How To: Newsletters

In the airport waiting for my flight to take me home. Another Q&A from yesterday's session:

Q: How do you make newsletters a reality in a firm and how do you get good articles if you are authoring them yourselves?

A: Re the first part of the question, people want to believe there is a magic system or template for commiting to publish a newsletter consistently. Yet the truth is there is no system. You just have to decide to do it and continue to make that same decision every quarter - every time you publish a new issue

To address the second part of the question, getting good topics is not that hard. Hold a quarterly topic meeting with your analytical staff where you vet topics and refine the scope of the articles. Then, before you leave the meeting, know who will be responsible for which article and the deadline for completion. If you do this, you'll be successful.

Comments

[Debra Helwig]

WELCOME BACK, Barbara! Great to see you posting again.

On the idea of generating newsletter articles, I encourage firms to think differently about WHO should be writing. In so many cases we think about articles solely as a spotlight for the partners - BUT, partners often are busy and don't want to write. What about the lower level professionals in the firm who are looking to get their names out there and differentiate themselves both within the firm and in the marketplace? They may need some coaching, but as content providers they may be more reliable. This "bottom up" mentality will eventually help the partners get committed as well, because as lower level professionals move up in the firm they'll take the writing habit with them.

Another idea that comes from my background in magazines is to promote the commitment internally. If someone volunteers to write, publish that fact as a "rah rah" on the company intranet or in the internal newsletter in addition to celebrating the completed work. This could reduce your "failure to complete" rate considerably (because people are now committed in front of their peers) as well as provide a nice pat on the back for those who volunteer.