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Article Title: Simplify Your Message For An Effective E-Newsletter
Article Author: Michael J. Katz
Article Copyright: 2005

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Simplify Your Message For An Effective E-Newsletter
Copyright © 2005 Michael J. Katz
Blue Penguin Development, Inc.
http://www.BluePenguinDevelopment.com



If you're old enough to know your total cholesterol count off
the top of your head (217), you may remember a man by the name
of Jim Fixx.

Fixx gained prominence in 1977 with the publication of his
book, The Complete Book of Running, and is widely credited with
single-handedly starting the jogging craze in this country.
Unfortunately, Fixx died suddenly in 1984.

Hearing what had happened, my Aunt Esther — a woman known for
sometimes not quite getting her facts straight — gave me the
news: "The guy who invented running died."

Admittedly, a bit of an oversimplification. However, with those
six simple words she had captured the essence — if not the
absolute factual truth — of the story. Before Fixx's book came
out, running around the neighborhood for exercise was not a
common practice, and in many ways, he had "invented" running.

I'm here to tell you that when it comes to effective
communication with an audience, my Aunt Esther had it
right — essence matters more than facts.

How many times have you been forced to endure 85 slides worth
of a speaker's Power Point presentation, getting to the point
where you start looking for a way to unobtrusively take your
own life? Invariably, the problem isn't that the data is wrong
or even lacking in value, it's that it's delivered in a way that
is too detailed and too convoluted for the average human being
to digest. You arrive eager to learn something, but the delivery
itself gets in the way.


Many newsletters suffer from the same "good information; poor
delivery" syndrome. The facts are there, but the reader is not
able to — or not interested in — finding them. With that in
mind, I offer some suggestions for being heard and appreciated:

1. Pick one idea. I always find it kind of funny that the
biggest worry people have about producing a newsletter is
"running out of content," and yet the biggest problem I see
is "too much content in each issue." You don't need to
explain your entire field of expertise in each issue any
more than you need to review everything you know each time
you eat lunch with a client. Break it up into little pieces.
You'll have more content to choose from next time and your
readers will find it easier to hear your message.

2. Boil it down. An E-Newsletter is really just a glorified
email, and mixed in with all the jokes, appointment
confirmations and pieces of information that fly into our
respective in-boxes every day, this is not a medium that
lends itself well to lots of detail. Be prepared to edit,
simplify and throw out information on your way to getting
to the heart of the matter.

3. Speak like a human being. I don't know who started the rumor
that business communication must be formal to be valuable, but
it seems to have caught on nonetheless — that's an opportunity
for you and me. Your readers will find it a breath of fresh
air to "hear" the people behind the newsletter. Nobody is
interested in reading one more "critical communication" from
a company that claims to be, "the leading provider of cross
platform broadband solutions" (or whatever). If you can't
read your newsletter out loud to your spouse without bursting
out laughing, you've got too much marketing-speak in there.


Bottom Line: You've got 800 words of opportunity each month to
get your message across. Sure you've got to have something useful
to give your audience, but remember that these people are busy,
tired and often just plain bored. Make your publication the one
they wait for and you'll never again live in fear of the delete
key.



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Michael J. Katz is Founder and Chief Penguin of Blue Penguin
Development, Inc., (http://www.BluePenguinDevelopment.com) a
Boston area consulting firm that helps clients increase sales by
showing them how to nurture their existing relationships, and
that specializes in the development of electronic newsletters.
He is the author of the book, E-Newsletters That Work.




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Distribution Date and Time: Thu Jan 6 03:50:27 EST 2005


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