Print Newsletter

It’s better to have more, shorter articles in a print newsletter than to have one exhaustive article covering four pages. Shorter articles are more approachable. People can read one or two complete articles while they’re waiting in a doctor’s office. Plus, when you have multiple articles, readers are more likely to find at least one that captures their interest, thereby keeping them reading your newsletter. With one long article covering four pages, if the topic doesn’t call to them, you’ve lost a reader.

Email Newsletter (Ezine)

How many articles you include generally depends on how often you publish your newsletter. If weekly or bi-weekly, one main feature article (with lots of other nuggets) will do, so that you’re not overloading your audience. If monthly, you’ll still be fine with one. Two works, as well, as long as you use the teasers + link to full article approach.

Both Print & Electronic

The article length I recommend is anywhere between 350 words and 700 words, packed with great information. If you shoot for about 500 for all your articles, you’ll be good. We don’t rigidly adhere to the 350-700 rule with the newsletters we do for our clients. Our Top 10s tend to be shorter than 350, and that’s fine, cuz they’re just snapshots of info. And our feature articles have, on occasion, run 750-900 words. But in general, you want to shoot for fewer words. You don’t have your reader’s attention for very long. Make good use of it!