So how do you create solid employee newsletters that deliver your messages effectively every time? We’ve created a guide to get you started.
Choose a posting frequency
When it comes to most things in the internal communications content world, there are two principles to follow:
- Consistency is key, and
- Quality matters more than quantity.
When creating an employee newsletter, pick a posting frequency that is realistic and makes sense for your team and organization. You don’t want to overwhelm your staff with a volume of emails on top of what they already see in their inboxes each week.
Depending on what your employee newsletter contains and how long it is, you can either opt for once a week, biweekly, or monthly. When in doubt, the longer it is, the more spaced out it should be sent.
Related reading: Introducing the internal newsletter feature in IC’s multi-channel messaging feature
Pick a great template
When creating employee newsletters, use a clean, well-laid-out template to ensure everything is readable and user-friendly. That’s where IC’s new newsletter software comes in handy! Create reusable templates that allow you to easily customize the layout and priority of individual content items without the help of a graphic designer.
You can also add branding, including logos, colors, and fonts to keep it on-brand and add a bit of personalization.
Create amazing content
It goes without saying that the content in your employee newsletter should be employee-focused, but what does that look like exactly? For starters, it should only contain information that pertains to your team, that provides value, or improves and strengthens employee engagement.
Your team is already inundated with emails, so it’s your job to ensure your employee newsletter is truly value-driven and contains strong, high-quality content. Keep your copy sharp, concise and skimmable, especially for staff who are on the go and read emails on their devices.
Here are some content ideas for your employee newsletter:
- Roundups: for your next end-of-week newsletter, create a roundup of the most important and relevant info, from upcoming events, new hires, company news, and similar, in the form of bold, sharp headlines and images.
- Message from leadership: have the CEO or another member of leadership craft a brief, encouraging message to the team.
- Team wins and news:
- Invite your team to share pictures of their pets
- Invite your team to share what they are proud of this week/month (at least one team member per department)
- Share photos from a recent team lunch
- Include a recap of a recent all-staff meeting, with key takeaways.
Related reading: How internal communications connect to employee experience.
Include a call to action
What do you want your employees to do after they’ve read your newsletter? At the end of each section, include a clear CTA in the form of a button or link inviting your team to take action, whether it’s to sign up or get more information about an event, read a blog post, or fill out a survey.
Measure how your employee newsletters are performing
According to the latest Gatehouse State of the Sector survey, measurement and reporting have neither been a high priority nor regular activity for most internal communications professionals. But studying data is an absolute must when it comes to internal comms; not only does it help you see how your communications are performing, it helps you figure out where and how you can improve.
This definitely applies to your employee newsletter, as well. Whether you want to gather attendance details for your next event or meeting, or to scope out employee job satisfaction, adding surveys and polls to your employee newsletters is an easy way to increase participation.
Furthermore, Reach’s newsletter feature makes it easy to report on the statistics of each newsletter and template, including open rates, click-through rate, and more.
Related reading: Measuring employee feedback—polls, scales, and comment boxes galore
Creating employee newsletters with IC’s multi-channel messaging feature
There you have it! Ready to start sending out your own employee newsletters? Using a purpose-built software platform like Reach, the process is simple.
Reach is a multi-channel internal comms platform (meaning it can send employee messages through email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and SMS at the click of a single button), you can easily preview what your employee newsletter will look like on all of those channels before you click “send”.
As our team continues to improve the Reach platform, you can also expect to see more exciting templates added to the newsletter template library over the coming months!
If you’re ready to see our internal newsletter feature in action, start a free trial or book a demo today. We’ll show you how Reach can revolutionize your internal communications efforts with our suite of features built to help you keep organized, engage your employees, and measure success.
