The reader relationship
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All the way through this report, I've emphasized the reader and your relationship with that reader.
The whole aim is to develop a relationship based on trust and loyalty, one that gives you the influence and impact you crave. The human voice and personality is also about this relationship; about addressing people at a human, personal level.
Do not, though, ever overestimate or take liberties with this relationship. The R word is constantly bandied around by marketers, but not by readers.
It's unlikely that any reader has ever given much thought to the "relationship" they have with your newsletter. Some may even be mortally offended or amused at the very concept.
Marketers, in particular, fall into the trap of assuming too much of the customer relationship. I love Amazon.com (in the platonic sense). I'm very loyal to them. I don't buy books anywhere else. Their marketers would probably think they've built a good relationship with me.
In the marketing sense, they have. But they're just the place I go online shopping - it's not that well-developed a relationship in a personal sense. We're not going to go out for a beer together (unless Amazon.com pays). So while you can assume much of a relationship, don't get too familiar with people.
One prominent (and much respected) publisher was once strongly criticized for signing up his existing subscribers to a new publication without asking their permission. His defense was that he felt he'd established a "relationship" with his readers which made such a move perfectly acceptable - within the context of that relationship.
That's nonsense. Even if this kind of relationship exists with select, long-term subscribers, just think about the people who only subscribed yesterday.
Care needs to be taken then in how you address your readers. If you talk to them as if they were all long-term subscribers and devotees of your publication, you may irritate newcomers and others less inclined to think of the newsletter as their extended family or community.
So be aware of the different audiences you have and address your comments accordingly.
The same warning applies to personalization, where you can use mail merge to have the recipient's name appear in the right place throughout the newsletter. So you can say, "Dear Chris" instead of "Dear reader", for example.
While this makes the whole newsletter seem more personal -- and personal is good for the relationship -- there are hidden dangers. Personalization can look contrived and clumsy if you don't use your data properly. Maybe Chris would rather be addressed as Mrs. Brown. Maybe she resents the familiarity.
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