Lazzaro Designs recently launched a biannual community newsletter for The Brooklyn Hospital Center. Here’s specifically what we did:
Voice: Editorially, we brainstormed articles with the client that showcased updates on the hospital’s programs that would be of interest to the changing community’s long-timers and newcomers alike. We encouraged the client, for instance, to include a box of how to connect with the hospital on social media. We also worked with the client to name the publication “Keeping Brooklyn Healthy,” which is the hospital’s tagline.
Vision: Maryellen wanted the newsletter to reflect the uniqueness of this hospital in so far that it’s a true, independent community hospital with a long history of serving Brooklyn. She wanted the newsletter to also capture present-day Brooklyn’s dynamic diversity and neighborhood friendliness. The hospital, through this publication, stands for warmth and accessibility without stinting on sophistication of services. To accomplish these goals visually, Maryellen made use of the strong colors in the logo’s and branding guideline’s palette. For the all-important front cover, she chose a big, magazine-style image and used a navigational bar style to highlight the main information within the newsletter. Because the client’s image budget was limited, we made use of their archives as much as possible, limiting the purchase of stock images. For instance, Maryellen in her research, noticed a photo on the hospital’s web site for emergency services. An archive search allowed us to use it in this print publication, not only saving money, but also providing visual consistency across the client’s marketing platforms.
Getting it Done: Lazzaro Designs project-managed the newsletter, creating a yearly publication schedule, triggering key meetings and conference calls, overseeing the approval processes, and serving as a liaison between the creative team and the client. Maryellen also worked with the printer/mailhouse to strategize ways to lower printing, postage and distribution costs.
> If you need help creating a newsletter that speaks to your community, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
Lazzaro Designs is happy to announce the delivery of the spring 2016 issue of Movement Disorders News, a combined publication of the Robert and John M. Bendheim Parkinson and Movement Disorders Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Alan and Barbara Mirken Department of Neurology Movement Disorders Center at Mount Sinai Beth Israel.
This newsletter is published twice a year and mailed to patients, families and the movement disorders community. This particular issue focused on research and the genetics of movement disorders and also featured two patient profiles. As always, important information about clinical trials and support groups and classes were included, too.
The design, which meets the Mount Sinai Health System branding criteria, features photography originally shot for the publication, as well as public domain imagery and patient-supplied photos. The newsletter was written with original copy and was project-managed by Lazzaro Designs, as well.
> If you need a newsletter, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
Maryellen Lazzaro is pleased to announce that she will be designing several large, outdoor banners for the hospital, which will be hung outside the facility and around the area.
EXTENDED-CARE MARKETING EDITION
Whew, glad you got through that writer’s block! Now that your entry is finished, let’s polish it up.
1. Do the easy work. Read it through and get rid of the yadda yaddas. Correct obvious mistakes. Tighten up sentences that are rambling.
2. Consider the structure of the piece. Does it flow? Do you tell your story in an organized way? Does the entry start with a catchy sentence or compelling quote? Are the paragraphs in a sensible order? Is it one big block of copy? That’s hard on the reader. Breaking up your copy with paragraphs, headlines, subheads, bullet or lists makes it easier to access.
3. Examine the sentences. Are there excessively long ones that should be trimmed or divided? Can you say the same thing in two sentences versus three? Alternatively, do you need another sentence to clarify your thought?
4. Drill down to the words. Are you using simple and precise words? Are you avoiding jargon, technical terms and acronyms? Omit these words: just, quite, very, first (or, heaven forbid, firstly).
5. Not sure about grammar? Spell checks and grammar checks are useful, but they don’t always catch everything or make the best choices. The internet to your rescue. Search exactly what your confusion is, for instance, “which or that.” You’ll find answers.
6. Avoid the passive voice. Instead of, “The woman’s memory has been damaged by dementia,” try, “Dementia damaged the woman’s memory.” Do a search for “have” or “has” to help you spot problems.
7. Read it aloud, slowly and from hard copy. Catch any typos? Does the punctuation cue you properly, for instance, is a sentence begging for a pause, which probably means it needs a comma? If you hear yourself saying any one word too often, search for the instances of that word and change it up.
> If you need help building or bettering a blog or writing entries, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
> Coming soon: What you need to know about search engine optimization or SEO.
