Over the Hill and Round the Bend
<<month>> Edition	Volume 1, Number 1

Southern District Motorsports Association PO Box 1484 Queanbeyan NSW 2620 Upcoming dates · Club hillclimb – 4 May · General Meeting – 20 May · Track Maintenance – 24 May · Subscribe at www.sdmahillclimb.com/newsletter/

President’s Report - <<Name>> Paste the Presidents report in here Article 1 Paste Article 1 in here Article 2 Paste Article 2 in here

E-mail: magazine@sdmahillclimb.com We’re on the Web! www.sdmahillclimb.com

Fonts Choose the fonts you will be using for headlines and body text. A good rule is to never use more than 2-3 fonts in your newsletter. Any more becomes confusing, making your efforts look less professional. Be creative with the ones you do choose. Utilise different sizes and colours, using bold and italics to add variety without confusing the look of your newsletter. You can add these custom styles to your template’s style palette so they are instantly available. Finally, delete any features you won’t be using. Once you are done with these general changes, save the result as a Word template. Add Articles and Graphics One distinct difference between a printed newsletter and an e-mail version is the amount of text to include. Unless you know all your readers will be interested in a longer version, you should keep the amount of information to around 1,000 words or less. Anything more becomes tiresome to read in an online format and you may lose their interest before they read the items you really want them to see. What to Include Some items to think about including might be new employee introductions, recent awards presented to your company, specials and discounts on products or services, new product announcements, and information on new ways to take advantage of your products or services. Don’t include items that might only be of interest to a few customers, you want to capture and hold the interest of as many readers as possible. Add Graphics Add graphics and/or pictures with captions to help break up the text and create some visual interest. But make sure whatever you add relates to the adjacent text. A picture of the company dog might be cute, but if the story surrounding it is about a new product the picture will only serve to confuse your readers. Contact Information Be sure to include contact information in more than one place. Not only should it be part of your master template, you should include “For more information…” contacts in every article where it’s appropriate. Don’t make your customers hunt for the information; chances are they won’t take the time. Web Links Include links to the company Web site wherever you can. Be sure to update the site to include the information you are referring them to. It’s easy to include hyperlinks in your newsletter that will take customers right to your Web site or get them started with an e-mail to your sales staff. Proofread When you’ve completed your newsletter, it’s time for one of the most important steps of all—proofreading. Go back through every article, headline, caption, and callout. Take several passes through the material, looking for different things each time.