What to Put in your B-to-B Newsletter

Posted on by Chief Marketer Staff

Coming up with good story ideas is one of the toughest tasks in publishing a company newsletter. Here’s a checklist of story sources to stimulate editorial thinking and help identify topics with high reader interest that help to promote the company to prospects and clients.

1. Product stories: New products; improvements to existing products; new models; new accessories; new options; and new applications.

2. News: Joint ventures; mergers and acquisitions; new divisions formed; new departments; other company news. Also, industry news and analyses of events and trends.

3. Tips: Tips on product selection, installation, maintenance, repair and troubleshooting.

4. How-to- articles: Similar to tips, but with more detailed instructions. Examples: How to use the product; how to design a system; how to select the right type or model.

5. Previews and reports: Writeups of special events such as trade shows, conferences, sales meetings, seminars, presentations, and press conferences.

6. Case histories: Either in-depth or brief, reporting product application success stories, service successes, etc.

7. People: Company promotions, new hires, transfers, awards, anniversaries, employee profiles, customer profiles, human interest stories (unusual jobs, hobbies, etc.)

8. Milestones: “10000th unit shipped,” “Sales reach $1 million mark,” “Division celebrates 10th anniversary,” etc.

9. Sales news: New customers; bids accepted; contracts renewed; satisfied customer reports.

10. Research and development: New products; new technologies; new patents; technology awards; inventions; innovations; and breakthroughs.

11. Publications: New brochures available; new ad campaigns; technical papers presented; reprints available; new or updated manuals; announcement of other recently published literature.

12. Explanatory articles: How a product works; industry overviews; background information on applications and technologies.

13. Customer stories: Interviews with customers; photos; customer news and profiles; guest articles by customers about their industries, applications, and positive experiences with the vendor’s product or service.

14. Financial news: Quarterly and annual report highlights; presentations to financial analysts; earnings and dividend news; etc.

15. Photos with captions: People; facilities; product; events

16. Columns: President’s letter; letters to the editor; guest columns; regular features such as “Q&A” or “Tech Talk.”

17. Excerpts, reprints, or condensed versions of: Press releases; executive speeches; journal articles; technical papers; company seminars; etc.

18. Quality control stories: Quality circles; employee suggestion programs; new quality assurance methods; success rates; case histories.

19. Productivity stories: New programs; methods and systems to cut waste and boost efficiency.

20. Manufacturing stories: New techniques; equipment; raw materials; production line successes; detailed explanations of manufacturing processes, etc.

21. Community affairs: Fund raisers; special events; support for the arts; scholarship programs; social responsibility programs; environmental programs; employee and corporate participation in local/regional/national events.

22. Data processing stories: New computer hardware and software systems; improved data processing and its benefits to customers; new data processing applications; explanations of how systems serve customers.

23. Overseas activities: Reports on the company’s international activities; profiles of facilities, people, markets, etc.

24. Service: Background on company service facilities; case histories of outstanding service activities; new services for customers; new hotlines, etc.

25. History: Articles of company, industry, product, community history.

26. Human resources: Company benefits program; announcement of new benefits and training and how they improve service to customers; explanations of company policies.

27. Interviews: With company key employees, engineers, service personnel, etc.; with customers; with suppliers (to illustrate the quality of materials going into your company’s products).

28. Forums: top managers answer customer complaints and concerns; service managers discuss customer needs; customers share their favorable experiences with company products/services.

29. Gimmicks: Contents; quizzes; puzzles; games; cartoons.

Robert W. Bly is a freelance copywriter specializing in direct marketing. This piece is excerpted from his new book, “The White Paper Marketing Handbook” (Racom Communications and Thomson, 2006). Reprinted with permission of South-Western, a division of Thomson Learning: www.thomsonrights.com. Fax 800-730-2215. Copies are available online at: http://www.racombooks.com.

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