Remember when you were packing to move overseas? Maybe you had access to a shipping container and could send bigger items like pieces of furniture to your new home. Maybe you were more like my family and had to pack up your life into 14 suitcases (which kind of seems like a lot… until you realize there were seven of us 😅). Either way, your mission was probably the same: maximize space. Not an inch or ounce wasted. Are we packing or playing a life-sized version of Tetris? Those lines blur together at some point.
As valuable as cramming skills can be in packing, that same mindset can be problematic when it comes to your newsletter updates. Allow me to point you in a different direction, one where you don’t try to squeeze in EVERY story and EVERY photo and EVERY prayer request, as important and meaningful as they all may be. When it comes to newsletters, the old adage rings true: less is more. Instead of 3-5 different stories, try one main and one smaller story, plus prayer requests. More frequent updates with less content area easier for supporters to consume and feel less overwhelming.
Find your focus
“When everyone’s super, no one will be.” –The Incredibles
Life as a missionary is often very full. Full of new relationships, ministry efforts, and funny cross-cultural faux pas. It can be a challenge to try to narrow down what to include in your updates. However, most supporters (and, let’s be honest, most of humanity) have limited attention spans. When faced with a crammed newsletter, many readers will opt to either skim or skip the update entirely. In other words, if you try to include everything, often your readers will get nothing.
To avoid your newsletter falling completely by the wayside, pick a particular theme to focus your photos, stories, and prayer requests around. Maybe it’s an upcoming project or recent mission team. Or it could be a specific passage of Scripture or an important relationship that is developing. We live in the information age and are perpetually bombarded with data from all sides. By picking a clear, simple focus for your newsletter, your updates can become a breath of fresh air rather than added noise.
White space is not your enemy
Repeat after me, just because I have space does not mean I need to fill space. Remember our packing analogy? This applies not only to newsletter content but also to how your newsletter looks. Chefs all over the world are taught that we eat with our eyes first, and the same is true when it comes to consuming visual content. If how something looks makes our brains go “Ew,” we are much less likely to take the time to really ingest it.
When it comes to practical guidelines for how much content works well for newsletters, we recommend around 450 words max and 2-3 photos per page.
Skimmers gonna skim
As nice as it would be to have all our readers hang on our every word after the hours we spend crafting compelling newsletters, some people will still skim it. We all know the skimmers are out there – maybe you’re even one yourself 😱, so how can we make sure even THOSE people get the most out of our newsletters? Make them skimmer-friendly with these three tips:
- Break up the text
- As much as we love the Apostle Paul, avoid making your newsletter look like an actual letter, with paragraph after paragraph of text and no interruptions. Try using pull quotes, images, or sidebars to keep things visually interesting.
- Utilize headings
- Don’t just free flow from one topic to another. Use headings to separate stories and capture the skimmer’s attention.
- Highlight prayer requests
- If you’re like me, probably the main takeaway you want supporters to glean from your newsletter is the prayer requests. Try giving them their own separate space or, if you include them in the body of your content, bold or highlight them so they don’t get lost.
Get help when you need it
We’ll be honest, good newsletters take time and some basic design know-how to pull off. Some people enjoy the challenge while others are overwhelmed by the task. The good news is – you have a design team in your back pocket with Commission Creative! If you’d like newsletters taken off your plate completely, we have a full newsletter service that includes design, printing, and mailing. If you prefer to print and mail yourself, we also offer a design-only service. Or, if you’re the DIY type but want a compelling layout to start out with, our new newsletter template would be a perfect fit!
What tips did we miss? We’d love to hear from other newsletter pros in the comments!