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Cyclist's riding in a group
Cyclist's riding in a group

How to create a good newsletter or email to your members

Once you’ve mastered the basics of how to put a newsletter together, here are some top tips for making it look good and, more importantly, read by your audience.
  • Add a nice photo at the top – this will bring your newsletter to life and show people who you are and what you are about more easily and quickly than words. Make sure you have consent from anybody who is identifiable to use their image and make sure the photo is in focus and ideally shows a range of different riders
  • You can also add a photo or logo in the body of the text to break it up.
  • Add a clear subject line so that readers will want to open your email; this is really important if they are not to be deleted as spam. Make sure the subject line says who and what the email is about.
  • There’s no need to add a “Dear” or “Hello” salutation line as the system will put this in for you.
  • Use hyperlinks to point people to websites, email addresses and so on; it looks a lot more professional. To create a hyperlink:
    • Highlight the word(s) you want to be hyperlinked.
    • Right click on it.
    • Click Insert link and enter the hyperlink address or email address into the box marked Text to display.
  • Do not write “click here” as this can make your newsletter seem like spam. Instead, use hyperlinks to anything you want to direct people to.
  • Check your spelling and punctuation carefully; if this isn’t your strong point, ask someone else to read through the newsletter first. Put commas in where you would naturally take a breath when reading out loud.
  • Don’t send really long, wordy emails – you can add attachments such as a newsletter to your document quite easily but, better still, hyperlink to where there is more information on your webpage.
  • Give a friendly sign-off, preferably with somebody’s name so it’s more personal.
  • Check you have attached the correct attachment.
  • Once you have a good format for your newsletter, you can copy it and just tweak it next time you want to send one out so it’s a fairly easy process.

Here is an example of a nice newsletter sent out recently by one of our member groups to all members in the area; it was sent out with the subject line Burnley and Pendle CTC – Club News.

https://groups.cyclinguk.org/group-email/burnley-and-pendle-ctc-club-new...

We particularly love:

  • The short paragraphs with clear headings
  • The colourful, carefully composed photos of the happy, smiling riders
  • The wealth of news and information contained in it
  • The use of Read more… hyperlinks which take you to more information

So have a go at creating your own newsletter and see how easy it is.

When we are happy that your newsletters are looking good, we can give you email approval permission as communications officer so you can create and send your own emails as and when you want.