Bringing order to chaos
The biggest challenge for the Fresno County Democratic Party’s e-mail newsletter was to make it look cohesive.
The newsletter was designed to publish announcements from more than a dozen related or affiliated organizations and candidates, none of which would adhere to a single design or content standard. The affiliated organizations and candidates would send their announcements in a variety of forms — text, PDF, JPG, Word docs, more — to me, expecting that they would look good when included in the biweekly newsletter.
My solution? First, build a good-looking and flexible “container” that could accommodate all of this various content. Then, ensure all of the links — which could be going to up to a dozen other websites — worked without breaking.
Because of the sheer number of items in a typical edition, I used a series of links “above the fold” to reach content farther down on the page. The newsletter needed to include a prominent “Donate or Contribute” link in every edition, and it needed to include mechanisms for feedback and for interested readers to volunteer for the organization.
I used either MailChimp or Constant Contact to distribute it to a list of more than 2,000 registered Democrats throughout Fresno County. Best of all? They liked my work… and found the newsletter both responsive and effective in helping the organization reach its goals.
Sample:
- The busy pre-election May 11, 2016 edition of the Fresno County Democratic Party’s E-mail newsletter