“We have a newsletter” is not a strategy

Is your organization sending a monthly email newsletter?

Do you have evidence that it's actually helping your mission?

If not, you might be making a common mistake: assuming that "maintaining a newsletter" is equivalent to "having a strategy for engagement."

You'd be in good company. Many organizations are in a situation like this:

• Their newsletter content is centered around the organization itself.

• They can't name the specific outcomes they want to achieve through the newsletter.

• They're not monitoring the effectiveness of the newsletter in achieving those outcomes.

In short, their newsletter is a tactic without a strategy.

Of course, some organizations use their newsletter as a great tactic in support of a strategy. That usually looks like this:

• Its content is meaningful and valuable to the reader (instead of yet another installment of "News About Us").

• Its purpose and desired mission outcomes are clearly understood by the staff who manage it.

• Those staff are actively monitoring subscription numbers, opens, clicks, and other metrics to gauge its effectiveness against those outcomes.

Here's the thing:

Your organization is probably closer to one of the above scenarios.

The former is a recipe for a lot of work without meaningful results.

The latter is part of an effective overall strategy for helping your people achieve important next steps in their journey with you.

Which do you prefer?

All the best,
A.