Four tips toward a better newsletter

An excellent newsletter will reflect well on your community.

A newsletter can be a great way to stay in touch with your vocation contacts. Here are five ways to make yours the best it can be.

1. Keep it short. Ideally, articles should not be longer than a few hundred words. Use bullet points to list your main ideas.

2. Use images. They attract attention to your words, and they carry impact. One photo of a joyful-looking member communicates more than a thousand words about the joy of religious life.

3. Keep your audience in mind. Use language they understand, and write about the things on their minds: prayer tips, advice on decision-making, short features about your members. A strict focus on a single group of readers--such as vocation contacts--is better than a mixed readership that includes donors, graduates of your schools, or former ministry clientele. A singular audience helps you stay focused and keeps you relevant.

4. Recycle content. If you have good material on your website, or a member has published a book of short meditations, or another member has good photos of her ministry, make use of these resources. Repackage them with an eye for what interests your newsletter readers.