How long should a newsletter be, and what goes in it?

There is no correct length. A newsletter should be as long as the one job it has to do this month, and for many small organisations that is shorter than the draft in front of them. We know of no trustworthy figure that applies across parish councils, charities and independent essayists, so be suspicious of anyone who offers you an ideal word count. Decide what a reader should know or do when they reach the end, put that first, and cut anything which does not help.

Write the sentence before you write the issue

Before opening your email tool, finish this sentence: "After reading this, I want you to..." The answers might be "come to the AGM on the 14th", "understand why the grant fell through" or "enjoy 800 words about hedgerows". Each one suggests a different length and shape.

A notice needs little. An essay can run long because the reading is the whole point. Trouble comes from the common organisational issue that tries to do everything: a welcome from the chair, three reports, a volunteer appeal, a fundraising link and a recipe from a member. Each item has someone who wanted it included, and none has a reader asking for it.

If you need several items, rank them, then give the top one real room. Everything else gets a line and a link.

Subject lines: say what is inside

The subject line has one task, which is to help a busy person decide. Compare these.

Put the informative words first, because phone screens may cut the rest off. Most tools also let you set preview text, the snippet shown next to the subject in many inboxes. Use it to add something new. If you leave it blank, some email programs will fill it with whatever comes first in your message, which is often a "view in browser" link.

And be honest. A subject that misleads to win an open will cost you trust, and complaints from annoyed readers feed into how mailbox providers treat you.

Editing an opening, line by line

Here is an opening we made up to show the common faults:

Welcome to the autumn edition of our newsletter! It has been an incredibly busy few months here at the Trust and we are delighted to be able to share with you some exciting updates regarding the progress of our various initiatives.

That is more than forty words and the reader has learned nothing. Now the same paragraph once someone has asked what actually happened:

The Trust has the keys to the old library. We can open for bookings in January if we find eight more volunteers by Christmas. Could you do one morning a month?

The second version is shorter, and that is not the main gain. It says what happened, what it depends on, and what you can do about it. The Government Digital Service's advice on writing for user interfaces was written for online services, but it applies well to email: short sentences, one idea per sentence, important words first, and unnecessary words gone.

Things that make people stop reading

Most of these come down to writing for the organisation rather than the reader.

• Internal language. Committee names and project codes mean nothing to most readers. Say what the thing does.
• Thanks that go on for paragraphs. Thanking volunteers is good. A long list of names is mostly read by the people on it, so consider a separate page and one warm sentence.
• Clever formatting. Several columns collapse badly on phones. A single column with clear headings survives almost anywhere.
• Important text inside images. Some readers have images off or use a screen reader. Put the date and place of an event in live text, and write proper alt text for anything that carries meaning.
• "Click here". A link saying "book a place at the AGM" tells people where they are going before they go.

The independent writer's version

If the newsletter is the product, some of this flips. Length is fine if it earns its place, and a personal, wandering voice can be exactly why people subscribed. The discipline moves elsewhere: consistency of subject, a first paragraph that makes the promise of the piece clear, and an ending that stops when the idea does.

Keep a list of ideas somewhere you can reach it from a phone. Set a publishing rhythm you can sustain on a bad month, since a promised weekly that turns into a guilty quarterly is harder on a reader than an honest "whenever I have something to say". And tell people what your rhythm is on the sign-up form.

Paid slots need care. The CAP Code's rule 2.1, in its section on recognition of marketing communications, says that marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such. Label sponsored sections plainly at the top, and do not write them in the same voice as your own recommendations unless you say so clearly.

The footer is part of the writing

Readers should be able to see who sent this and how to leave. That is partly a matter of regulation 23 of PECR, and partly courtesy. We like a line that reminds people why they are receiving the email: "You're getting this because you signed up at the Trust's open day". It heads off some spam complaints, and it forces you to check the claim is true.

Add your organisation's real name and a contact address. Make the unsubscribe link easy to see. Someone who leaves cleanly is much better for you than someone who hits the spam button, a point we return to in the letter on cleaning a list.

Read it on a phone, aloud, before you send

Send yourself a test and open it on a phone. Read it aloud once. You will hear the sentence that has too many clauses, and you will notice how far you have to scroll before you get to the thing that matters. Click every link. Check the date and the day of the week agree, since that is the error readers write in about.

Then ask whether you would open this if it came from someone else. If not, cut it down and send what remains. A short, useful issue is never a failure.