As any parent with young children will tell you, kids have no problem asking questions. Even the simplest declaration can set off an avalanche of inquiries that would make the most experienced journalist proud. They leave no possibility unexplored and are committed to revealing every detail.

When writing a story for your email newsletter or blog that requires fact gathering via research or interviews, it is important for us to ask all the right questions as well. I have learned over the last 25 years or so that the most important part of the story-writing process is making sure to ask the questions that your readers would ask if they had the same opportunity.

Of course, we all know about the six biggies – who, what, why, where, when and how – and if those are all answered you should be in pretty good shape. In reality, though, it is not always that simple. Unless you are writing about an upcoming church bake sale, you need to understand the subject as well as possible and then get at the heart of what your story should really be about.

If it is profile of a supporter, for example, don’t waste time asking about resume stuff, ask about what motivates them to be part of your organization. Ask them who they respect. Ask them what advice they would give the next generation of supporters.

Here’s another helpful hint: Listen to what they are saying. It is really easy to write down their answers and move on instead of listening and following up with another question that could shed light on something you did not expect. Many times, that is where the best stuff comes from.

So while I am not recommending that your treat your next interview subject like a parent who just announced the family is going to the zoo tomorrow, I do encourage you to take a moment to think about what you need to ask. Make a list of questions ahead of time that covers all the bases, and then step back and ask yourself what else someone reading this would want to know. Go beyond the obvious to get to the place that allows you to tell a great story.

And that will be a huge step toward making you a better writer.

I have developed somewhat of a bad habit at home. I don’t necessarily think it’s bad, but based on some recent body language I have received, I may need to rethink my position on it. Every once in a blue moon, I may correct someone on the way they are using a word or phrase. Not in an obnoxious way, of course, but more in the saying back the correct word in a childlike tone as if asking if that is what they really meant to say way.

See, I told you it wasn’t obnoxious.

What else am I supposed to do? I am a writer. An editor, for Pete’s sake. It is my vocational duty to enforce the rules of proper word usage on those I love. I think Strunk and White would be proud of me.

It is important to note that there are many similar words from which one may choose to communicate a thought, but far too often people use words that simply do not mean what they think they mean. And I am not talking about using words that are not even words – such as irregardless. I mean choosing the exact word that means precisely what you mean and nothing less.

When writing your email newsletters and blogs, don’t give in to the temptation to be close enough. If you can’t think of the right word, leave XXXs and come back to it. Use a thesaurus or online dictionary or tweet your conundrum and see what responses you get. (That was a test – a conundrum is a riddle with an answer that is or involves a pun –  clearly not the right word but used like that a lot.)

Even the most mundane pieces can come to life when time is taken to choose words carefully. Your readers deserve your best effort.

What are some of your favorite misuses of words?

Tips for Better E-newsletter and Blog Writing (No. 10)

As a longtime editor and reader of intern-penned articles, I often was faced with explaining why their papers were overwhelmed with red ink. My opening line was usually, “It’s not as bad as it looks.” Although, usually it was.

I then would go through their stories — item by item — and explain the reasoning for my suggestions. We would spend time working on bad grammar, inconsistent style and faulty construction, but what I really tried to focus on was the concept that writing is about communicating an idea. It is about gathering facts and presenting them in an unbiased fashion so the reader can draw their own conclusions. Or it is about having a point of view and revealing it in a compelling way.

Certainly, good writing requires a fundamental and technical understanding of the language and the rules that we must follow. But it is the art of writing that captures people’s hearts, builds trust and changes opinion.

So like I would tell my interns, let’s works on the nuts and bolts as we go along, but put your energy in the message. Tell your story. Let it fly and then come back and clean it up. No one will care about a missed comma when they have been moved.

And even if they do, at least it’s a comment on your blog.

Other than your mom, spouse and kids (before they become teenagers), do people really know what makes you special? Do your clients actually understand what you bring to the table? Can they see beyond the obvious to the essential value of what you provide? If not, you may have a problem.

In fact, it is the core of this value that should serve as the foundation for the content of your email newsletters.

When you are deciding what kinds of stories to put in your newsletter, it is easy to get caught up in the bells and whistles of your product or service, or focus on stories that simply convey useful information related to your company. That’s fine as long as your real message does not get lost in the shuffle.

What is it that you really sell? For davemail, it is not email newsletters or dependable delivery or even detailed tracking reports. We help clients develop more meaningful, loyal and profitable relationships with their customers through professionally written, edited and designed newsletters.

If you own a tree service, do you really sell tree trimming or is it safety, increased property value and peace of mind? When you strip away whatever it is you use to deliver your product or service, what is it that instills confidence and trust in you and your company? What unique combination of skills and experiences do you possess that encourages customers to choose you over the competition?

Whatever that is needs to be communicated in every newsletter you create. The message of who you are as a company and what you really provide can never be told enough.

For lots and lots of people, creating relevant, compelling content for their email newsletters can be a grind — bordering on downright unpleasant. No matter how enthusiastic one is about their business, it often is hard to come up with three or four good topics — much less actually write about them.

While there are ways to find decent content for your email newsletter from a variety of places that include news sites, Google alerts, blogs and a number of online sources that offer free or low-cost articles on a wide variety of subjects, the best stuff is always going to come directly from you.

The question is how to get it out of you and on to paper (well, if we still used paper).

At davemail, we are all about custom newsletter content, so this is a big issue around here. I am finding more clients like to just get on the phone and talk through the stories. They use our online content planner to get things started, and then we set up a time and they just talk. I do my best to keep them on track and make sure we get the vital information, but mainly, I just listen.

So if you need to get content from a client (or colleague or boss) and they are holding things up, you may suggest a meeting or phone call and let them just talk through their ideas. It is working really well for us and helping to keep newsletters on schedule.

It is no secret to anyone who has every attempted to send an HTML email newsletter that coding can be a tricky thing. Designing a nice newsletter with background images, lots of color and text perfectly wrapped around your images is not that hard. Getting it to show up that way in your recipients’ mailbox, however, is a different kettle of fish (as they say across the pond).

The problem is really not the coding —  real HTML is pretty straight forward — it is the WYSIWYG online editors that can cause issues. These editors are popular for non-Web developers because you can use them like a word processor or simple image editing software. Highlight the copy, click on the style and let it happen. The problem is that they often drop in random code, and editing one section can lead to unexpected style changes to adjoining copy or bumped photos.

Newsletters cannot be designed with style sheets (CSS) like Web sites, unless it is done inline, which means using old-school tables with code dropped in every time instead of styles for headlines, sidebars etc. being controlled in the header.

Then there is the issue of the many available email clients interpreting or tolerating code in different ways. What looks perfect in Outlook 2003 may be a jumbled mess in Gmail. The fact that Outlook 2007 and 2010 render email in Word should be a clue to how simple good emails should really be.

So what is the answer? It is always a good idea to test your newsletter in as many email clients as possible, remembering that simple is always better. Fancy stuff often gets stripped out — leaving weird design holes. When that is done and it is as clean and reliable as possible, it is time to use the email newsletter “get out of jail free” card.

At davemail, we offer the option to read the newsletter in a browser at the top of every newsletter we send. This option gives recipients the opportunity to read it in its designed state, without the quirks developed through email delivery. If it looks right in your browser (particularly Firefox, which can be a little finicky), then it will always look good in their browser.

By adding the browser option, you can be sure that your email will always look right and be fully functional. And that is a good thing.

The davemail team wants to give away a year’s worth of email newsletters, including all the extras, but we need your help. We are looking to the small-business community to nominate non-profit organizations that are making a big impact with limited resources. We realize that describes most non-profits, but we are looking for a group that could not normally afford to outsource their communications.

The chosen organization will receive free content planning, writing assistance, copy editing, custom design and online email tracking services for four email newsletters over the next 12 months. In addition, we will send the newsletters to up to 2,500 recipients each quarter at no charge. We plan to make the same offer in July and again in October.

The rules are simple. The organization must be nominated by a business or individual (not employed by the organization) and will be chosen based on financial need and its impact on the community as judged by the davemail team. The deadline for nominations is April 9.

If you want to be a hero for an organization close to your heart, here’s your chance!

For a nomination form, please click HERE. For more information about davemail, click anywhere on this site.

P.S. We are using social media only to get the word out, so please post, share, link and tweet the news however you feel appropriate.

Thanks for your help.

The issue of using lists of email addresses generated by someone other than you continues to be a hot topic. I received an email this week asking for my opinion about using a list provided by the organizers of a trade show.   

Here was the question:

I have a large list of names/emails from a trade show that we attended. The list was given to all the vendors who partnered for the show. So it’s valid. There are many organizations on the list that registered multiple individuals under a single email address (probably an HR person). Does it violate CAN-SPAM to extrapolate the valid email addresses for the registrants on the list via the email pattern of the given email (i.e. first initial last name @org.com)? 

Here was my answer:

Unless the show attendees specifically gave organizers permission to be contacted by vendors, you do not have permission to send them anything through email. It is a common misunderstanding that addresses acquired through trade shows are fair game. Just because the show organizers share their list with you, it does not mean the participants said they could. And it certainly would be spam to then try and figure out other attendee names by following the pattern of the names you do have and send them email.

The bottom line remains simple — only the individual can give you permission, not a third party. Show organizers often want to dangle that list in front of vendors as an incentive to participate, but they rarely have the right to do so. Beware of such an offer, and ask yourself if it is worth it.

Follow-up

For the record, the person who sent me the question is a stand-up guy looking for ways to build business within the rules. He was checking back with the organizers to establish what level of permission they were given. A way around this situation would be to send individual emails to show attendees asking if they would like to receive email communications from you. If they say yes, it is all good. If they don’t respond, then you have your answer there as well.

In searching for keywords that people use when seeking information about email newsletters, I made a rather disturbing discovery. The No. 1 term searched for was “email lists.” Apparently, last month more people searched for information on purchasing a list of email addresses than newsletter design, writing, deliverability or email marketing combined. And the news only gets worse. Nine of the top 20 search terms related to email newsletters had the word “list” in them. It became quite obvious to me (I’m quick that way) that some marketers are more interested in getting their message to as many people as possible than crafting whatever the message actually is.

Not to be a negative Nellie, but this is not a good indicator of sound judgment – much less knowledge of spam laws. Sending an email newsletter about your company to clients, (qualified) prospects and other legitimate contacts should be about building relationships with those who have given you permission to communicate with them.

It is about delivering content created specifically for that audience. It is about building loyalty. Sending email newsletters to a list gathered by a third party based on demographics is an absolute waste of time and money. Even if it gets past the spam filters, few recipients welcome unexpected email from someone they don’t know.

That is no way to begin a business relationship. Be patient and gather your email addresses the old-fashioned way. Ask for them. Then you will have a list of recipients who should actually be anxious to hear from you. And that is a good thing.

Even in a world where shocking images are delivered on a daily basis through the Internet and cable news channels, what is happening in Haiti right now is difficult to comprehend. The devastation is so complete — both physically and emotionally — as survivors try to hang on, the displaced seek shelter and the world tries frantically to find ways into the tiny island nation to care for its people with supplies and hope.

And there is hope.

Millions of dollars have been raised by Americans texting to relief agencies. Small volunteer medical and recovery teams are flying in every day without regard for themselves to be part of the effort. In the coming days and weeks, there will be more high-profile pleas for support and updates from the media on progress being made.

But while this event is an almost immeasurable tragedy, the possibility for good to come from it remains.

The biggest challenge for us, as comfortable, rich (even in a recession), well-meaning Americans, is to resist tragedy fatigue. It is easy to get emotionally involved from a distance for a short time. Our hearts sink at the site of sheet-draped bodies in the streets, and they rise with the rescue of a family from the rubble. But what happens a month from now? Six months from now?

The health-care debate will be back in full swing soon, with a fight over cap-and-trade legislation not far behind. Tiger Woods may re-emerge, and there is certain to be a celebrity doing something really stupid to captivate us for a couple days somewhere along the line. It is way too easy to slowly push extended human suffering onto the back burner every time something new pops onto the radar screen.  

So what is the answer? I certainly don’t know, but the ongoing tragedy in Haiti has made me think about the suddenness of circumstances and how easy it is to think we have all the time in the world to do what needs to be done. How easy it is to watch TV at night instead of spending time on things that can make a difference to someone else.

So how does good come from this? Well, other than delivering much-needed immediate relief and contributing however we can, we can allow it to change our lives. We can develop a love for people we have never met. We can be less selfish and show more urgency for the things with eternal consequences. We can get off our butts and do something that matters.

That way, just maybe, six months from now, we will still be interested in the plight of the Haitian people, many of whom will still be homeless, hungry and in need of some compassion. Let’s hope so.