newsletters

Have I mentioned we don’t read much? One of the greatest mistakes in church communication, especially in newsletters, is length. Verbose preaching. Wordiness. If the article is too long, the average reader won’t give it a glance.

And so we continue on with Church Newsletter 202, with a focus on maintaining the reader’s attention.

Writing for a newsletter is different than writing for other media. Articles must be short and give immediate information. Unless you’re an extremely fascinating writer—and most of us are not—your article is too long after 350-400 words.

Write tight, cut the clutter

• Maximum sentence length: 15 words
• Maximum paragraph length: 45 words
• Eliminate unnecessary “that” and “of” words
• Edit the whole artice, then each paragraph and finally each sentence. Cut, cut, cut.

Okay, we’ve got the imagery. We’ve got the font. Now let’s lay out the newsletter.

Studies show—yes, people have actually tracked readers’ eye movements—that layout of the newsletter greatly influences its legibility. Our eyes naturally read from left to right so think of our reading pattern as a large “Z” over the page. Often a designer will place an attention-getting photo at the top left of the Z, the words following to the right, and so forth down the Z. Arrange design elements in a manner that creates visual balance throughout the page.

Studies have also determined how justification, or column alignment, affects legibility. Left justified with a ragged, or unjustified, right edge is easiest to read. This alignment allows the eye to quickly move to the next line and immediately continue reading.

Center justification is the hardest to read and most overused. Each time the eye comes to the end of a line, it must scan the ragged edge in search of the next. Talk about slowing down the reader! Definitly, not a good thing for getting your newsletter read in today’s busy schedules.

Layout also concerns the way we present our words. Don’t write your words completely in capital letters. All-caps give the semblance of SHOUTING and slow the reader. Limit your all-caps to titles only. And please, limit the words you wish to emphasize! Underlined, capitalized, italicized or bolded words out all lose their significance when overdone. The more you emphasize, the less each is emphasized.

There’s certainly a lot to think about with design. Hey, if it gets too overwhelming, just let me know! It’s what I do.

“Typography exists to honor content,” writes Robert Bringhurst in the designer’s bible “The Elements of Typographic Style.”

Typography, typefaces, fonts…we hear these terms often in the design world. Technically they are not all the same. For our purposes, however, we won’t go into such mundane details. Just know that the visual appearance of your words is important to your newsletter. The type you choose and how you use it can make the difference in members reading your newsletter or tossing it aside.

Fonts are divided into three categories:

• SerifThere are little tails at the ends of each letter. Serif fonts often have a more traditional look. Times New Roman is a common serif font.
• San Serif (French for without)The letters are without tails. San serif fonts often carry a more contemporary look. Calibri is the default san serif font Microsoft now includes in its Office programs.
• DecorativeThis includes script and other stylized fonts. Brush Script is a common decorative font.

A good rule of design is to use a san serif font for headings and serif for for the body, or visa versa. Customarily, serif fonts are considered easier to read for large amounts of text because the tails lead the eye from one word to the next. However, because we’re becoming so accustomed to reading san serif text from our computer screens—studies show san serif is easier to read in this venue—we’re seeing more and more hard copy printed in san serif.

Decorative fonts are beautiful but they’re also much less legible. Think “accent” when using a decorative font, such as titles and headings. Never use a decorative font for large amounts of text and never use it with all capital letters.

Perhaps one of the most obvious tipoffs to unprofessional design is the clutter of too many fonts. Font design is comparable to textiles; you wouldn’t combine multiple prints, plaids and stripes without looking a bit hodgepodge. The same goes for your newsletter. Limit the number of font to two, at the most, three font families.

We’ve determined newsletters play an important role in church communications. We’ve also covered the basics of creating that important newsletter. Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty of attracting those readers.

Imagery
While there are many elements of good newsletter design, first and foremost is the fact that a newsletter must be more than words. As babies, we see before we talk. As children, we look at pictures before we read. As adults, we’re drawn to photos before words.

Good images tell the story even before words do. They draw the reader into the words in search of more information.

What makes a good image? Well, what makes up your congregation? People, right? By nature, people are most interested in other people and studies show images of people capture our attention first. Narrow the field even further and we’re most drawn to faces, namely the eyes.

[Read more…] about Church Newsletter 202: Imagery

Outside Sunday bulletins, the church newsletter is perhaps the most common form of communication to your congregation. As much as churches vary from one another, so do the newsletters they publish. From electronic versions to traditional hard copies, the one common thread is that most of them aren’t getting read.

Let’s be real here.

We’re busy. We don’t read much. And we have short attention spans. The 30-3-30 rule says “Eighty percent of people will spend only 30 seconds reading your newsletter, 19 percent will spend three minutes and only one percent will spend thirty minutes.”

But let’s not be negative! As always, nothing is impossible with God. In biblical times, Jesus used parables to visualize his message. Today he gives us writing skills, graphic design and technology, all of which enable us to communicate his saving message in a highly effective manner.

Here are a few pointers to improve those 30-3-30 odds.

Attract your readers

You can spend hours, days and weeks finely crafting your words, but if you can’t get readers to pick up the newsletter, they’ll never know how fine those words are. God gave us creative minds that are drawn to visual imagery. Celebrate this creativity in your newsletter!

• Use graphics. Yes, a picture really is worth a thousand words. A good picture, rather than cheesy 1980’s clipart is worth even more! Photos of members, events or things within your congregation add interest and personalize a newsletter. Church Art Pro offers an extensive line of regularly updated imagery for a reasonable subscription. This includes photos, cartoons, less-cheesy clipart and helpful tidbits for design and publication. I’m sure there are other such companies online as well.
• Allow white space. In design school we learned “White space is your friend.” White space helps to visually organize the page. It accentuates. It brings focus.
• Limit column widths. Columns should be a maximum of 45-75 characters, or 8-12 words. Do not…I repeat, do not… make your column the full width of your newsletter page, unless, of course, your type is size 36 point. Wide blocks of text scare readers before they even get started.

Maintain your readers

So, you have their attention. Now you’ve got to maintain that attention. In an online poll conducted bychurchmarketingsucks.com, viewers rated bad writing as the second highest irritation to their church’s newsletter (cheesy clip art was first). Not all church workers can do all things. If writing isn’t your forte, allow someone to edit and rewrite your articles for you.

• Sharpen and simplify your writing. Remember, we don’t read much anymore. We don’t have much time. Avoid complicated sentence structure and unnecessary words. Consider the audience to whom you’re writing and gear your words toward them.
• Write in active voice, not passive. Grammatically speaking, passive voice eliminates the subject and emphasizes the receiver. It’s often written in a form of “to be.” For example: “The book will be read to the children.” Instead, use strong action verbs for greater interest and understanding. Write the sentence as: “The father will read the book to the children.”
• Personlize your writing.  Use personal pronouns to draw readers into your words. Pronouns such as “you,” “yours,” “we” and “ours” allow the reader to become a part of the topic.
• Use one space after a period at the end of a sentence. Okay, I stand corrected. If white space is caused by two spaces after a period, it is not your friend! Two spaces after a period screams “I’m old. I’m out of date.” In the days of the fossilic typewriter, each letter was the same width and the end of a sentence necessitated extra spacing. Computer fonts today are proportioned to the shape of the letter which allows type to set tighter. As a result, one space provides ample visual cue to the end of a sentence. Two spaces create a river. If you can’t lose the habit of double clicking, use the find and replace feature on your word program to get rid of them.

So here they are: basic ideas to get you started on a successful newsletter. Absorb these concepts, put them into practice and then we’ll get into Newsletter 202.