Does Your Means of Newsletter Distribution Fit Your Newsletter’s Purpose?

Instead of viewing distribution as a means to an end (getting your newsletter into your audience’s hands), think of distribution as a part of the whole package. Like every other aspect of newsletter production, you should select your distribution mode with your audience and your newsletter goals in mind.

If you produce a newsletter for employees, distribution probably offers the least costly method. Why spend money on postage when you can simply place a newsletter in everyone’s box or his or her workstation? Or place stacks of newsletters in the break room and other places where employees congregate. For association/membership newsletters, handing out issues at meetings or stacking them near entrances and exits will afford you similar savings.

If your newsletter is for promotional purposes, try to leave stacks in issues at places where prospective customers, clients, or members go, shop, or meet. You may have to convince storeowners or other decisions-makers that offering free copies of your newsletter is another valuable service they can provide to their customers. If you’ve packed your newsletter with news and kept the promotional part subtle, you usually won’t have a problem.

If your employees or members are spread out, or if your customer base is such that drop-off distribution isn’t possible, including the newsletter with other mailed materials (also called “piggybacking”) might work. Stuff the newsletter in with paychecks, invoices, or whatever else you mail. While this costs more than handout or drop-off distribution, it’s less expensive than mailing several pieces separately.

If none of these methods is workable, or if they don’t appeal to you, mail your newsletter on its own. Though usually the costliest part of newsletter production, a separate newsletter mailing enjoys unique strengths — especially if you need to present your newsletter as the information source for your audience. Similarly, you may have invested time, effort, and money into creating a newsletter that conveys a certain message, and piggybacking it or handing it out would take away from that message.

For example, an independent financial consultant marketing to attorneys and physicians would want a newsletter to convey security, trustworthiness, commitment, experience, wisdom, and the like. After thoroughly researching each article to make sure it provides the most up-to-date information, such a firm would want its newsletter to arrive separately in the mail, and thereby increase the sense of value that its audience attaches to the publication.

You may even forego the envelope barrier altogether and make the newsletter a self-mailer — you won’t have to purchase envelopes, nor spend time an money to stuff and seal them.

If you prefer mailing your newsletters but find it’s too time intensive to tackle on your own, consider utilizing the services of a mail house. Talk with prospective mail house personnel about the various options available to you. If you decide to do the mailing on your own, contact Post Office officials by phone or in person. Post Office and mail house employees know the system and can save you time and money by explaining current postal requirements in advance of your scheduled mail date.

With a minimum mailing of 200 pieces, bulk mail represents the most cost-effective option; however, it will not be delivered as rapidly as first class mail. Bulk rate or standard presort rates reflect the savings postal employees realize in processing the mail piece, but do not enjoy the immediacy of first class delivery.

Regardless of the distribution method you use, put careful consideration into choosing the optimum system prior to designing your publication. After all, the newsletter production process requires constant attention to the primary goals of the publication. Getting the piece into the reader’s hands as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible is crucial to completing a successful newsletter.

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