Creative Ways to Use
Your Newsletter
Adding Fun to Your Newsletter
Some newsletters need to
be serious. Take a publication going to clients of a major brokerage firm,
a newsletter detailing the recent activities of an environmentalist
group’s lobbying efforts, or a fund-raising mailing for disaster
victims. These are documents that are designed to get straight to the
point and leave little room for fun and games.
But most of us produce
newsletters that have the ability to have a little fun. Increasing the
humorous, light-hearted, and fun content in your newsletter can lead to an
increase in its readability. Although it seems that it seems like it
should be easy to inject humor and frivolity into your newsletter, it can
actually be quite a challenge. Next time you are putting together your
newsletter, try these approaches to help add a little fun to your
publication.
Make It Personal
It always helps to increase the readability of your newsletter when
you include information that seems more personal and pertinent to your
readers. The key to including this type of information is how well you
know your readers. Humorous content for young adults, seniors, or military
families can all vary. Although you can always find something that appeals
to everyone, it sometimes really hits home when you customize your
information.
Including photographs in
your newsletter is another way to add fun and to personalize your
newsletter. Carrying a camera with you, even if it is just a disposable
one, is an easy way to ensure that you will always be ready for those
candid shots. Are you not often around your readers during the course of
your day? Include a notice in your newsletter asking for readers to submit
photographs. Or better yet—supply the camera yourself. If you know of an
important event or topic you want to write about, hand out a couple of
disposable cameras to a few volunteers who would be willing to be official
newsletter photographers for the day. Even kids can get in on the
act—you may be pleasantly surprised at what a young photographer finds
interesting!
Add a Game or Two
Many years ago, I happened to visit an office where the staff knew how
to start the day off right. The first employee to arrive would make
several copies of the word and crossword puzzles in the newspaper. A copy
would go on each employee’s desk. It became quite a tradition for
everyone to work the first few minutes of the work day on the puzzles,
compare answers, and then get on with the work of the day. In fact, I was
told it was quite addicting! This concept can apply to your newsletter as
well. By providing a word game or trivia quiz in every newsletter, your
readers will come to expect the added fun in each issue. In fact, this may
be the first thing they turn to!
As a subscriber to
NewsletterFillers.com filler article service, you will now receive our
newest added feature, monthly word games. We have introduced cryptograms
and will be adding other types of word games in the future. These are real
attention grabbers in your newsletter. Chances are that once the fun stuff
is perused, your reader will linger over the rest of your content.
Increasing the readability of your newsletter in this way ensures that the
other information you are including in your newsletter gets attention as
well.
Liven Things Up
If you really want to jazz up your newsletter, consider adding some
cartoons or fun graphics. You can purchase collections of cartoons in clip
art format. This is an easy way to add this type of element to your
newsletter, as you don’t have to worry about copyright infringement.
Beware of copying a cartoon you find. Unless you get permission from the
artist, this is a basic copyright violation.
Clip art also comes in
cartoon-like graphics. Although there is no caption, you can use some of
your creativity to liven up your newsletter with these types of images.
For example, you might choose an image of a tightrope walker or a juggler
to accompany an article on managing stress. Flipping through any
collections of clip art you have can be a great jumping off point. Just
let your imagination be your guide!
