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How to create an engaging corporate newsletter: 5 simple tips and a new tool

16 August, 2021
Attracting and retaining the attention of employees is not an easy task that any corporate communication specialist faces. There are more and more information channels, and today companies have to fight for employee engagement. One of the most popular tools of corporate communication is a corporate newsletter. However, many experts say this channel is ineffective and difficult to measure. Sharing 5 simple tips for composing a truly engaging corporate newsletter, as well as a new tool for informing the staff, which will help to attract even more attention to your content.

What should a corporate newsletter consist of?

  1. Company logo with a direct link to the official site.
  2. A short intro from the author of the letter or team, a short summary of what's inside.
  3. Body - the main part of the newsletter which contains news, announcement, congratulations or an invitation.
  4. CTA - call to action (a link to the internal portal, external resource, survey, etc.).
  5. Conclusion - a thank you for reading and a short summary.
  6. Footer: links to social networks and contacts of responsible colleagues.
Surely enough, the body of the email can vary, depending on the content you are going to share. But there is one general recommendation - don't make this block too long, add pictures for clarity and richness of the newsletter, share useful content which will really bring benefit to your reader.

How to measure the effectiveness of a newsletter?

There are many different analytics tools, which will help you collect statistics and evaluate the results of the work done. Let's look at the main metrics you should pay attention to.

Open rate - unique email opening from delivered messages.
Click rate - unique clicks on messages delivered.
CTR - unique clicks from unique opens.
It is difficult to say what percentage of each metric you should get to consider a newsletter effective. It all depends on internal communication practices, employee habits, overall level of engagement, and the strength of your corporate culture. If you are sending out a newsletter for the first time - measure the first result as a starting point, and then build on it, gradually increasing efficiency.

Five simple tips to make your internal newsletter more engaging:

  1. Personalization: Do not send content to all employees of the company at once (unless there are 5 of them, of course). Try to respect the time and attention of your team, share only useful content that will be relevant to a particular colleague. Separate your recipients by department / city / interest, and try to put together the best topics, announcements or news for them.

  2. Stay brief: don't stretch your letter into a long canvas with lots of content. The reader's attention will be scattered and most of it just won't be remembered. The best advice is to add more links and additional buttons that will help expand the range of information, but don't try to fit everything into one email. Let your email be a teaser for the news, a short summary that will help you keep up to date. Ideally, your readers shouldn't spend more than a minute to read it through.

  3. Corporate culture - all in: add pictures, office images, photos from a past event or screenshots from a conference in Zoom to your newsletter. Media materials will attract more attention and make your readers feel as an important part of the company culture.

  4. Be regular but don't send newsletters too often. The ideal format is one newsletter a week on a pre-selected day. This way your employees will know exactly when to look at the mail, which will create a habit and favorite ritual in their working day.

  5. Lunch time? Try to send out emails at a convenient time for employees, such as lunch breaks. This way, they will for sure review important information in their spare time, and nothing will distract them from key work tasks. Morning time can also work perfect - employees can read a newsletter on their way to the office or over a cup of coffee at home while waiting for the start of the remote work day.

A new tool for informing the team

In addition to newsletters, there are other ways to highlight important corporate news in a simple, accessible and engaging format. Sharing a new exciting tool suitable for such tasks.

Workstories is a corporate communication channel, which helps the company deliver information to employees in an interactive and dynamic format. The product combines several advantages, such as personalization, scheduling, content planning, media materials application, a short teaser format, and a stylish design that can be adapted to your corporate style.
Share important news and announcements directly on your employees' devices without having to log in to your email manager. Stories appear on the screen automatically and tell you what's important in seconds.

Once sent, it's possible to track your team's engagement in real time thanks to in-built analytics.

Just like that, one tool encompasses several important tasks and settings at once to ensure high team engagement and regular communication.
Learn more about Workstories and how it can help with internal communications
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