If you have an organizational enewsletter, who handles it? In my experience, it probably is one of the following:
- Administrative assistant
- Intern
- Volunteer/Development assistant or coordinator (for nonprofits)
And yet, an enewsletter should be part of your communications and marketing efforts. At the very least, your communications/marketing people should take a look at the enewsletter and check for the following:
- Consistency of message
- Use of logo and tagline
- How it fits into the overall messaging/communications campaign
- Timing (is it coming out too close to other communications?)
Of course, someone needs to be the final editor and proofreader. In the past couple of weeks, I have received an enewsletter that has had date mistakes (saying an event is on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, with Tuesday’s date) or with location mistakes or even speaker name mistakes.
The best way to handle an enewsletter is to have an editorial calendar—created by your communications department–which can adjust for any special events or needs that arise each month. Your admin or intern can write the content, but it must be checked before sending out. Every single time.
An enewsletter is a valuable communications tool, which when done right, can help your organization. When done wrong, it can reflect badly on your organization and make people unsubscribe.
How do you handle your enewsletter? Do you have any good tips? Please share them in the comments.
About Deborah Brody
Deborah Brody writes and edits anything related to marketing communications. Most blog posts are written under the influence of caffeine.
