Marketing & Employer Branding: How to Create a Perfect Internal Newsletter

As the marketing department, we communicate with the media and clients to spread the word about what we do as a company. In the meantime, we often forget about our colleagues from other teams. 

Working together with the HR department, however, we can easily remedy this situation - and create an internal messaging platform that will be both important and fun. 

Most employees spend a lot of time browsing their inboxes. According to research quoted by The Washington Post, we spent on average of about four hours a day (time measured including replying to emails). So how do you get employees to read one more email (which is usually considered to be spam and not worth the attention)? 

Why do you need an internal newsletter? 

A good newsletter is in fact an important and helpful part of any internal communication strategy and a great way to turn everyone into perfectly informed brand ambassadors. 

But building a company culture is not the only thing that you can get by sending an internal newsletter. 

See for yourself the other benefits: 

• Keeping others informed about important, planned events 
• Cultivating the achievements of other departments - boasting of successes, learning about new clients, introduction of new features in the application, etc. 
• Encouraging colleagues to engage in brand advocacy by showing them what they can share on social media and possibly turn them into your best brand ambassadors 
• Ensuring transparency by showing everyone that you have nothing to hide; moreover, gathering all the important information in one regularly sent e-mail helps prevent a situation in which you can hear things like "I had no idea about a new case x"; Also, such an email will not be lost as easily as a single piece of information sent on one of many Slack channels.

Foundations. Where to start? 

As a marketer, you know very well the tips and tricks, thanks to which sending newsletters to customers goes smoothly, engages the audience and gets e-mails opened and read from cover to cover. 

Remember, however, that an internal newsletter is slightly different from newsletters sent to customers. 

The main differences are the topics covered and the target group, which is of course the entire company. 

Here’s a description of some sample parts that should be included in this type of mailing: 

1. Notification of newly recruited coworkers 

Good onboarding is the first step to job satisfaction. 

A newsletter is the perfect place to present a team of newly hired people. You should include a photo of a new employees, job title, responsibilities and something extra concerning their hobby or a few words about their previous professional experience. 

2. Departments’ achievements 

Usually each team focuses on its own work, so the work of colleagues from other departments is left out or not fully noticed. 

Writing down the five most important topics that we managed to accomplish in each month allows everyone to be up to date and be able to look at the company with a more holistic view. 

3. Internal policy changes 

Changes are important, so it's worth informing everyone about them through several channels (intranet, Slack, mail sent from the HR department). 

Newsletters are another channel that will allow you to remind everyone of newly introduced rules. 

4. Events announcements 

Did you get some kind of industry award as a company? Or maybe one of your employees will be a speaker at an important conference? 

Tell the world and let others cheer on events that will take place in the nearest future. 

5. Employee successes 

Keep up with promotions, guest posts, industry articles and meetups that your employees have participated in. 

Show that you are proud of them and that they are valued by the company. 

6. Latest social media posts and blog posts (and other stuff: Medium, Instagram, etc.) 

As already mentioned, remind employees about the new products prepared by the marketing department, including social media posts and the company blog. 

Encourage them to share content with the world—maybe one of the posts will be go viral! ?? 

Add some fun 

The internal newsletter in the company should be something read with pleasure, so it is worth enriching it with a few more elements. 

An extra dose of humor, motivational quote, vacation photos or monthly book/movie recommendation is an interesting addition that will not require a lot of work, and potentially put a smile on faces. 

Gather Feedback 

Listen to your recipients after asking them how often they would like to receive such information. Or are they maybe missing a topic? Would they like to add something or share some photo for the fun section? 

Good feedback is the basis of success — after all, you create a newsletter for your collogues. 

Summing Up 

Send your colleagues newsletters that you would like to find in your own inbox. 

Communicate using a human voice and keep everyone up to date with all the topics that are happening in your office! 

Originally published at synerise.com on 16.10.2019.