6 Things You Need to Do to Create a Great Employee Newsletter

Practical advice and examples included

Photo by @clemono2

You’re rightly convinced you need an employee newsletter, so we won’t go into the reasons why to build one in the first place. (Click here for a refresher.)

Internalize these six practices to ensure your regular dispatch becomes valued and sought after by your readers.

• This assumes your content is quality in the first place!

1. Know Your Audience

Above all else, knowing your audience is the most important element in creating a great newsletter. If you do nothing more with your newsletter but send a single paragraph, know exactly who is receiving it and speak directly to them.

• If you’re writing for finance nerds, then be nerdy with them. Be bullish with jargon, speak their language, and get wonky.
• If it’s a millennials only wine club, be sassy, use memes, give compliments (zing!), and keep up with the slang.

Do not assume you know your audience. You can discover who they are exactly using several techniques, such as surveys and focus groups.

Ensure the content is relevant to your audience’s experiences.

• Do not trick people into reading content by using unrelated imagery or too clever headlines.

You are not your audience.

• Write for them, not for you.
• Just because you think something is funny or witty doesn’t mean it is.

2. Get the Details Right

The devil is in the details. Photo by @maksymvlasenko.

The tiniest mistakes stand out and add up. If your newsletter looks sloppy, readers will assume the content is also slipshod. A few tips:

• Make sure the links work.
• Triple check for typos.
• Are all the pictures aligned?
• The fonts and sizes should be consistent across headlines and body.

Pro tip: Have someone outside your group read the newsletter looking for “nits.” The devil really is in the details.

3. Be Clear on What Action to Take

Action! Photo by @chuklanov.

Don’t make people guess what they should do with the information you’re spoon-feeding them.

Be literal and direct.

• Click here for more info.
• Click here to sign up for the class.
• Add this URL to your bookmarks.
• Call HR [phone number] to sign up for the perk.

Tell your reader to post the article to LinkedIn if you want them to share the content on social media.

• Tell them to share the job opening with their network.
• Ask them to reply to the email with their best idea for cutting costs.

If you merely need your audience to absorb information (e.g., the X system will undergo upgrades this weekend), then use style points — bold text, subheads — to indicate why this information is important.

• Files will be inaccessible until Monday at 6:00 AM.

Your audience wants actionable information. Don’t treat the newsletter as a dumping ground for your laundry list of links and tasks just so you can tick a box.

4. Be Consistent With Delivery

Customer expectations are set by consistent delivery of a quality product. Photo by @pope_moisa.

Your readers should know when to expect your newsletter.

• Employees will look for the newsletter if the material is of high quality and relevance.

I know that Axios arrives in my inbox before 7:00 AM every single day…If it doesn’t arrive by then, I think something is wrong.

• I expect The Atlantic Monthly’s newsletter to arrive midway through the month, once. I’m fine with that — The Atlantic has set that expectation.

Your newsletter should not arrive randomly.

• Inconsistent sending confuses readers and catches them by surprise.
• Consistent sending builds customer loyalty.

Of course, you should be consistent in the quality too.

5. Measure Measure Measure

Measuring is one way to reach new heights. Photo by @amutiomi.

You must know the metrics to understand whether your content resonates with your audience.

• If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. (attrib.?)
• Information is empowering! Results spark conversations and creativity.

Some very basic figures you should be monitoring:

• Open rates
• Click-through rates
• What is being clicked like crazy? Do more of that!
• What is never clicked? Stop doing whatever it is nobody wants to do/read about.

Count social features.

• Comments
• Likes
• Feedback received by replying to the email
• Embedded surveys

You can also measure behavioral results, like attending a town hall that was advertised in your newsletter. Granted, measuring the stuff that happens outside the email is more difficult, but it is possible.

• This is also known as qualitative feedback.

If you don’t measure results, you might as well flush your timesheet down the toilet.

6. Be Delightful

Easter eggs are fun to find. Photo by @zmachacek.

Make your newsletter an enjoyable experience. Readers want to be delighted and even surprised … it’s what keeps them reading (or scrolling) when they otherwise might have clicked delete immediately.

• Graphics should be sharp.
• Photos should be interesting (please lay off the stock photography).
• Fonts should be clean and easy to read.
• The color palette should be coherent.

Use puns and winks or wit and elevated language to describe something otherwise mundane.

• Keep your readers on their toes!

Pro tip: Hide an easter egg in each edition to give your reader a delightful challenge.

Add something fun (even random) at the end of each newsletter, to entice readers to get to the bottom. Five ideas:

• Photos of newborn babies from proud parents
• Person of the Week (or Month, whatever the cadence)
• Fun facts about the date on which the newsletter arrived
• Office photos
• Pictures of employees at a volunteer project

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