Most marketing people think of newsletters as quaint old things, like handwritten letters or mimeograph machines.

Newsletters are powerful.

But a newsletter goes right to the heart of your business: your real customers. The mailing list of your customers is pure gold.

Newsletter writing is not the same as writing copy to persuade.

The form of a newsletter can be a bit of a puzzle. The electronic newsletter has a few advantages: it's relatively cheap to produce (no printing) and distribution is inexpensive (no postage).

When producing an electronic newsletter there are a few considerations.

The traditional print newsletter requires layout, printing, and distribution, so it's generally a more costly proposition. Think of a good newsletter like an actual letter. With digital printing technology and a bulk rate mail permit, a print newsletter can be relatively economical. From time to time, one reader will physicially share your newsletter with a friend, colleague, or family member.

There are some new takes on how to produce a newsletter. I subscribe to a monthly newsletter that is a hodge-podge of media. If your organization can regularly crank out that kind of content, this grab-bag newsletter can be a real winner.

You could do an audio newsletter by recording an audio file and making it available on a CD.

So how do you do a newsletter? Don't make the mistake of letting your newsletter be a grass-roots endeavor. A good newsletter, even a quarterly one, requires constant work.

Can you measure the success of a newsletter? You should be doing better with a newsletter in place. Mail out the newsletter and see who replies.

Another test of a newsletter-be late or miss an issue. If no one complains, you have trouble. But if you get requests asking about the newsletter, then it is a winner.