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Newsletter Archives
Spring Cleaning:
How Fresh Is Your
Content?
March 21 marks the first day of Spring this
year, and it’s a great time to evaluate your content to see if your
communications are still making an impact.
It’s easy to get into a rut by using the
same formulaic backgrounds, fonts and graphics for bulletins, but
without periodic updates your messages can get a bit stale. Spring
cleaning provides the perfect excuse to set aside time to take stock of
your visual communications strategy and to refresh and redirect your
efforts.
The first step is to review your visual
communications strategy goals. If you don’t have a
formalized plan, consider performance against these basic
objectives:
-
Capture the attention of the audience
-
Convey information to the audience
-
Motivate action by the audience
-
Encourage repeat viewing by the audience
Choose a representative month of bulletins
to examine. (Make sure it is within the last 90 days.) Examine the
content you published during one day, one week and then the entire
month.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Bulletin Design
1.
Do our individual bulletins
communicate information succinctly and stylishly?
2.
Are we using good
visual rules when designing our messages?
3.
Do bulletin colors, fonts, and
graphics all look good together?
Overall Presentation
1.
Is there a
visual continuity to our communications – any apparent discernable
themes or identity?
2.
Do bulletins look good
together when grouped in multiple-window layouts?
3.
Is there appropriate variety
in our bulletins to grab audience attention?
Effectiveness
1.
Are audiences paying regular
attention to our visual communications?
2.
Are they responding by taking
the requested action noted in bulletins?
3.
Are we
measuring the success of our messages?
 If
you answer “no” to any of these questions, you’re content may need a
clean up.
One easy way to solve the continuity
question while keeping your content fresh is to outline basic themes
that you can rotate on a monthly basis. Simply identify groups of visual
elements that work together to create a wide variety of themes. We
recommend at least four themes, so you can change your look every few
months.
- Choose a group of
ten to twelve backgrounds that
use a common
color scheme
- Select two fonts in
two colors (for headlines and
body text) that
complement your backgrounds
- Identify appropriate
graphics (photos, clip art,
etc.) that you
can use within the theme
Don’t confuse stale messages for
continuity in communications or
corporate identity. Even your standardized themes need to be examined
and refreshed periodically.
Remember – getting your audience’s attention
is only the first step. Keeping their attention is a constant challenge
that you have to work hard to meet.
Click here for our
Communications Checklist!
Copyright 2007. Visix, Inc. All rights reserved.
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