An email newsletter is much cheaper to prepare and distribute than a printed newsletter and can also help to introduce tenants to your other online services. At the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, information officer Michelle Taylor sends out an "e-zine" every quarter. "Some people prefer the e-zine because it's easier for them to look at," she says.
Spread the word
If you decide to take the plunge into cyberspace, you'll need to build up a list of tenants' email addresses. You could include an announcement in your print newsletter and on your website, with a contact email address for those who want to sign up. Flyers could help, as could putting a sign-up list in your housing offices. Your email newsletter will grow in popularity as readers forward it to other people, so it is a good idea to include subscription details in the newsletter itself. As well as details on how to subscribe, it is essential to tell people how they can opt out of mailings, so include an unsubscribe link or email address.
The simplest way to send an e-newsletter is to store the names as a mailing list in a standard email package, such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes. The database will need some routine maintenance – updating email addresses, for example. Returned emails could be the result of a temporary failure, but if it happens three times, it's probably safe to remove the address from the list. Depending on the size of your list and the money available, you might want to invest in a piece of software that can do some of the maintenance automatically.
Sometimes, emails bounce back because they are blocked by security filters at the receiver's end. This could happen if you include attachments, which can be mistaken for viruses, or use language that the filter deems inappropriate. Emails with many names in the "To:" field can look like junk mail, or spam. You can avoid this by using the "Bcc:" field which also, more importantly, keeps your recipients' email addresses private. Make sure you check the relevant Data Protection Act legislation for rules on storing and using email addresses.
Liz Kenny, director of knowledge management internet-based benchmarking service Housemark, says that from its list of 5500 names, it receives 500 automatic responses, mainly from people on holiday. So she recommends setting up a dedicated email address just for the newsletter. "If you send it from your own account, you get all this junk back. You don't want to delete an email from your chief executive by mistake because it's in the middle of all the rubbish," Kenny warns.
Copying from other sites is plagiarism, but there are no restrictions on links to interesting sites
You should also check with your IT department or internet service provider that you are able to send out mailings en masse, and warn them to expect a surge.
Get the look
Before you decide what your e-newsletter should look like, subscribe to a few others first to get ideas. As well as news on your latest projects, announcements and calls for feedback, you could paste in links to new or updated pages on your website. A "useful links" section might contain addresses of other relevant websites, or new government policy documents.
Although copying text from other sites is plagiarism, there are no restrictions on including links to news stories you've found interesting, say, or amusing sites. Remember that, like a print newsletter, everything must conform to your organisation's equal opportunities policy and reflect the concerns of your audience.
People should be able to recognise your newsletter so they don't mistake it for junk, so stick to the same layout each time. Plain text is the best option. Although you can include colours and pictures by using HTML code, these emails are considerably larger and more likely to be blocked. If you can't give people a choice of how they receive the email, stick to the simplest form.
Source
Housing Today
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