I am to help a group to come out with a newsletter. I need ideas as how to develop a very good newsletter?

I am to help a group in an organisation to come out with a newsletter. I need ideas as how to develop a very good newsletter. This newsletter should be able to market the orgnation as well catching any reader's attention. i need ideas as to the design, content planing etc.

Use Consistency, Conservation, Contrast to Improve Newsletter Design
Have you ever looked at a newsletter -- yours or someone else's -- and couldn't quite put your finger on what was wrong with the newsletter design? Look more closely. Does it appear haphazard, thrown together with each page having a different look? Is it cluttered with multiple fonts, photos, and unnecessary clip art? Do the pages appear gray and monotonous?
The first lesson of good newsletter design is to practice the 3Cs:


Consistency
Conservation (Clutter-busting)
Contrast
As with any design, these are not hard and fast rules. There is rarely only one way to do something. But follow these guidelines and you can turn a bad or so-so newsletter design into a more eye-pleasing publication. No newsletter can survive without good content but our aim in the Newsletter Design Clinic is to present your content in an attractive, effective package.

To read more go to http://desktoppub.about.com/od/newslette...

You should tailor the newsletter to the interests of the audience who will be reading it. That's great that you want to market but your focus should be on the audience. If you do that then you will catch the reader's attention. You should also figure out what you want to accomplish, figure out how to quantify that so you can tell if it has been successful or if improvement is needed. The design should be simple. You don't want to confuse or overwhelm your readers. Write the newsletter in a style that speaks to 1 person rather than a group. Good luck to you. If you can, have another person critique it so you can make any necessary changes. It's good to test it out before sending it.

Market the organisation to whom?

If it is a general brochure, you need aclear simple statement of what the organisaion is about. sort of one sentence on like who, what, where, how, etc.

Again, different readers want to see different things. What I would write with kids as target is vastly different to adults with money seeking a cheque/check.

Hint, if you are about recruitment, photos of people doing stuff work really well. Members do not care about glossy newsletters with colour photos. Good B&W (use B&W film) is fine.

I've always used spiritual, practical and social as the three prongs.

Your spiritial is the is the why.

The practical is what you HAVE DONE, activity reports, etc. Yapping on about plan after plan after plan is just killing trees.

Any group of people needs social. Some groups go in for the extra social activities (aka singles), whereas with others, make sure all the photographs are groups phoos of happy people doing stuff. Hint, natural photos, not cheessy staged.