Common Hurdles to Good Newsletters(And How To Get Over Them)
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Newsletters are a highly effective way to keep your organization on the minds of current and potential clients.
Say, for example, you’re a career counselor and you meet a well-employed individual named Brian. You add Brian to your contact list, and share your quarterly, informative newsletter with him. When Brian decides to make a change in his career goals, he will have regularly seen 
your name (and your company’s name) in his inbox. Even if you’ve only met once, you will seem like an old friend, and he’s much more likely to come your way for guidance.
Of course, if maintaining a regular newsletter were as easy as saying the words, everyone would do it. Here are a few of the hurdles we’ve helped clients jump over, and a few words about how to clear them yourself.
Hurdle #1: We don’t have time to write a newsletter.
Get over it: The returns on a regular newsletter are well worth the time invested. During a meeting of key decision makers, agree to make one person accountable for the creation and distribution of your newsletter. It should be someone with experience in writing and marketing. Depending on how you plan to structure the newsletter and what content you intend to include, the process can take anywhere from 5 to 15 hours. If this kind of time commitment simply doesn’t fit into the calendar of any existing employees, consider contracting an outside source (like the Tripepi Smith team for example), with experience in your industry.
Hurdle #2: We don’t have any news to share.
Get over it: Of course you do. And if you don’t toot your own horn, who will? Most people inside an organization have trouble seeing their regular day-to-day routines as news worthy, but with a bit of perspective, you’ll realize that there is always news to share: a new employee, a new client, a new job with an existing client, a new product, an award, maybe you’re planning to attend (or even speak at) a conference or seminar, perhaps there has been a recent promotion within the organization. (And keep in mind that your newsletter doesn’t have to be all about you. You can offer tips or advice. You could curate an industry-specific news digest.) One way to more easily recognize the stories you have to tell is to hire someone outside the organization to draft your content. With their perspective, they should be able to tease out regular stories. The second is to simply add a line item to the agendas of regular meetings. After all the business is done, simply review the agenda for anything that isn’t confidential. Odds are you have a lot more news to share than you realize.
Hurdle #3: We’ve started a newsletter campaign a few times, but it always seems to fall by the wayside.
Get over it: Continuing to consistently publish a newsletter is a challenge. We recommend starting slowly. Especially if you’re still learning to identify news stories in your organization, consider starting with a quarterly newsletter. You will still achieve your goal of periodically reminding current and potential clients of your services, but you won’t feel as hard pressed to fill spaces. The task won’t feel as daunting and you will be far more likely to continue. If, further down the line, you decide you have enough content to fill a monthly or even a weekly newsletter, you can always increase frequency then, but do it incrementally. Jumping from quarterly to weekly is likely to land you right back in the land of the overwhelmed.
Hurdle #4: A lot of people have unsubscribed from our newsletter.
Get over it: There are several reasons that people unsubscribe from newsletters. To minimize the number of individuals who opt out, make sure that your content is engaging and relevant. Go for quality over quantity. If you don’t have enough good content to regularly distribute, then decrease the frequency of your newsletter. If you have different versions of your newsletter (say a weekly industry news digest and a monthly message from the president), make sure they go out to specified lists. That way, if someone doesn’t have time to read a weekly email, they can unsubscribe from that list alone, and still receive the monthly newsletters to keep in touch.
The power of newsletters to bring in business, both new and repeat, is really quite remarkable. Don’t be discouraged by false starts or minor trip-ups along the way. It’s a learning process. Once you find a groove, you will be amazed at the returns your efforts can bring.