Everyone is talking about the importance of marketing newsletters. Marketers and business owners go to great lengths to craft newsletter masterpieces that will engage the audience and promote brand image.
In comparison, an employee newsletter to a marketing email looks like an ugly stepsister to Cinderella—far less glamorous at best and disposable at worst. A minor character no one cares about.
But the truth is, when done right, an employee newsletter can shine just as bright and bring you lots of value. It has the potential to become a key internal communication tool at your company and a wonderful way to reinforce your company culture, build a strong internal brand voice, and help people stay connected. Which is especially important amidst the chaos the pandemic has caused.
Creating an engaging and effective employee enewsletter may seem like a daunting task though. With an average employee receiving around 121 emails a day, even a newsletter from your HR may cause more irritation than excitement.
So how do you fight that? What topics should you include into your company newsletter? What newsletter format choose?
We’ve got you covered. Here’s 8 delightfully simple employee newsletter ideas and tips to help you turn your company newsletter into your team’s favorite read.
#1 Company Milestones Newsletter
This company newsletter idea seems simple, but it’s effective nonetheless. In the era of remote working it’s more important than ever to keep everyone in the loop. Product announcements, media highlights, landing a big client or taking part in a major conference—sharing this will give your team the sense of connectedness we lack so much in these trying times.
#2 Employee and Team Spotlights
Sometimes, even in small companies, people from different teams have only a vague idea of what is going on in other departments. If that’s the case in your workplace, creating an employee spotlight newsletter will be a great idea. Giving the mic to a specific team or an individual is a fantastic way to let people know what’s happening around them. It strengthens the feeling of camaraderie and helps people find a new appreciation for the hard work everybody does. Also, you can use an employee recognition platform to honor employee achievements.
The perfect format for this newsletter section is an interview or a slice-of-life, showcasing a typical working day. You can also encourage people to share their passions, be it music, mountain biking, or gardening. People love the ‘behind-the-scenes’ genre, so it’s bound to succeed. Keep it short and sweet though, and don’t forget to include lots of genuine photos. And videos!
Source: Built In
#3 Birthdays and Other Major Life Events
Individual milestones are as important as the corporate ones. Welcome new babies, celebrate work anniversaries, and note small achievements. Let people share their excitement and maybe brag a bit. It will boost everyone’s morals and help you build a strong and close-knit community. This work newsletter idea will bring lots of fun and warm memories, too.
Take a look at how SN honors their staff in this lovely flipbook newsletter:
Create yours
#4 Training Resources and Opportunities
Internal enewsletter is a great way to inform your staff members about the training your company offers. This work newsletter idea make lots of sense for everyone, too. New hires will benefit from the links to single guides, handbooks, or even entire onboarding series. And existing employees will definitely be interested in webinars and conferences that will help them to advance in their careers.
#5 Recommendations
Looking for less obvious corporate newsletter ideas? Check out your Slack channels. Chances are they are bursting with all kinds of recs and discussions: books to read, places to go to, movies to watch or not to watch under any circumstances. You may find an occasional cat video, too.
Don’t let these treasures go to waste. Make them a part of your corporate culture, and you may find that it has become the most popular newsletter editorial among your employees. If nothing else, it will be entertaining. And who knows—maybe it’ll grow into something bigger, like your company’s very own movie club. Instead of it being all about work, use it as a tool to spread a bit of happiness and to improve their overall well-being.
#6 Customer Stories and Reviews
You may think that customer stories are only good for promoting your products and services to potential clients, but that’s not true. Nothing brings a greater sense of accomplishment than seeing people utilizing and loving your product. And including a customer story in your company newsletter gives your employees just that.
Let your colleagues see how your product helps improve people’s lives. Include actual quotes and testimonials from your customers. And if you’re producing video interviews, share those too, to maximize the impact and enjoyment.
By the way, with FlippingBook you can turn your corporate newsletter into an interactive flipbook and embed videos and links right into it. This way your readers stay in the newsletter all along and enjoy a clean, seamless experience with all the content.
#7 Job Postings
Including job opportunities into your staff newsletter is a good idea for two reasons. Firstly, if some of your employees are considering a position change, it’ll be a great way to keep talents within the company.
Secondly, even if people aren’t interested in the current openings, they will be pleased to be a part of a growing and evolving company. They can even help you find the right fit for the job by sharing the posting from the HR newsletter within their network.
Source: Really Good Emails
#8 Polls and Surveys
From polls on the contents of the office food bar to formal satisfaction surveys, gathering your employees’ feedback is never a bad idea. It helps nurture a healthy workplace climate, gives you insights into your organization’s strengths and possible issues, and generally shows that you care. Want to maximize the participation? Try offering gift cards for coffee or books—a small gesture can go a long way.
Creating a survey and linking it into your staff newsletter takes 10 minutes, and the trust it builds is invaluable.
Source: Really Good Emails
The list of employee newsletter topics can go on and on, because the range is truly endless. But we feel these 8 work newsletter ideas will help you make the biggest impact.
How to Make Sure Your Company Newsletter Gets Read
The competition for people’s attention is running high when it comes to emails, so what can you do to improve your newsletter’s chances for success?
- Make it mobile-ready. Your newsletter should have clean design and be easy to read on mobile devices. People read on the go nowadays, and your colleagues are no exception. No matter what important things you have to say, if they can’t read them, all your efforts will be wasted.
- Add interactivity. Let’s be honest—people want to be entertained. Videos, images, GIFs, surveys work great and keep people motivated to read further. But make sure the experience with all content is as seamless as possible, otherwise it may be distracting and more of a hindrance than help.
- Make your copy compelling. And don’t mind the length! If your newsletter content is relevant to the audience, they will keep reading. And while emails are best kept short, you can have both—short emails and rich, interactive newsletters.
FlippingBook lets you create compelling employee newsletters from PDFs which you can link to your emails. Flipbooks look just like real-life newsletter issues, but with links to further reads and surveys, videos, and GIFs right on the page. They also provide a great reading experience on any device, so you can be sure your colleagues will be able to access your newsletter anywhere—the same way they access ebooks.
Plus, with activity tracking FlippingBook gives you insights into how your readers view your newsletters. This way you can see who’s interested in what, and act on it, making your future issues even more engaging.
Bonus: a Free Canva Company Newsletter Template
Want to set up your company newsletter, but not sure where to start? FlippingBook has partnered up with Canva, an easy design tool, to help you create your interactive newsletter in no time!
Here’s how you can do it:
- Take our free company newsletter template and customize it with your texts and images in Canva.
- Connect FlippingBook to Canva and send the newsletter straight to our tool. If you don’t have a FlippingBook account yet—no worries, you’ll get a free trial account automatically.
- Add interactivity to your newsletter with FlippingBook. You can add your branding, links, videos, and GIFs to make your content more engaging.
- Grab the direct link to your ready interactive newsletter and send it to your team in the next email.
Setting up a proper company newsletter definitely takes lots of time and energy, but it will pay off in better communication inside the company, happy and productive employees, and a creative environment.
We hope, with our newsletter tips and ideas, you are now equipped to create a perfect employee newsletter of your own. Just remember—be bold, creative, and compassionate, and your colleagues will fall in love with what you write.
