As we all know, paper is getting less relevant. Many associations are scrambling to “go green” with their newsletters in an effort to reduce costs and make use of electronic means of delivery. Kudos for this!
However, what most associations are doing is simply emailing out a PDF version of the newsletter they used to print. While this does save money and takes advantage of modern electronic tools, there is a problem with this approach: it assumes that members want to consume information the same way they always have.
We need to abandon our old thinking of just “going green” with our newsletters because all this does is keeps us clinging to the idea that our communication needs to come out on an infrequent, scheduled basis as one big chunk of content called a “newsletter”.
Ask anyone today if they read newspapers or newsletters anymore and chances are they will acknowledge that they don’t have the time or the interest in reading a large publication full of content that they have to filter and digest.
Today’s association members consume information differently. While they typically will not read a multi-page newsletter (paper or electronic), they will notice bite-sized chunks of communication that can be consumed in 2 minutes or less. Examples of communication like this include: articles posted to the association website, a single-article email, blogs, Facebook posts, Twitter posts, LinkedIn discussions, SMS, YouTube videos, RSS, and community comments. Today’s association websites must replace the newsletter by truly becoming information hubs that also encourage social commenting.
Associations must offer choices, as well. There are so many ways to consume information today that in order to reach as many people as possible, we need to create a system that includes many different tools and touch points.
In order to evolve, associations must acknowledge this shift in information consumption and abandon the old idea of the “newsletter”. It takes a new kind of communications strategy to reach members today.
Isn’t it time to eliminate the newsletter?
