To Feed the Content Beast, Create Auto-send Emails

Email template inside

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File this under tactics.

• Four minutes to read. Five minutes to set up. Months and months of return on your investment.

You need to feed the content beast. Whether it’s events to fill a calendar or notices of industry accolades or getting a list of candidates for the next feature Q&A, you can’t possibly think and know it all yourself. The ideas for your newsletter, website, or intranet need to come from your vast contributor network.

It can be a real pain to remember to reach out to every source for content and ideas, especially if this is something you do on a weekly basis. So…

You should automate the request process to save time and to catch potential missed opportunities.

Automating Requests for Content

I worked for a global technology firm that divided the employee audience into four geographic groups: USA/Canada, Latin America, EMEA, and APAC. That meant curating four weekly newsletters, each with region-specific news.

It was impossible for me to know what was going on all the time everywhere around the world, so I built four regional networks of “friends and family” who could give me the scoop on important news in each area that I could share in weekly newsletters.

• Individuals represented all major departments, like HR, Sales, Engineering, Operations, Marketing, Comms, D&I, Product groups, and so on.
• Everyone saw the value in the weekly newsletter and wanted to have their item featured at the top of the bulletin, because that placement got the most eyeballs and clicks.

I sent weekly automated reminders asking for news, information, story ideas, photos, and anything else they thought would be worthy of including in the next edition of the newsletter.

• If the newsletter arrived in inboxes on Mondays, I told the team I needed the final info by Thursday end of day their time (so I could spend time on Friday getting the content into the newsletter).
• That meant sending the reminder out on Wednesday to give them at least a day to get the materials together.
• I set it up so all they had to do was reply to the email and the info would go directly to me.
• I also gave them parameters for content submission. For example, photos had to be landscape oriented (not vertical or portrait). Calls-to-action had to have an email address or a link — something to click. And so on.

Here’s an example of what that simple recurring note looked like:

Subject: Reminder! Newsletter submission due Thursday EOD

Hi!

This is your weekly reminder to submit news, information, photos, events, etc. for the employee newsletter. Remember, all content must conform to our guidelines (see below).

Deadline for submission is Thursday (tomorrow) end of day.

Simply reply to this email with all relevant info and I’ll take it from there.

Thanks!

Shaun

[Insert your editorial guidelines, like needing a caption for each photo or limiting blog content to 250 words.]

Every week that note elicited usable content for at least one regional newsletter. Sometimes the news was big enough to share across all newsletters, thereby elevating the information from a regional tidbit to global news.

• Some people never replied, and that’s okay. At least they were given the chance to share news.
• Sometimes I would get a note from a contributor and then not hear from her for another four months. That’s okay. She shared when it was relevant — no more, no less.
• Sometimes nobody from one region replied with content, and that’s okay too. Sometimes there just isn’t much news happening. No need to force it.

What You Need

First and foremost, you need a system that can send recurring notes.

• Here’s how to set up recurring emails in Gmail and Outlook.

Here’s what else you need to get going:

1. A distribution list, divided by whatever segment of “friends and family” you’re trying to reach (e.g., regional, departmental, managers, etc.)
2. Decide which day and time to send the note. Remember to take into consideration regional and global time zones.
3. Determine the end date. You may be soliciting content for a limited campaign; no need to keep sending requests for content about Black History Month two months after it has passed.
4. Ensure that replies are seamlessly delivered to your inbox, so you don’t have to remember to log into a different account to check for intel. You may need to set up an automatic forward or email masking to accomplish this.

One Step Further

Pro tip: Include a note of appreciation at the end of each article or newsletter when an idea or material was contributed by someone else. Here are two easy examples:

• Shout out to Vikram P. and Andrea M. for contributing news and information in this week’s newsletter.
• Thanks to Sasha G. for submitting the idea for this article!

The very quick and easy acknowledgment has benefits:

• Contributors are given due appreciation and recognition for sharing news that goes to a wide audience.
• The managers of the contributing employees will appreciate and reward news about their team/product/effort reaching a wide audience (hey, it makes them look good too!).
• Others will be prompted to share content because they don’t want to miss out on a) an easy win for their team/product/effort and b) they crave acknowledgment too.

Now that you’ve got your automated request for content going, learn how to build a killer employee newsletter with the tidbits you receive.

If you need ideas on how to up your newsletter game, reach out. I’d be happy to provide some advice and consultation. Email me at editorshaun@gmail.com.

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