Bill Roach recently wrote about the benefits of starting a newsletter not only to keep your students informed of your classes, alert them to schedule changes, or provide fitness tips, but also to increase your connection with them, leading to increased attendance and loyalty. In this article, Bill goes the next step and outlines how to collect and manage your email lists and distribute your e-mail newsletters. You recently may have seen my interview with Jennifer discussing why an informal student newsletter might be a good thing for your teaching. One of the main reservations I hear about doing a newsletter is uncertainty about how to manage the lists and the mailing process.
You can either manage the newsletter yourself with your own e-mail client, or you can subscribe to a web-based service. You need to make an informed decision about how to proceed so that you don’t limit your options later. You don’t want to spend more money than necessary or get involved in some long and tedious technical process.
It should also be said that a newsletter is not the answer for everyone. You may wish to use other means for out-of-class communications such as a blog, Facebook, or simple class handouts. In the future, we will also discuss blogs and handouts. Here is a discussion on how to use Facebook (from earlier this year).
In this article, I plan to outline how I manage the lists for my newsletter. In a future article, I will review some of the commercial products designed for this purpose.
This is excellent an addition and much appreciated Bill. I look forward to your future articles.
Thank you