A forum newsletter should be intriguing, concise, and highlight users’ contributions. An intriguing subject line will compel the user to open the email and a concise set of news items will encourage him or her to visit the site. Highlighting users’ contributions is especially important because once users return to the site, the possibility of recognition by the site owner provides additional motivation for them to contribute.
Many small town newspapers have thrived despite the firehouse of news gushing out from the the 24-hour cable news cycle and countless websites dedicated to breaking important news. Their secret? Local focus. In the book Made To Stick the Heath Brothers reported a memo to employees from publisher of the Dunn, North Carolina Daily Record, Hoover Adams. The memo read, in part:
All of us know the main reason anybody reads a local newspaper is for local names and pictures. That’s the one thing we can do better than anybody else. And that’s the thing our readers can’t get anywhere else.
Adams later credited his newspaper’s success by saying it’s good fortune was the result of three things: names, names, and names.
We have found success in terms of user engagement by applying this concept to our forum newsletters. Although writing a newsletter each month can be a time sink, we proudly help site owners prepare and send newsletters on a regular basis. After all, the users who make your forum spring to life deserve recognition for making such valuable contributions. This recognition in turn inspires more contributions—the foundation of a healthy and active forum.
