by Sue Horner | Jun 18, 2013 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The caller got right to the point. “How much does it cost for a 250-word newsletter article?” The thing about services is that there’s rarely a simple answer to “How much?” You can always answer with a range, but that’s only helpful if you provide context and details....
by Sue Horner | Jun 3, 2013 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
“Grizzle makes me sizzle.” You can bet that I will never mispronounce (retired) Judge Stanley Grizzle’s name again. For the record, it’s “Grizz – ZELL.” But mispronounce it I did when calling to set up an interview with the...
by Sue Horner | Apr 25, 2013 | Most popular posts, The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The easier we make it to read our newsletters and other material, the more people will read, understand and retain. Sometimes copy reviewers – engineers and lawyers spring to mind – will challenge you. They’ll try to turn simple words into stilted, formal...
by Sue Horner | Apr 5, 2013 | Most popular posts, The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Some days I look at the topic a client has asked me to write about and think, “How on earth am I going to make this interesting?” You know the topics. They’re necessary, but they aren’t the sexiest. Safety reminders, maybe, or a potentially dry...
by Sue Horner | Jan 9, 2013 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
As the new year gets underway, advice abounds on how to keep the resolutions that are going to make this year the best ever. One of the most effective tactics, apparently, is to tell people what you’re going to do. So let it be known that I am launching my own...
by Sue Horner | Dec 17, 2012 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A colleague is tearing her hair out. A graphic designer, she’s created some attractive, readable, interesting employee newsletters and community reports. She meets every deadline, which always start out urgent. But somehow, every time a publication is almost...
by Sue Horner | Nov 7, 2012 | Most popular posts, The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen is a big fan of email newsletters, which he says can “create much more of a bond between user and company than a website can.” The bad news is that the bond can be affected by usability problems like making it complicated...
by Sue Horner | Jun 12, 2012 | Most popular posts, The Red Jacket Diaries blog
There used to be a service that provided “canned” content to be used as filler for employee newsletters. I never understood why. A newsletter is precious real estate. Even an e-newsletter only has so much space available before the reader gets distracted...
by Sue Horner | May 2, 2012 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Working on a client’s employee newsletter has kept my nose to the grindstone for a bit (why hello blog! should I re-introduce myself?). And it also reminded me that the corporate world has much to do to keep employees reading their newsletters. Despite company...
by Sue Horner | Mar 8, 2012 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
While my last post post about how often to publish a newsletter was already in the works, it got finished because of a comment made by Steve Crescenzo in an issue of IABC’s Communication World. I know Steve is a big fan of print newsletters, so he shocked me by...
