Print Buying Direct

Newsletter Printing – Features Show Your Products & Services in Action - 17th December 2009

Once new products and services have been announced, they lose their newsworthiness.” Feature articles allow you to reiterate your product and services by having other people talk about you.  They can also include news of everyday (or unusual) applications of your products.

Write in a feature style for articles on clients, case histories, unusual applications for products, educational information and inspirational stories of people. The feature style:

• Captures and holds readers’ attention
• Contains a good lead
• Weaves interesting facts throughout the article
• Develops and supports themes
• Ends with a strong, memorable conclusion
• Includes quotes from interviews
• Often conclude with a quote

The style of features encourages promotional writing. In well written features, there is an initial point of contact that is sharp, quick and obvious. A light opening follows to grab the reader’s interest. This could be an incident, an anecdote or a conversation. Finally the bulk of the story includes a description and facts. The last paragraph usually concludes the article by repeating the theme. This style is the opposite of the inverted pyramid news style, in which the facts are presented first and there is no need for a summary.

When you write features, think of a strawberry packer. Tell the story with sustained interest. Place a layer of good berries on the top, but save the best berries for readers to see when they turn the basket upside down. Give almost as much importance to your last sentence as your lead. Words like “in summary,” signal to your reader that you are bored or the article has gone on too long and you don’t know how to stop it. Quotes work well for endings. Find one that has a sense of finality, its funny or adds a last surprise.

The hardest part of writing a feature is coming up with a theme and writing the conclusion. By remembering the strawberry packer, you’ll know to save an interesting tidbit for last. You’ll also use the tidbit to develop the theme for the article. Pack up your berries and come on down to the ranch to see how.

Top berries:

With a name like RBR Computer Ranch, you’d expect to find this dealer in the outskirts of Dallas or Houston, or at least somewhere west of the Rockies. Well, venture into the “cement ranch” of New York’s Manhattan and you’ll find RBR nestled on the 4th floor at Fifth Avenue and 20th street.

Why “Computer Ranch?” “You have to be different,” says Jose Ristorucci, president of RBR, “Look at Egghead Software; you remember their name before you’d remember Alpha Omega Software. We thought of Computer Zoo, but that was already taken”.

Bottom berries:

The technical knowledge and personal approach found at RBR sets them apart from the rest of the herd. “Every customer has a different need,” Ristorucci says. “They can come here or we will go to them. Some days we have five or six people in here being trained or looking at software packages.”

Ah, life is good down on the ranch.

It’s easier to find themes for some articles than others. For an article on a company that uses a computer product to design a flood control system, finding a theme was easy.

Top berries:

Reliability – Lives Depend On It

Sierra Misco is in the business of telling people that water runs downhill. The trick is to figure out how much water and when it’s going to get there. When you’re talking about the raging waters of China’s Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, that’s no small trick.

Bottom berries:

The systems have to be reliable – people’s lives depend on the performance of the equipment.

It’s important in an ongoing publication to avoid formula writing. For example, you wouldn’t want to start every customer feature with a question. Instead, look for ways to write feature stories in unusual ways. You’ll find that some subjects give you the opportunity to write truly unique pieces.

Promote your business or charity with our offers on Wall Calendars, Desk Calendars, Xmas Cards, Promotional Wall Calendars and CD Calendars. We’ve recently redesigned all of our Print Buying Direct website and cut our prices on all promotional print.

We shut down for Xmas on the 23rd December 2009 and re-open for business on the 5th January 2010.

For more information on printing and graphic design please see some of our recent blog articles;

• Newsletter Printing – Guiding Readers to the Reply Card
• Newsletter Printing – Magnetise the Eyes with Pull Quotes
• Newsletter Printing – Subheads Net in Skimmers
• Kickers in your printed newsletter will Jump Start Headlines
• Headlines Bring Your Promotional Newsletter to Life
• Start With the Desired Response from your Promotional Newsletter
• Writing Newsletter Copy that Sings
• Let Your Subconscious Do the Writing – Newsletter Printing
• Sifting With a Promotional Screen – Newsletter Printing
• Gather Newsletter Content – Preparing for an Interview – Newsletter Printing

Print Buying Direct is the online division and a Trading Name of The Printing House Ltd. One of the UK’s leading quality printing companies for short run, long run and wide format colour printing. Based in Crewe, Cheshire, in the North West of England – delivering to customers across the UK and Ireland.

Also see our other websites

Main Site: www.theprintinghouseltd.co.uk

Buy Print Online: www.printbuyingdirect.co.uk -

Leaflet Printing, Brochure printing, Postcard printing, Appointment Card Printing, graphic design etc

Prospectus Print: www.schoolprospectus.info

Sports Book Print: www.golfclubcentenarybooks.co.uk

Tags: CD calendars, Newsletter Design, Newsletter printing

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 9:16 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.