Your newsletter is fighting for your reader’s attention. You might think of your competition as newsletters from other nonprofit organizations, but that’s the least of it.

Also competing for your reader’s attention is the ringing phone, the whining dog and the unopened mail. How can you compete with competition like that? Here are some tips:

• First, understand that the only person who reads your newsletter cover to cover is you. Even the people who say they read it cover to cover probably don’t read every article. Don’t take offense. Instead, embrace that knowledge and build the best newsletter you can for your readers by making yor newsletter skimmable.
• Use headlines to steer your readers to articles that interest them. By the same token, readers who aren’t interested in a topic can tell from the headline that they can skip that article. That’s a good thing! It means you’re helping them save time that they can spend on the articles that do interest them.
• Keep your articles short.
• Use lists and bullets to make your text more skimmable.
• Use photos to help tell the story. When you write the caption, be sure to add new information that isn’t available by simply looking at the picture. If the photo shows a boy holding a teddy bear, the caption shouldn’t read, “Joe Smith holds a teddy bear.” Instead, it should say something like, “Joe Smith is one of the children who received a new toy at the party sponsored by the Anytown Organization.”
• Remember to ask for donations in several articles. If you ask for money in only one article, and your reader doesn’t look at that article, you haven’t asked that reader for a donation!

What are your favorite ways to make a newsletteer skimmable?

Don’t have time to do it all yourself? To learn how cost effective it can be to use a professional writer or designer for your next newsletter, contact us at  at 1 (888) 244‑4013 or tharter@fundraisingassets.com.

Fundraising Assets helps busy fundraising professionals raise more money, save valuable time and reduce costs. We offer consulting, writing, design and production services for direct mail and e-mail fundraising, social networking and more.