Print Buying Direct

Jump Start with a Marketing Plan – Part 17 – 4th Sept 2009

Quick & Easy Newsletter Designs for Small Budgets

Any size budget can be used to produce a promotional newsletter. The trick is to determine what you want and what you can afford. A newsletter can be as simple as a typewritten publication on your letterhead or as formal as a four-colour publication that looks almost like a magazine.

If you’re on a tight budget, the key is to start out simple. At the beginning, all it takes is access to a writer/ editor, computer and copier. As the project proves itself, you can expand to professional graphics and more expensive.

Consider the following:

• Printing a letter-style newsletter on your company letterhead to give the feeling of personal communication
• Printing a special version of your stationery (perhaps with the newsletter name), and photocopying black text onto it
• Purchasing colourful pre-printed papers designed by stationery companies specifically for newsletters
• Printing on a postcard
• Designing a letter-sized newsletter and printing on the front only or front and back
• Printing front only or front and back on a A4 sized sheet
• Using a word processor to produce a simple format
• Photocopying black text onto white or coloured paper

Little-Known Secrets of Shorter Newsletters

Spending more money on a newsletter is not always the best way to guarantee effectiveness. Quick and easy newsletters tend to have increased readership. This is probably because the arrival of the daily mail brings a bombardment of information. People throw lengthy publications in their “to be read” stack, along with magazines and long reports. If you have such a stack, you know you don’t always get round to reading everything. Quick and easy newsletters can be read in just a few minutes, as readers look through their mail.

Effects of Frequency & Length on Your Budget

Information, time and costs are factors in determining the frequency and length of our newsletter. If it comes down to a choice of frequency or length, it’s usually best to publish more frequently, whether this means publishing only an email broadcast, sending photocopied news on letterhead, using internal staff or cutting down on paper quality and photographs. As with any type of advertising, repetition is important. A short newsletter sent once a month is preferable to a long one every quarter.

In addition, the more frequently the newsletter come out, the more timely the information. If your company or industry is prone to rapid change, you could have problems using a quarterly publication as a news source. If a major change tales place, it could be three months before you can get the news to your readers.

One solution is to use special additions, which are usually devoted to one topic. Occasions for special editions include trade shows, major changes, seminars or a special new product launch. The less frequently your newsletter is published, the more useful special editions can be.

To be continued… (See part 1 of this blog on marketing with Newsletters here)

See our great printing offers at Print Buying Direct – leaflets are always in demand and we are one of the UK’s leading suppliers of Leaflet Design and Leaflet Printing.

Tags: leaflet design, leaflet printing, Newsletter Design, Promotional Newsletters

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 7:15 am and is filed under Banners, Business Stationery, Calendars, Christmas Cards, Leaflets and Brochures, News, Newsletters, Postcards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.