Critique of

Newslette
r
PR Continuous
Assessment

Julia Shastak 20022118

Julia Shastak BBS3 20022118

Electronic Newsletters

I’ve chosen an electronic newsletter for this assignment, because Email newsletters

are fast becoming an extremely popular form of marketing and sourcing new

business. One of the main reasons for this is the fact the same amount of people can

be reached as by traditional postal marketing but at a fraction of the cost. Sending

email newsletters will also cut down the time needed to manage the campaign for

things like printing, mail merges etc. The only costs involved with sending email

newsletters are the design/creation of the newsletter concept and the actual cost to

send which is based on the number of recipients.

For many businesses, well-designed and carefully written email marketing newsletter

play an integral part of their marketing strategy because they help to build customer

trust and repeat sales.

Some companies can also provide a real-time reporting. As the newsletter is

sending, customer will be able to see data such as how many emails have been sent

at that particular moment, who has opened the newsletter and even who has clicked

on the links in the newsletter. This kind of reporting is an excellent tool that allows

customer to follow up the exact people that have read and clicked through from the

newsletter.

Because of all the benefits listed above thousands of email marketing

newsletters are published and sent daily. The number of emails received by an

average consumer ranges from 10 to 50 per day. As these email marketing

newsletters appear in their inboxes, the recipients quickly scan the message subject

and sender line and then decide whether to open or delete the emails. Given this, a

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strong call to action in the subject line should be used to motivate subscribers to

open one particular email newsletter.

Email newsletter content should be useful and relevant to the target audience and

it should be written clearly so that readers immediately understand the benefits.

Critique of Expo-Events Email Newsletter

Before I begin to analyze the layout, the writing, the use of graphics and white space

of the newsletter design, I pick up the newsletter and look at it as if for the first time.

One measure of a newsletter design effectiveness is the first impression a reader

has upon seeing it. Does it say boring, exciting, read me now, save me for later, or,

don't bother - there's nothing important here.

Without reading more than a few words the nameplate, the choice of layout, the

greyness or openness of the design, the balance of text and graphics all give clues

as to the value of the content. Or perhaps I should say the perceived value.

The newsletter I’ve chose is targeted towards building and manufacturing industry. It

will interest people who are directly involved in building or planning a new build. This

newsletters’ main purpose is to invite people to visit a Plan Expo/EcoBuild Showcase

this November in RDS. The main slogan “Your helping hand to survive” is supported

with the picture of one man giving another man a hand to climb a mountain.

Everything in this document is left aligned which is keeping the eye more interested.

The headlines line up well with their body-text and those texts all line up with the

different sections in the newsletter. The same deep red colour is used on the

heading throughout different section of newsletter which gives it consistent look.

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Black colour is repeated for all the text throughout the entire document with some

paragraphs and key words highlighted in bold, which instantly attracts our attention

to those highlighted parts of newsletter.

There is no contrast used boldly on the inside of the document. There is also

inconsistency with using colour for links; some links appear in purple and some in

pale blue.

A bad example of proximity is used on the first page of the newsletter. The

information about Rebuild Ireland Conference which is only a part of the whole Plan

Expo is places without any visual separation or much explanation. I find graphics for

Rebuild Ireland Conference section very weak, as it consists of pictures of various

people. We are only to presume that they will be the speakers at the conferences as

no explanation is given.

My biggest critique of the email newsletter is that organises make it difficult to do the

main thing that they are trying to achieve, i.e. to book tickets for the Showcase.

Customer has to scroll down nearly to the end of newsletter and the link isn’t

highlighted. Creators of the newsletter possibly didn’t ask themselves a question:

“What is the goal in sending the newsletter?” because from the newsletter it is not

evident if they simply wanted to supply people with information about the Conference

or if they wanted people to book tickets through the link in the newsletter.

One of my other criticisms is the lack of graphics. The only picture is at the start

and there is no other graphics in the whole newsletter. Images have proven to add

visual appeal, a personal touch and help break up the text in the layout. But

instead of using strong visual images to emphasise main issued being discussed

at the expedition, for example that there will be much emphasis made on

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sustainable and renewable energy, creators of the newsletter opted for pages of

text.

There are some very good points about the newsletter as well. For example: it's the

law, and it's practical, to make the subscribe/unsubscribe directions easy to find and

include it in every newsletter. And in the newsletter it is included at the end where we

became accustomed to find it. The other good point would be that the creator doesn’t

give it all away and doesn't fill the newsletter with nothing but links. It gives the

reader a taste of what they will find at the conference. The idea is to whet the

appetite, not satisfy it.

Another good idea is used in the newsletter - one of the last paragraphs gives

readers some reasons to visit Plan Expo, but it only gives part of an article to interest

the reader, and then give them the URL in a clickable form so they can go read the

rest of it.

Plan Expo newsletter is broken up into paragraphs of two or three sentences. Long,

run on paragraphs are hard to read and most readers will lose interest quickly. The

goal is to keep readers interested in what newsletter has to say.

Newsletter does end on a positive note, in big bold letters it invites readers to be at

plan Expo/EcoBuild Showcase this November.

To improve the newsletter creators could have offered more communication

channels. Subscribers should be aware that there is a real business and people

behind the information they are receiving. It assures readers that a company really

does exist (and is generally part of legislation requirements.) Plus, there is an easy

way to initiate contact, readers are more likely to give valuable feedback on the email

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newsletter and/or pick up the phone to ask for more information about a product or

service - the next step could be a booking.

Here are some examples of communication channels that can be offered:

 Fax – they could have invited readers to print off the page, fill out the

information and fax it back.

 Phone – creators limited contact to an email address. There is no phone

number listed; people may have one last question they want to ask before

they make the booking.

 Forward to a colleague – the reader may not find the article relevant but

may have a colleague who is very interested. Creators could have included

“forward to a colleague” button and a Subscribe Box in case the colleague

also wants to sign up for the email newsletter.

 Fill out this form - once again encourages people to act now - makes it easy.

Often an incentive is offered, such as a discount if the booking comes from

the email newsletter.

Conclusion

In conclusion I would like to say that Expo-Events email news letter had some

positive and some negative points. On the positive side creators used the space very

well. Emails are generally read online on a computer screen, so a simple layout with

clear navigation is imperative. There is also a good balance between full articles and

links, which gives readers opportunity to read more if they are interested in particular

topic.

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On the negative side; there is very limited use of images. Pictures are still worth a

thousand words, they are very valuable for introducing new products, people, and

places. These too should be linked to either larger images that include more detail,

to the full article text, or more information. Use of graphics and colour in a newsletter

makes it appealing to the readers and grabs their attention.

Because publication is not specifically in-house or closed, there should be a

subscribe box prominently featured on the email newsletter layout.

There are two basic types of newsletters you can send out – the first is an

informative traditional newsletter, the second a promotional short email often

advertising or call to action driven. It seems to me that creators tried to combine two

types in one email newsletter; they made it long and filled with information and also

included a call to action. I think a purely promotional driven call to action that grabs

subscribers’ attention to make a booking would have been more successful.

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