E-Newsletter Guide
Guidelines for WiREMail contributors
The WIRE e-newsletter is all about showcasing our members’ businesses. This is a member only benefit. All the content is provided by WiRE members and partners BUT we send the e-newsletter to our database. Not yet a member? Find out why you should join.
Our website has lots of new features and means that you no longer have to send your news by email attachment – WiRE Members can submit news directly via the website. It’s really easy, just go to the member area and login.
- Your username is your email address and you may need to reset your password – just click the forgotten password button.
- When you login you will see options to edit your member profile, scroll down and you’ll see the option to upload news and a bit further down to upload a Knowledgebase article.
- Click then type or copy and paste; you can use the “paperclip” icon for online links and the dropdown on the left to add a header – the picture from your member profile will appear at the top of the news item
- As soon as your piece is moderated it appears on the WiRE Website (so much more time for extra exposure) and we’ll link to it in the next WiREMail.
To find more about the WiRE Website features, including adding your social media links, contributing to the WiRE Knowledgebase and posting a note, click here Only WiRE Members feature in WiREmail so it’s a great marketing opportunity and way to make the most of your membership.
So here’s the guidelines to make it easy for you to get your news featured.
Not sure what to send? Every two months there will be a theme given to the WiRE e-Newsletter. So if you have anything that relates to that theme, please do send it in.
Content we love from WIRE members:-
- Business launches
- Winning awards
- Successful collaborations
- Fund raising and community activities
- New product ranges
- New services
- Innovative marketing
- Business help articles
- New training courses
- Stories that inspire others
*Top Tip Recycle your content
Don’t reinvent the wheel! If you’re already promoting yourself around the web and have written or posted something along the lines of the theme, just send us a snippet and a link to your:-
- Blog article
- Pinterest board
- Facebook page
- Twitter page
- Sales page
- Online press release
*Top Tip Remember your calls to action (with links).
If you don’t tell people what to do next, they’ll do something else! For instance, ask the reader to:-
- Email for a quote
- Phone to book
- Book a place
- Visit your website
- Visit your Facebook page
Images
You don’t need to send an image with your news, the website will automatically pick up the picture of you from your profile page. If you do want send a different picture please email to Fiona@wireuk.org
* Top Images Tips
Here are some guidelines. Don’t worry if you’re not sure how to change things, at the end are links to free online photo editing sites.
- We can use image files formatted as .jpg, .gif, or .png.
- We need web ready images, i.e. saved in a RGB format not a CMYK format (generally used for printed material).
- Please don’t use spaces or special characters in the filename for the image. It helps if the file name says who or what is in the photo e.g. JulietFay.
- Please keep the image size to 1MB maximum, otherwise the e-newsletter gets slow to load and we don’t want that!
Here are some free online image editing sites to help you crop, re-size and reduce your images:
* Top Tip – Editing and proof reading
With a small staff and the large amount of content we distribute through all platforms, it isn’t possible for us to proof read all your content, so follow these quick tips to do the job yourself.
- If possible leave 12 hours between finishing writing and proof reading. The gap makes it easier to edit and proof read.
- Read it aloud – awkward sentences jump out.
- Read through first to edit (i.e. make major changes to structure or content).
- Read through again to proof read (i.e. to make small corrections such as typos and punctuation errors).
- If you use a spell checker, please read it through again afterwards.
- Ideally, ask someone else to proof read it for you.
