Engage new audiences with dynamic newsletterQ from Creative Circle

We build templates for our clients' newsletters but we wouldn't want to cripple them with a format. Our templates, driven by a flexible builder, allow for different photo sizes, headline sizes and story lengths.”

Bill Ostendorf, Creative Circle's founder and president

QuickLook: newsletterQ

NewsletterQ includes many customizable features that can pull content from your website and present them in an emailed newsletter. Here’s a look at some of the features:

> No technical or HTML skills needed to produce newsletters.

> We can provide multiple templates.

> Presents stories as headlines, headlines with leads or full stories.

> Can feature stories, calendar items, native content, video, audio, photos and web or print ads.

> Dynamic design: newsletterQ allows you to vary the size and weight of each story, adding visuals of different sizes and using different headline weights.

> Integrates with your ad server, too, allowing you to pull any ad into your newsletters or e-blasts.

> Works with all mail delivery platforms, such as MailChimp and Constant Contact.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Now you can deliver news alerts and targeted content to readers and build communities around your best content with newsletterQ, a new software add-on rolling out from Creative Circle Media Solutions for sites using the company’s mediasiteQ and communityQ products.

The potential of a newsletter to drive traffic to your website is huge, and neweletterQ eliminates any need to know HTML or time-consuming big cut-and-paste processes. That’s because newsletterQ pulls content directly from your web CMS into an easy-to-build template.

“We’ve built a platform that is extremely flexible and can feature anything in your Creative Circle web platform right into a custom designed newsletter,” said Creative Circle founder and president Bill Ostendorf. “That includes web display ads, QuickAds, native news, calendar items, stories, photos and videos. It’s another great reason why our CMS products are a great choice for any publication or business.”

newsletterQ comes on the heels of the recent upgrade to Creative Circle’s mediasiteQ content management system, which heralds a breakthrough for news-dynamic design on media news sites. Now the new concept of flexible templates first used on web site landing pages is being applied to newsletters as well. The two upgrades combined mean that media companies at last have easy ways to present the news as it changes all through the cycle and push it out through news alerts.

“This is a high-engagement scenario that previously has been hard to pull off without a lot of labor or a lot of tech,” Ostendorf said. “This comes at a time when newspapers sorely need ways to pull readers in throughout the news cycle. Or build more engaged readers around their unique niches through local content.”

newsletterQ calls up stories from your website through a search and builds stories in layers that can be designed using multiple, flexible templates. “You can have one for breaking news,” Ostendorf said. “Or you can have a noon news update. Or we can provide templates for niche audiences that are perfect for newsletters.”

Niches that can provide an easy win might  include a newsletter targeting tourists, weekend events, foodies, the business sector or sports fans. “All you need a small audience and a sponsoring advertiser who needs to reach that niche and you are off. There are several opportunities like these in virtually every market,” says Ostendorf.

Ads can be pulled into the newsletter template, offering newspapers an upsell to online advertisers who want to be in the newsletter. Or you can create new zones just for newsletters. Video, audio and photos can easily be embedded in the newsletter, too.

newsletterQ includes easy-to-build display options that customize the news and the presentation to your audience, Ostendorf said. It also gives editors what Ostendorf calls volume control. “You can choose a large, medium or small headline.  You can include an inset or large photo. You can display just the headline or a headline with a summary. The combinations are endless.”

newsletterQ works with any mail delivery platform such as MailChimp or Constant Contact, Ostendorf said.

The new platform is available to any Creative Circle CMS client for a modest setup and monthly fee.

“We wanted to create something more dynamic for newsletters,” said Ostendorf. “Some of our clients generate more revenue from newsletters than they do with their web site. It’s a critical publishing outlet for media companies and now users of our CMS have the best newsletter platform in the industry.”

About Creative Circle

For 30 years, Creative Circle Media Solutions has been the newspaper industry's most innovative consulting, training, design and software firm. Creative Circle has led training and consulting projects for more than 250 media companies in 23 countries. In the United States, Creative Circle consultants have led the redesign of more than 550 newspapers and magazines and more than 250 media websites.

Founder and president Bill Ostendorf heads up the team at Creative Circle, based in East Providence, R.I.

See it work! Schedule a demo

Bill Ostendorf is available for demos about newsletterQ, the software that maximizes engagement with your website news by providing an easy-to-gather and easy-to-design way to send out alerts about your best content.

Find out how technology like newsletterQ can help you reach more readers now.