newsletter

Newsletter is a regularly distributed publication that is generally about one main topic of interest to its subscribers.

General attributes of newsletters include news and upcoming events of the related organization, as well as contact information for general inquiries.

Historically, online newsletters were created by using print publication software, like Word, and digitized into a PDF to be either emailed or placed on a website. This creates more work for the author due to design elements like multiple columns and clip-art. PDF technology was not invented to present information for online reading. Creating an online newsletter by using print software and PDFs may give more design freedom, but it does not benefit the consumers of the information or the ease of content creation. Online newsletters in PDF are usually created based off an author’s experience with print newsletters and their comfort level with older technologies.

Types

Newsletters are published by clubs, societies, associations, and businesses, especially companies, to provide information of interest to members, customers, or employees. A newsletter may be considered “grey literature”.

Newsletters delivered electronically via email (e-Newsletters) have gained rapid acceptance, for the same reasons email in general has gained popularity over printed correspondence.

Purposes

Some newsletters are created as money-making ventures and sold directly to subscribers. Sending newsletters to customers and prospects is a common marketing strategy, which can have benefits and drawbacks.

Public organizations emit newsletters in order to improve or maintain their reputation in the society.

Tracking

In email marketing web bugs are frequently used as a way of determining which recipients opened the newsletter.