Communicating Ideas and Information

The information on this web page forms part of the 1999 'County Durham Sustainable Communities Initiative'. The campaign is currently being reviewed and developed as a region wide project.

The information on this web page has been adapted from a factsheet provided by the Durham Rural Community Council.

Why do we need to Communicate Ideas and Information?

For community-led projects and activities to be successful, groups and organisations need to involve as many people as possible. This allows everyone’s ideas to be valued, the workload to be shared, the project or activities to be appropriate to everyone’s needs, and for the outcome of the project or activity to be respected and valued within the community. To involve people, however, groups and organisations need to effectively present and promote their activities.

How do We Communicate Ideas and Information?

Community groups often use a range of different ways to communicate ideas and information. These include leaflets, posters, adverts, flyers, newsletters, displays and annual reports as well as designing logos and letterheads to create an image and attract people’s attention.

This leaflet concentrates on ways of presenting and promoting your community’s activities through posters, leaflets and newsletters.

Designing Posters

Posters can be used to promote specific goods, services and events or are used to promote your organisation generally.

Posters get your message across to either complete strangers or to people who have an interest in your work, but aren’t expecting to receive any information.

Your poster needs to:

Grab their attention
Get their interest
Convince them of your message
Motivate them to act
Ensure they take action

To achieve this and get people to work through the above stages you need to consider the following:
Format: Posters have to stand out from a distance, compete with other literature on a wall or stand alone on a large background. So:

Use distinctive background colours (a white background will get lost).
Use large bold words or a few very small words or no words at all.

Content: When devising your content you want to consider whether it helps people move through the 5 stages above.

How are you going to grab their attention? Will you tease them or scream at them with words? Will you shock or intrigue them with an image?
How will you get their interest? Will you feature a compelling or personal message? Will you appeal to their emotions, needs or desires?
How will you convince them of your message? You need to ‘sell’ the quality and importance of what’s on offer.
How will you motivate them to act? Usually a snappy summary of the benefits of their involvement is appropriate.
How will you ensure they take action? A flyer, a tear-off slip or pre-paid envelope makes life easy for them. A freephone telephone number on an advert or poster might prompt them to act. You might follow up with a door to door campaign.

When planning the content of each leaflet be very clear about why you are producing it.
Consider including the following:

A clear title
A statement at the beginning such as ‘this leaflet is for anyone who wants to know more about ...’
Whether it is one of a series of leaflets
Who can be contacted for further information
Contact details and pointers for further sources of help
The use of a simple conversational style
The use of clear headings

References: If you are producing a series of leaflets consider giving each a unique reference number. Part of the reference should indicate the date.

Designing Leaflets

Most groups and organisations produce a variety of different leaflets giving information about specific projects or issues or highlighting the role of their group or organisation. When designing these leaflets consideration has to be given to the following:
Templates: If you are producing a number of different leaflets it is worth having a template, as consistency and repetition will reinforce your branding and helps people to recognise your group as well as making the process a lot easier.

If you design a template you need to think about:

General rules for the layout - position of your logo; position of sponsor’s logo; use of pictures; position of title
Guidance on the appropriate fonts to use for headings, sub-headings, text etc
Notes on working with different audiences and meeting the needs of these audiences (for example, large print and /or Braille, picture-based material)
Standard contact details and disclaimers. See figure 1 below.

Format: If you are developing individual leaflets you need to consider the format. The main limitations are money and creative ideas. Your budget, audience, the word count and time available will all influence your format.

Possible options are:

Tabloid size
Pocket-book size
Gate fold leaflets (folded in 2 places)
Specific shapes (most appropriate for fundraising or event invitations)
A4 folded down to A5

Designing Newsletters

Newsletters come in all shapes and sizes and help to achieve many things. They keep staff, volunteers and clients informed of projects and activities; they keep funders informed; motivate staff and volunteers; promote projects and services; celebrate success; share good practice; and offer ‘added value’ to clients and customers.

In designing your newsletter you need to consider:

Your audience: Your audience may be staff, volunteers, clients, potential clients or funders. If you produce an all-purpose newsletter it is important to consider the needs and interests of all members of your audience.

Format and layout: There are many different approaches. Look at other examples and decide what seems appropriate for you.

Consider the following:
Size: The main options are:

A4 (the size of a normal letter)
A5 (half the size of a normal letter)
A3 (twice the size of a normal letter and about the size of a tabloid newspaper)

Number of pages: There are various reasons for keeping the number of pages low including reader’s time, your time, production costs, postage costs, storage space and environmental impact.

Most newsletters will be 4 to 8 pages in total.

Masthead and contents list: The masthead is the design work at the top of the page and should include your logo, organisation’s name, newsletter title, issue number, issue date and price.

A contents list, even for a small newsletter, helps to draw the reader in.

Columns: Individual articles should generally include columns. Two to three columns is standard on a sheet of A4 and five to six on A3. Main articles may have an introductory paragraph which runs across two or more columns.

Fonts: There is a wide choice of fonts. Two or three fonts may be used throughout the newsletter – having a main font for articles, a font for headlines and another for captions.

Headlines: You should establish a set of rules for headline type sizes. For example different sizes may be allocated for:

Main story, front page
Centre spread (across two inside pages)
Back page lead story
Important articles
Minor articles

Publishing details: Incorporate details of who has produced your newsletter - writers, editors, printers etc. You should also include contact details and your charity number if appropriate.

Pictures: If you are putting pictures onto a page it is important that you don’t cut a story in half. A picture can go above or at the end of a block of text, or it can go in the middle if you wrap words around it so that the reader can continue to read on.

Content: Your newsletter could be entirely made up of news articles - several major stories, smaller stories on various news-in-brief (NIBS).

However, there are various other items that can be included such as features, letters from readers, real life stories, puzzles and competitions, tips and reader suggestions or an events diary.

Style: Newsletters should be written in simple English using short sentences and written as you would speak. Compose your articles with the most important information first and the least important last. The first few paragraphs should answer:

Who?
What?
Why?
Where?
When?
And how?

in the relevant order.

Headlines: Headlines make a big difference to a newsletter and play a vital role in attracting attention.

Tips:

Use simple, punchy one/two-syllable words.
Use active doing-words in the present tense.
Avoid humour - not everyone finds the same things funny.
Try to capture the essence of the story.
Don’t try to be too clever!

Resources

Durham Rural Community Council - Focus on newsletters. 10 Handy Hints for Newsletters. Tel. 01207 529621

Community Newsletters in County Durham

It is often useful to look at examples before you decide how you are going to plan your newsletter. The following groups provide either parish or community newsletters and would be willing to talk to other groups and share their experience.

Craghead Community Partnership produce Cannie Crack. Contact Tracy Malin 01207 281583.
Wolsingham Recreation Association jointly with other local groups produce the Town Crier. Contact Vere Shuttleworth 01388 527238.
Bowburn Village Celebration produce the Bowburn Interchange. Contact Mike Syer 0191 3771491 or 0191 3836182.
East Durham Villages’ Consortium produce Consortium News.Contact SRB Project Co-ordinator 01429 823067.
The communities of Sherburn Hill, Ludworth and Shadforth produce a joint newsletter called S.L.S. Community News. Contact Mr S. Watt 0191 3721094.