This is the fifth in our series that takes you through the process of setting up an e-Marketing program.  To date, we’ve talked about strategy development, team building, editorial calendar development, and design elements.  In this issue, we’ll give you some tips on how to develop great content from the writing perspective. 

In a 2002 ClickZ column, Kathleen Goodwin, CEO of IMN, made the statement, “Never forget what made you want to start publishing a newsletter in the first place.”  She went on to say that newsletters that are motivated by passion yield the most effective and compelling content. 

Even though this was almost a year and a half ago, we still consider this a top priority for anyone who develops content for a newsletter.   Remember that you as a publisher are the driving force behind your newsletter and if you don’t put a 100% into its publication, it unfortunately shows.

Having said that, here a few ways to keep the passion going.  In the Reality Marketing article on developing an editorial calendar, we gave you a laundry list of possible story lines for your newsletter:  product related, company news, non-product education, industry expertise, ease-of-use advice, and customer stories.  The question now becomes how do you get these written while still maintaining passion and perhaps equally important, your sanity!

Getting articles written is often the toughest battle a newsletter publisher faces and one that can quickly deflate the passion.  But take heart, there are several ways to tackle this beast:

• Look to your list of contributors and see who can manage to write a reasonably acceptable first draft that holds up.  Don’t go for perfection here.  For you as publisher (and editor!), it is much better to get something to work with than to have deadlines missed. 
• If a contributor isn’t able to give you a full blown written draft, ask for detailed bullets.  Many people freeze up when asked to write an “article” but when asked to write down their thoughts on what should go into the article via a set of bullets, you get great substance.  Often times, it’s simply a matter of stringing the bullets together (which your frozen contributor was unable to do) in order to get a good draft of the article. 
• Interview poorer writers who deliver good content in a 15-minute face-to-face meeting or even over the phone.  You can also interview the executives that are crunched for time but have great insight.  Interviewing any or all of your contributors is a great rule of thumb because you’ll always uncover incredibly interesting information that will help flush out your article – information that just doesn’t come across when a written document is submitted for input. 
• If you aren’t a writer yourself or you don’t have staff writers, don’t hesitate to hire outside writers.  You’ll find that they often can get the job done much quicker than an inside team, as your project becomes their top priority.  And that means that your newsletter will most likely stay on schedule, which is a key priority in publishing.
• One other option is to use existing articles that relate to the core topics of your newsletter.  For instance, within our service, we offer you access to several libraries of professionally written articles that are available for purchase (or for free) from our partners. Within these libraries, which are available through such companies as Cahners, Inc.com, and Internet Wire, you can browse and search for articles that can automatically be inserted into your newsletter. 

As a final note, let’s go back to passion.  It’s very easy to get frustrated when people don’t deliver what you want, when you want it, but remember that this isn’t about the people that might let you down occasionally and it isn’t about you and your frustrations…it’s about your readers.  If you keep your passion going strong, it will catch on with the rest of your team and you will be able to deliver your readers a quality product and one that they deserve. 

In the next issue, we’ll take a look at what you do after an issue has been published and the reporting responsibilities you as a publisher carry.   

Nancy Langmeyer, author of the Reality Marketing series, is a freelance writer and integral part of the IMN Newsletter Team.  For more information about content development, send your questions to Nancy or submit them below.