newsletter should be more than an advertisement. It must offer real informational value to customers and potential customers alike. Writers can use a few proven strategies to bring out the news in their newsletter.
Offer informational value
Every item included in a newsletter should share important information. It should be filled with news. These news items can include product launches, opening new facilities, hiring new executives, community involvement and other updates relevant to the business. Customers want to learn new things instead of being blindsided by over-the-top sales pitches. Focus a newsletter around sharing informative content.
Make it readable
Time is like a hot new toy around the holidays—it always seems to be in short supply. Don’t make the mistake of forcing your target audience to spend too much time reading a newsletter. Structure it to be searchable and reader-friendly. Highlight key points with bold fonts and bullet points. Break up big blocks of text with graphs, illustrations and photos for a traditional newsletter. For an email newsletter, you can also incorporate relevant video or audio clips.
Adjust your perspective
Connecting with your target audience is much easier when you visualize your content through their eyes. A newsletter should be created with the intended recipients in mind. Think about what questions are in their mind. Ponder their needs. Make an effort to create newsletter content that addresses both of these areas. When your newsletter speaks directly to your audience, it increases the potential for the content to achieve its intended purpose.
Think forward
Progress in business means living in the present while planning for the future. You need to have a similar philosophy when writing newsletters. The focus should always be on showing how your client is building for the future. Content should spotlight progress and reaching milestones. Once again, the whole point of a newsletter is to focus on what is new and not what is old.
Enhance your client
A newsletter ultimately serves the same purpose as a press release or other similar content for your client. It is designed to cast a positive light on them. Always pick newsletter topics that will enhance your client’s value with the newsletter’s intended audience. The content should help customers see how the client’s products or services add value to their lives. Making your client look good means more business for them and more business for you.
John C is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
