Postcard-sized Newsletters?

(Ideabook image)

Chuck Green at Ideabook may be on to something. In a recent article he wrote,

"Conventional thinking says a newsletter is a good way to keep your name in front of prospects and customers. And that producing one is both time consuming and costly. Conventional thinking also says a newsletter should be a minimum of four 8.5 by 11 inch pages and costs at least the standard letter rate to mail.

All well and good. But if you’re going to grab attention in the chaos of today’s marketplace, you’ve got to think outside convention. You’ve got to reinvent big business ideas in small business terms—smart, practical, and cost-conscious. In this case—by boiling a conventional newsletter down to its essence—a postcard newsletter."

Green, then does what he does best: gives us step-by-step instructions on how to implement.

I have mixed feelings about this type of direct mail. As a consumer, would I read it? Could I read it?  I'm used to scanning postcards, and I'm not sure I would change my ways to glean column after column of what surely must be "downsized" text.

What about you? Would a postcard-sized newsletter work for you as a communicator? Would it serve your communications needs? How about your preferences as a consumer? Tell me your thoughts by submitting a comment!

-- Brenda Friedrich

Comments

[Kim Coulter]

Using a postcard as a newsletter might seem okay for quick info on 1-2 topics... but if you go over that number, you're definetly limited on copy space. I'm sure that scanning would be my first reaction - and then do I retain that information that I've scanned? No - being away on spring break recently, I came back to a few e-mail messages I thought contained new info, only to find out that I had already heard about it before the break and my memory blocked it or didn't retain it.

[Peggy Fleming]

I can see where this would be perfect for a group that only has a short message that can be presented concisely. Sometimes all it takes is a photo and a little copy to get the message across. A picture is worth a thousand words, you know! Those tend to stick.