Your newsletter — a tool to keep your customers informed

Newsletters can be done in a variety of formats — from traditional printed 8.5 x 11 bulletins to electronic tidbits, delivered through e-mail or through a link on your website.

The important thing is that your newsletter design portrays the image of your business that you're striving to convey while you pass along news of interest to your clients (or potential clients).

Frequently, these newsletters are part of a subscription package, so it's important that people perceive the value of your product through its design. For instance, if you're selling your newsletter for $144/year (published monthly, $12 per month), your newsletter design should speak to the dollar value your customer is investing.

Global Investing's newsletter design / layout reflects the high-quality investment advice and commentary present in each issue: the format is designed to be printed out, with glossy-coated quality, even though the format is digital (file is delivered in Portable Document Format or PDF). The Special Report (18 Great Global Stocks for 2005) reflects the same combination of no-nonsense and style.

In contrast, Newsletter on Newsletters' publications here are "White Papers," and therefore reflect much less polish in their design. The perceived value of "White Papers" on a subject is usually their timeliness — these are frequently done as part of a larger campaign to inform the customers about important new developments, or to provide quick, solid advice about a specific topic. A more elegant design would have customers subconsciously wondering why you took so much time designing the paper instead of just getting the information to them.