Employee engagement is essential for a company’s success, with studies showing a 23% increase in profitability, as per Gallup. This clearly shows why it is crucial to ensure that your employees are well-communicated for your company’s progression. 

One tool for the rescue is the internal company newsletter. It bridges the communication gap and can be used to keep your employees motivated, aware, and in line with the company’s mission and vision. It also helps to keep your employees informed of the latest updates, thus elevating their engagement, which ultimately leads to the company’s success.

The blog seeks to guide you through the best practices for internal company newsletters in 2024 so that you can design effective newsletters that are not only timely and informative but also interactive and enriching to your company’s culture.

Reimagining the Newsletter: Moving Beyond the Traditional Format

The traditional internal company newsletter is long dead. Factors including low engagement, outdated content, lack of conciseness, and overreliance on text contribute to it. These challenges raise the question of how to improve the internal newsletter.  

Well, the answer lies in leveraging modern internal newsletters. Its concept is quite amazing, as it revolves around creating interactive, informative, and engaging communication means. It deals with the needs and expectations of the modern-day workforce.   

It is worth mentioning that it comes with the following notable advantages: higher employee engagement, higher information exchange rates, and a strong corporate culture. All these aspects instill greater feelings of belonging and identification with the company’s vision.  

Also Read: Steps To Make A Brilliant Internal Communication Plan

Captivate Your Audience: Content Is King (And Queen)

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The elements that make an internal company newsletter a success are its quality and relevancy. When considering how to structure an internal newsletter effectively, it’s essential to focus on captivating your audience with high-quality and relevant content.  

An effective newsletter strengthens the company’s voice and connects with employees. Apart from the news feed and posts on events and milestones, many other types of content can be relevant and interesting for employees.  

Some of the engaging internal newsletter examples include:  

1. Company News and Updates  

Employees must know about the things happening in the company. So, you should keep them well-informed and updated about the latest news and updates. 

This may include new company policies, product launches, company structure, major events, or the company’s milestones. By doing this, you can build trust among your employees and make them feel part of the business. 

2. Employee Spotlights and Achievements

Keep space for employees’ achievements and milestones in your newsletters to celebrate their success. 

A small recognition can boost their morale and build a culture of appreciation and acknowledgment within the company. You can simply share their stories, accomplishments, and contributions. This will not only boost their confidence but will also inspire others to take action and promote positivity.  

3. Recognition and Appreciation Programs  

Implementing recognition and appreciation programs can be a powerful way to motivate and engage your employees.

You can highlight these programs in your internal newsletters and explain how one can participate or nominate their colleagues. This simple act can help your employees feel valued and encourage them to aim for excellence.  

4. Upcoming Events and Social Gatherings  

In addition, you can use the internal newsletter to advertise any events or social meetings that may take place in your organization. 

This can be done in various ways, such as company town hall meetings, group activities, and parties. Informing employees about such events can foster participation. It will also be useful to establish and foster good relations between colleagues.  

5. Q&A Sessions with Leadership  

In your internal newsletter, feature a Q&A session with the leadership team; it will promote transparency and open communication. 

Encourage them to submit their questions and provide candid answers from the leaders. This simple practice not only addresses the concerns but also showcases the company’s commitment to fostering a culture of trust and open dialogue. 

6. Lighthearted Content: Employee Stories, Fun Facts, and Company Trivia  

While informative content is crucial, incorporating lighthearted elements can make the newsletter more engaging and enjoyable to read. Featuring employees’ stories showing their unique personalities, sharing fun facts about the company or industry, or including company trivia can spark interest and create a sense of companionship among employees.  

Also Read: What is an Employee Value Proposition: Why Do You Need One?

Craft a Winning Design: Make It Look Good! 

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In our digital era, user experience is paramount for capturing and retaining reader attention. If you are interested in improving the appeal and engagement of your internal company newsletter, you might want to consider following the corporate newsletter best practices that outline the use of internal company newsletters.

Tribe states that 84% of (non-desk-based) employees do not get the information from their employers that they feel they need. It highlights the importance of clear and feasible communication.  

To increase employee engagement, you need to adopt a mobile-first mentality. These days, people spend most of their time on the phone, and it is therefore not a second choice that the company’s internal newsletter be mobile-friendly. 

Additionally, utilize clear layouts, high-quality images, and consistent branding to provide a cohesive and professional look to your newsletter. Moreover, you can incorporate multimedia content such as short videos, infographics, or employee-generated content to add variety and cater to different learning preferences. 

Engage and Interact: A Two-Way Street  

Effective communication is a two-way street, and incorporating corporate newsletter best practices involves prioritizing engagement and interaction with your audience. The newsletter is a powerful medium for distributing information, but along with information, it should prioritize employee engagement as well.   

This separates newsletters from traditional communication, a one-way channel. You can make the most out of internal newsletters by:  

1. Encouraging Employee Feedback: Integrate polls, surveys, or comment sections to gather insights from employees. This approach will evoke a sense of belonging in them, further enhancing your company’s value. 
2. Integrating Social Media Elements: With people being socially savvy, elevating social media should be on top. Allow your employees to share the contents of the newsletter on social media platforms. A simple step like this can create a sense of community. 
3. Highlight Employee Contributions: Who doesn’t want to get recognized for their contributions? By featuring user-generated content, team shoutouts, or project updates, you can celebrate your employees’ involvement and accomplishments.  

Consistency Is Key: Building Sustainable Engagement 

Some of the Internal company newsletter practices that you should follow are:  

Establish momentum and continuous engagement through consistency, which could be achieved by maintaining a regular publishing schedule. You can opt for weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly, whichever best complements your company’s goals. 

To gain maximum visibility, promote internal company newsletters through internal communication channels or social media platforms. Additionally, you can analyze open rates and engagement rates of the newsletters and create internal company newsletter samples. These samples can be further utilized for creating a newsletter that can gather better engagement.  

Furthermore, continuously gather feedback from employees and iterate your content based on their preferences. Both the feedback-gathering approach and analyzing metrics will help you alter your strategy and make your internal newsletter relevant, valuable, and engaging for your workforce.  

To Wrap Up

Internal company newsletters have the potential to drive engagement and foster effective communication. By implementing Internal newsletter best practices, organizations can create immersive, interactive, visually appealing, and impactful experiences for their workforces.  

It is also important to remember that the focus of the internal company newsletter is not merely to collect information but also to foster a sense of community and pride, to recognize achievements, and to promote a feeling of affiliation among employees. Start investing in your internal newsletter; the employees you’ll get in return will be informed, motivated, and loyal.  

Also Read: Remote Employees: Company Communication Best Practices

Frequently Asked Questions

1.  How to evaluate the effectiveness of your internal newsletter?  

Assessing the impact of your internal newsletter involves tracking metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and engagement levels, while also gathering feedback from employees. Additionally, measuring turnover rates, employee effectiveness, and overall job satisfaction provides insights into how the newsletter affects your workforce.

2.  How can companies ensure their internal newsletters are engaging?   

The most important features for designing an interesting internal newsletter should be the choice of layout and design, the inclusion of interactive tools like surveys and polls, and the use of infographics and video. Furthermore, raising the participation of the employees is also important to make the newsletter more interesting.  

3.  Can an internal newsletter contain external content?   

An internal newsletter can contain content other than company-specific content, which should be the primary focus. 

Content like industry news thought leadership articles or other external resources could add value and open up a broader perspective for your employees.

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