How long has it been since you've taken a good look at your firm or company newsletter? Even if you don't write it in-house and buy it from a trusted source, you'll want to make sure your newsletter is a good reflection of your firm or company and truly maintains a long-lasting relationship with your clients and customers.

First, set objectives for your newsletter - what are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to improve networking, communicate information in print rather than in person or e-mail ... or something entirely different? Knowing your goals will help you evaluate your newsletter on many fronts.

Next, take a look at content. What you are saying? Is it professional and in plain-speak, or are you re-generating technical "stuff" that clients and customers can't understand unless they visited with you in person?

There also are many tips and tricks you can use in a newsletter to instill confidence that your's will be read more than other's. For example, customer testimonials help establish credibility. Keeping sentences short helps, too. Also consider eye-catching graphics even if you go with software templates. They'll go a long way to making the page less gray.

Finally, evaluate, evaluate, evaluate. Take a survey of your customer base to determine if the newsletter is read and what people like or dislike. Consider using a third-party to conduct the phone or mail survey to remain objective.