Newsletters And Magazines

The Use of Company Newsletters and Magazines Today’s business environment is one of ever increasing competitiveness, forcing companies to seek new and improved methods of attracting and maintaining investors, clientele and employees. Companies realize today that continuous communication with shareholders, customers and their employee’s is crucial to this effort. The question is, how does one make sure anyone’s listening? One method that businesses are utilizing today is the publication of newsletters and magazines. These publications are a unique communication method for keeping clients, partners and employees up to date on company activities and products. Regardless of the medium used (online or hardcopy), newsletters and magazines are an effective method for building relationships. The primary strength such publications have is their regularity, keeping the company in the mind of all who receive them. As a result, relationships are not just built, but consolidated and strengthened, transforming short-term transactions into long-term associations. Establishing strong associations can reap continual, repeated rewards for the company. New Associations from Modest Transactions In marketing operations, establishing long-term relationships require a great deal of planning and nurturing. Yet the rewards for these efforts can be considerable. Long-term relationships can cultivate additional investment from shareholders, new business from clients, and profound loyalty and innovations from well-informed employees. Knowing your intended audience is only the first step when it comes to newsletters and magazines. This is, of course, something each company would have done already when establishing their marketing objectives. The important thing in newsletter and magazine publishing is creating the relationship you desire with the given audience. This relationship is built one article at a time. The hard part is answering the question of what to say to them each time. Each edition of the newsletter or magazine must have unique articles, but convey a unified, consistent message and image to the readers. Adding Genuine Business Value Establishing the value of your newsletter or magazine is critical. Basically, this requires giving the readers more than just listings and specifications of available products or dissertations of past company activities. Readers of company newsletters want more. They want to know who they are doing business with, changes and trends in the industry, and future plans and ideas of the company. This establishes the two-way nature of the newsletter. For the company, building stronger relationships improves profitability and stability. For the readers, they are made to feel more a part of the company and thus more important. While doing this, it is imperative that the newsletter or magazine maintain its purpose and message. Irrelevant materials often creep into newsletters and magazines, corrupting and clouding the intended message. Other than poor writing and design, the inclusion of articles that distract from the publication’s message is the biggest problem facing corporate publications. Newsletters for Customers Communicating to customers is assumed by many to be straightforward. In today’s marketplace, this isn’t true and to assume so can be fatal to the company. Today’s consumer wants more than just information about the products the company has to offer, they are interested in industry trends, comparisons with competitor’s products, and even events and trade shows that the company is participating in. Supplying this kind of information can be challenging for the company whose staff often does not have time, themselves, to do the necessary research. Companies such as ours are frequently engaged to perform this research, to write articles for the newsletter based on this research, or are contracted to prepare and manage the entire newsletter or magazine on behalf of the company. Newsletters for Employees Communication with employees can have profound effects on employee productivity. Keeping employees informed of company activities, policy changes and current company visions and trends allows the employees to align their efforts and thinking accordingly. In addition, employee newsletters can be venues for employee training by including articles related to the effective performance of their jobs. Typical articles might include lessons in customer relations, inventory management and control, and inter-employee relationships such as sensitivity and anti-harassment. Another area that is gaining increasing importance to employees is financial and personal safety management. Helping employees maintain personal financial health tends to decrease the probability of employee dishonesty. Teaching employees personal safety lowers incidents of on-the-job injury and reduces non-work related injuries, keeping the employee on the job. Newsletters for Investors Communication with investors is an area of particular interest in today’s post Sarbanes-Oxley era. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was borne out of the Enron and WorldComm scandals. Under SOA 2002, corporations are required to make more detailed disclosures to investors and holds corporate officials criminally liable for failures in such disclosures. Corporate investor newsletters are one tool that corporations are using to fulfill their Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. Investors are kept informed of corporate activities and its financial standings as a part of on-going corporate public relations. These documents are typically made available to the general public through a company’s website, allowing new potential investors access to the same information, fulfilling the letter and spirit of Sarbanes-Oxley as well as other previously existing disclosure requirements. This attitude is not contained to the for-profit industries. Many nonprofit organizations are invoking extensive disclosure policies, even though they are not required to at this point. Realizing the credibility boost that such disclosures have had on corporate America, nonprofits are seeking to boost their credibility as well, particularly after a series of embarrassing scandals such as the United Way scandal earlier this decade. Services beyond Simple Writing Each of these audiences requires unique methods of communication and individualized content. Our talented pool of writers is capable of much more than just writing. Our writers are also fully qualified researchers and many of them are also web and print layout artists, making our company a full-service newsletter and magazine preparation service. Our writers can supply confidential articles for in-house use or more diverse articles for general public distribution. As a side note for potential clients, one way to improve our ability to serve your needs is access to writer guidelines or publication examples so the writer can more accurately address the needs and audience of your publication. Our writers can supply general articles or specified topic articles for your company. Our writers stand ready and able to supply your needs for newsletter and magazine articles. . .