Newsletter no-no's
by Linda Julian
A newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with clients, suppliers, and contacts. But gaining readership can be difficult, especially if your newsletter or communication is unappealing and cluttered to the eye.
Making text more approachable and readable is not a difficult task.
Here are some easy and effective tips to help you when producing your next newsletter, information sheet, or document.
Text should:
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be dual column or even three-column (like a magazine) -- this makes the text approachable and allows readers to take aboard information easily
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no underlining, please -- this primitive formatting feature comes from the dark ages of typewriters and we've all become a lot more sophisticated since then !
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have no intermediate capitals -- this creates visual clutter, makes the eye work harder to absorb and process information, and makes a mess of your pages
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not have centered or justified text within columns -- it just looks messy and visually confused
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have no indentation, even where bullets are concerned
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always include a date reference -- month and year, or "spring 2011"
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have page numbers
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include a copyright notice
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always be branded with the firm logo
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mention contact details
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incorporate where and who to contact for more information.
Incorporating some or all of these tips when producing your next newsletter or document will mean that your slabs of text are not only accessible and approachable, but much more reader friendly and look fantastic as well !
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© Trey Ryder
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