15 Newsletter Tips

Plan Ahead. Have a publisher's calendar and plan your articles in advance. Allow enough time for printing and mailing.

Publish your newsletter on a regular basis (monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly). Time publication dates to allow members enough time to get events on their calendars.

Write for your member readers. Always think about ways to benefit readers with your newsletter.

Set an upbeat tone in your newsletter. Use positive, active words.

Tell about your good work—service projects, events, activities, awards and recognition, community outreach, and services provided to members.

Include meaningful information—articles that educate, how-to features, trends, Q&A column, and advice. Be a source of information. Select topics that reach a broad audience not just a few insiders.

Prioritize. Put the most important feature first.

Be consistent. Include pre-determined elements in every newsletter, i.e., a president's column, PDK international news, events calendar, member photos and testimonials from the last event, upcoming events, and standard features.

Make the design interesting. Use graphics and photos. Use at least one graphic image per page. Graphics include photos, artwork, and quotes. Graphics provide visual breaks from solid blocks of text.

Use photos showing members in action (not posed).

Use no more than two or three typefaces. Generally text is serif typeface (Times New Roman) and column headings are in sans-serif (Arial or Helevetic).

Use member names and faces. Most people love to see their names, ideas, and pictures in print. Include stories and testimonials from members.

Keep it simple. Make your message easily understood. Meaningless graphics, difficult to read text, too many fonts or visual elements on a page get between the reader and your message.

Save your work on the computer and save it often. You will not want to lose your work and end up starting all over from the beginning.

Proofread. The newsletter represents the professionalism of your chapter. You will want to make sure it looks impressive, has polished writing, and is free of typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors.