Balancing Content In Newsletters

By Mike Alexander

The Look And The Substance: Balance seems such a obscure term that, in all honesty, it can occasionally be a bit difficult to explain. However, it is really not tremendously different to measuring weights on a set of scales. In order to acquire balance when measuring goods, one needs to equate the object being weighed on the one side with a counterwieght on the other. There are only two important considerations to take into account when looking to achieve the same outcome in a newsletter. On the one hand there’s the visual perspective (in other words the way the publication looks) and on the other there’s the ‘content’ perspective, and for each a different set of rules apply.

Balancing Layout: Try to avoid a cluttered layout at all costs. The best way to do this is by employing a magnanimous amount of white space. A crowded page full of tiny (or giant) type looks incredibly ugly and gives the impression (and look) of a legal document rather than a useful newsletter or article full of good information. Other items that make an article or newsletter more acceptable visually, and more understandable to the reader, include breaking the text into smaller blocks, headings and sub-headings, different typefaces for the body as opposed to the headings, different colors, captions, and so on. One proviso is that any changes should be made with the utmost moderation. Too many different colored headings, typefaces, captions etc. make for a very jumbled layout.

Content Balance: Serious content needs to be balanced by easy to read or witty content whenever possible. Heavy emphasis on one particular topic might be balanced by the introduction of a sidebar (or some similar balancing device) on a related but different subject. ‘How-To’ articles can be balanced by ‘Question and Answer’ features and individual, sometimes called ‘one off’, articles can be offset by regular features or even serialized stuff. It’s all a matter of working towards getting the mix right. Keep the reader in mind and allow yourself to be guided by your instincts and you won’t go far wrong.

A Lighter Vein: The most popular way to introduce a lighter vein into a newsletter or similar publication is to employ humor. This can be done by the inclusion of jokes, cartoons, funny stories, nonsense verses such as limericks-even simple clipart caricatures incorporated into article headings. Obviously, gratuitous humor is nowhere near as effective as topic-focused humor. A cartoon that gives an amusing slant to the main topic on the page, even if the association is somewhat tenuous, tends to be far more ‘balancing’ than one that does not seem to have any obvious link to the subject matter at all. Sometimes it might even unbalance things. Another word of caution too, especially if you write your own material; make sure that anything you include because of its humor value cannot be mistaken as simply facetious comment. If your sense of humor tends towards the quirky and you’re unsure whether everyone will ‘get the joke’, err on the side of prudence and leave it out.

Quizzes And Puzzles: These can prove very welcome as a way of balancing content and you do not have to be a wordsmith yourself to know that crosswords are one of the most popular pastimes ever devised. As with most other fillers, topic-focused material tends to be more effective than non-topic specific copy but it does not need to be anywhere near as relevant to the subject as is the case with humor or advice-type features. Don’t underestimate the potential that these types of items offer your newsletters. Many people scan every publication that falls into their hands for their crossword ‘fix’.

Giving Advice: Any kind of ‘advice’ items can ameliorate newsletter balance. The best types are usually of the common ‘tips’ variety. ‘This Month’s Car Tips’, ‘The Weight Loss Column’, ‘Household Hints’, are all examples of the types of titles that might be used. Included as part of this genre would be astrological forecastings or ‘What the Stars Say’. Admittedly, these would be entirely undesirable for many newsletters; they would need to have very particular readership profiles for them to be considered suitable. But, for the right type of readers, they could prove a very worthy addition. Recipes and similar items are also forms of ‘advice’ fillers but, popular though they might sometimes be, the same reservations apply for them as they do for astrology columns.

Mike Alexander is a ‘content’ expert, having created and edited a print publication with nation-wide distribution. He has several online interests, among which is ClipCopy Content Solutions, where you will find a number of articles covering topics similar to above.

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