Improve Your Newsletter for Employees: Expert Tips & Ideas

6.11.2023
Read time: 13 min
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Improve Your Newsletter for Employees: Expert Tips & Ideas
Try Publicate For Free Today
02.03.2022
Read time: 13 min

A single newsletter for employees can go a long way. Employee newsletters are more than just informative, they support an engaged workforce that stays in-the-know. We’re going to look at various newsletter topics for employees so that you can keep your internal communications feeling fresh and fun.

Guide Index
Employee working on a laptop
Picture from Pexels

What is an Employee Newsletter?

An employee newsletter, also called an internal newsletter, is digital communications that’s sent to your employees via email. An employee newsletter contains information about the organization, so it’s naturally intended to remain internal.

The best employee newsletters are branded and beautifully designed, so that they receive the attention that they deserve. Many companies are turning to email builders to help create and send branded emails because email builders don’t require coders or designers.

With newsletter builder you can choose from hundreds of templates and use drag-and-drop functionality to customize it as you see fit.

Depending on what you choose to send, an employee newsletter can contain a variety of different subject matter, including: upcoming company events, industry news, policy updates, and more. We’ll touch on fun newsletter ideas shortly.

What are the Benefits of an Employee Newsletter?

When it comes to email communications, the potential you have at your fingertips is limitless.

In the case of employee newsletters, there are many benefits that your business will come to realize when you are able to send them on a consistent basis. The advantages include:

1. Build a Sense of Community

With a system in place to send your newsletter for employees, you can create a sense of community within your workplace. Employees tend to get bogged down by their day-to-day activities, which means they may lose sight of the big picture or overall business goals.

Employee newsletters are a way to remind them that they aren’t alone, and everyone is working together towards the same purpose.

2. Reach All Employees

With the rise of global workforces and remote workers, being able to communicate with all employees is increasingly important.

Email communications is an easy way to accomplish this feat as employees access emails wherever they may be, across handheld devices and computers alike.

Email builders are designed to help design engaging and responsive emails, which means that your communications will look as intended across device sizes and have the highest readership.

3. Data-Driven

While not all employee newsletters are data-driven, they easily can be when you use an email builder. Once you press send (from your favorite email provider of choice), you will receive key analytics to see how your newsletter is performing, such as open rates, click-through rates, and a heatmap.

4. Relevant and Timely

The great thing about email newsletters is that they are immediate. Not only is it possible to create them quickly using email builder templates, but you can also send them right away, and walla– they will appear in your employees’ inbox.

This way, you can share the information you need when it’s still timely.

5. Boosts Employee Morale

When employees are aware of business happenings, they are more likely to be actively involved and care about how they can impact the business positively. A simple employee newsletters contributes to an employee’s outlook and optimism of the company overall.

6. Reduces Overload

Although your employees are surely receiving and sending many emails per day, there are so many other channels of communication that they have to worry about and check in with, such as internal messaging apps, social media, phone calls, texts, and more.

With all the information that exists in so many different places, curating a cohesive and centralized employee newsletter with all valuable insights in one place can help to focus their mind.

How to Engage Employees in a Newsletter?

An engaging newsletter for employees is made by striking the right balance between relevant news, fun content, and stellar design.

Put yourself in your employees’ shoes– they have a lot on their to-do list, and at any moment, something new can fly by their desk or screen, which commands their attention.

When your internal communications newsletter appears on their screen, it should provoke curiosity. By presenting information in a specific hierarchy and balancing it with imagery, you can help dictate where their eyes go.

Sounds like a bit of magic and a lot of guessing, doesn’t it? Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. When you use an email builder and leverage the existing pre-built professional newsletter templates, these best practices are already set up for you.

All you have to do is customize the content itself. The blueprint is already laid out for you.

What are the Best Employee Newsletter Ideas?

When you’re gearing to share your newsletter for employees, you’ll want creative ideas ready to go every time you hit “send.” Take a look at this list filled with fun employee newsletter ideas.

1. Messages from the CEO

CEOs are undoubtedly busy people. But, they definitely have a lot to share with their employees. An easy way to get their message across is to feature it as part of the newsletter. This way, everyone has a chance to “connect” with the CEO and hear updates straight from the top.

2. Corporate Events

Corporate events depend on employee attendance to be successful. You can either dedicate an employee newsletter entirely to an event or add it in as just one section on your next newsletter. You can even use the newsletter to serve as an RSVP so you know how many attendees you can expect.

3. Professional Development

Another great way to keep employees engaged and loyal to the organization is to offer tools and training. Employee development opportunities should be amplified across your business so that employees are aware they exist and can take advantage of them.

4. Job Listings

Have an open position you’re looking to fill? What better way than to hire someone who already knows how your business operates? Or, if no one within your organization is the right fit, they may know of someone who is. Sharing job postings with your own network is a great and a “low hanging fruit” way to start.

5. New Hires

On the topic of jobs and filling positions, you can also dedicate a portion of your employee newsletter to introduce new hires. This way, they feel right at home and welcome from the start.

6. Birthdays and Milestones

There’s always a reason to celebrate! Whether you want to wish a happy birthday to an employee or make note of an important company milestone, you can spread the goodness in your next internal newsletter.

7. Press Coverage

If other outlets are speaking positively about your company, it’s worth mentioning to your employees! Press coverage is a big deal, and it can also be a signal to employees that they are doing a good job.

8. Recommendations and References

There’s a high chance that many employees within your organization don’t actually get the chance to communicate with one another; however, there’s also a high chance that they share similar interests. A fun way to get everyone conversing is to highlight staff-recommended shows, books, and/or podcasts.

For whatever employee newsletter ideas you now have swirling in your mind, there are templates for it! Newsletter builders provide hundreds of free templates that follow all the best practices to optimize engagement.

All you have to do is find the template you wish to use, customize it using drag-and-drop functionality, and be ready to export and send when you’re done. There’s no need for coders or designers.

Slack channel on desktop and mobile
Picture from Unsplash

How to Promote Your Employee Newsletter?

Even after you hit “send” on your employee newsletter, there are more actions you can take to further promote your employee newsletter within your organization. For example, you can: share it in your workforce communications platform or spread the word in Slack channels.

When you use an email builder, it may even be the case that it integrates seamlessly with your existing technologies. Top-notch email builders work with Gmail, Outlook, and popular email servers so you can simply export your HTML email from the email builder, but send it using your known email service provider.

Additionally, the solution could integrate with your social media channels, Slack, Intranet, and more, so amplification is as simple as clicking a button!

How to Ensure a Successful Newsletter for Employees?

Along with the various content ideas for your next newsletter for employees, it’s critical to remember these employee newsletter best practices.

  • Keep your tone light and friendly
  • Focus on the subject line– make it short, transparent, and engaging
  • Leverage email builders and templates to speed up the creation process
  • Include call-to-actions to direct readers as to what next steps they can take
  • Mix copy with visual content to make it enticing to read
  • Send employee newsletters on a consistent basis

The Bottom Line

A newsletter for employees is intended to be informative, fun, and engaging. It shouldn’t feel like extra work for the employees who are tasked with its creation, but rather, it should serve as a way to easily stay in touch with the people who matter most within your organization.

With the aid of an email builder, there’s only fun to be had. The solution removes the cumbersome aspects of email newsletter creation by providing a drag-and-drop user interface, pre-built templates that follow best practices, and access to analytics so you can always improve your internal communications efforts.