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E-WRITE E-newsletter Planning Tool



Four Essential Tasks to Developing A Great E-Newsletter
Print this tool and use it during an e-newsletter planning session.

Task 1: Define Your E-Newsletter’s Purpose And Audience
Answering these four questions is the first and most important step to developing your e-newsletter.

  1. What is your e-newsletter's purpose?
  2. Who is your audience?
  3. Why will people want to subscribe?
  4. Why will subscribers keep reading it?

Task 2: Develop a Publishing Plan
Your publishing plan should arise from the decisions you made in Task 1. Check the boxes as your editorial team makes decisions.

  1. How frequently will you publish your e-newsletter?
    [  ] Daily
    [  ] Weekly
    [  ] Bi-weekly
    [  ] Monthly
    [  ] Other
  2. How will you get subscribers?
    [  ] Existing print e-newsletter subscribers
    [  ] In-house lists
    [  ] Purchased lists
    [  ] Online or offline marketing efforts
  3. What will be the format of your e-newsletter?
    [  ] Plain text
    [  ] Html
    [  ] PDF
    [  ] Short e-mail message reminder about complete e-newsletter posted at your site
  4. How will you support your e-newsletter?

    5. [  ] In-house marketing budget
    [  ] Ads
    [  ] Sponsor
    [  ] Subscription fees
  5. What will you call your e-newsletter (title)?
  • How does the title reinforce the purpose of your e-newsletter?
  • How does the title help indicate the content of the e-newsletter?
  1. What's your e-newsletter’s image?
    [  ] Same look-and-feel as your site?
    [  ] Unique graphic design?
    [  ] Tone?

Task 3: Choose content for your e-newsletter
The content you choose to include in your e-newsletter should suit the purpose and audience you identified in Task 1 and be manageable within the publishing plan you established in Task 2.

[  ] Editorial/ personal opinion
[  ] Summary of information or news over a defined period of time: a weekly review or a "hot news" daily
[  ] Complete article
[  ] Partial article: A title followed by a brief summary and a link to the complete article content at your site
[  ] Case study
[  ] Interview with an expert in the field
[  ] Product review
[  ] Content that invites interaction
[  ] Request to participate in a survey
[  ] Invitation to send e-mail or post to a bulletin board
[ ] Giveaway or sweepstake

Task 4: Include Essential Elements and Consider Optional Elements
Your e-newsletter must have the essentials and may have much more!

Include these Essential Elements:

[  ] Subject line
[  ] E-newsletter title
[  ] Volume/number/date
[  ] Subscribe/unsubscribe instructions
[  ] Privacy policy (or link to the policy at your site)
[  ] Permission or invitation to forward the e-newsletter
[  ] Copyright information/use guidelines
[  ] Contact information

Consider Some of These Optional Elements

[  ] Table of contents
[  ] Archive old issues
[  ] Personalization — subscriber’s name, customized e-newsletter content
[  ] Organization tag line
[  ] Attachments
[  ] Rich media