This week at CV! was all about redirecting and streamlining
the organisation’s newsletter. Management thought that the newsletter was too
much of a reproduction of the website and so we spent a large portion of the
day brainstorming new and creative ways to make the newsletter exciting and relevant.
Newsletters are taught at university as one of the main forms of communication between
an organisation and its stakeholders, however this tool is not always right for
every organisation.
It is important to analyse whether or not a newsletter will
actually be read by an organisations stakeholders or is even a necessary portal of communication.
Once a clear direction and purpose for the newsletter was
established, it was much easier to develop the content and streamline all of
the information within the newsletter to ensure that it wasn’t mirroring the
same information that members can receive by going onto the website.
It is so important that newsletters remain relevant and can
hold the readers attention, otherwise its production (which I now understand is
extremely time consuming) is pointless.
It’s easy to see how organisation’s external communications
can easily become sidetracked and take an undesired direction without some
structure!
Another thing to take away from interning at CV! this week
is the time that planning takes. Without proper planning, marketing collateral
is not as effective as it could be and this planning can take days and days of
brainstorming to perfect!
Some ways in which we have made our newsletter more
interesting and interactive now include:
-
A “Fun Facts” section
-
Images of members and a “call to action” for members to
find more pictures on CV!’s Facebook Page
-
Volunteer Interviews and personal accounts
With the first newsletter going out next week, I’m hoping
the changes will be well received by the newsletters readership!
