Company Newsletter: The Best Way to Engage Employees and Customers

If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? In the same way, if your company newsletter lands in an inbox, will anyone read it? 

The average person receives 100 to 120 emails every day, so it’s easy for your employee newsletter to get lost in the shuffle. 

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Whether the newsletter is designed for staff or aimed at customers, it’s a powerful tool to engage them. 

In this article, we’ll show you the benefits of company newsletters, provide creative content ideas, discuss potential challenges you might face, and show you how to fix them. 

Let’s begin. 

What Is a Company Newsletter? 

First, let’s get this out of the way: the employee newsletter is the same as an internal or staff newsletter. Also, the newsletter is grouped into two main types: internal and external newsletters. Let’s explain them. 

Internal newsletter

The staff newsletter is a communication tool designed to keep employees informed, connected, and engaged about what’s going on with the company. 

The newsletter may include: 

The main goal is to foster a sense of community within the workplace. 

External newsletter 

This newsletter focuses on customers, partners, clients, and other external stakeholders of the company. 

This type of newsletter focuses on branding, marketing (like email marketing), and customer engagement. 

The external newsletter usually includes: 

Best Employee Newsletter Ideas for Your Company 

No matter how good a company newsletter is, it won’t help if no one reads it. The newsletter should be relevant to employees. 

It should include essential information that your employees and customers need to know, like new products or upcoming events. That’s where the company newsletter ideas come in. 

Here are the best newsletter ideas for work: 

Internal newsletter ideas 

1. Let your first newsletter be a warm introduction and a friendly welcome 

It’s the perfect chance for both new and existing team members to connect and start fostering a strong sense of community within the company.

Following the first newsletter, keep up the momentum by featuring a regular section that

• introduces and greets new hires, 
• shares interesting tidbits about employees and leadership, and 
• celebrates milestones and achievements.

2. Give the employees what they want 

It was Seth Godin who said people don’t want email; they want me-mail, and he was right. The least thing anyone wants is something that has nothing to do with them. 

When it comes to communicating with your employees, there’s absolutely no excuse for not treating them like your valued customers. 

If you want your employees to engage with your content, do it in a way that shows them how it directly relates to their own lives and their roles within the company.

So, write a marketing email that shows how you support them personally and is relevant to them and their colleagues.

Another way is to spice up your email subject lines to make them stand out to your employees. 

3. Add GIFs to your emails 

Adding animated GIFs to your company newsletters can make the information more engaging and entertaining for your employees. 

You can easily insert GIFs into your emails to convey emotions and messages effectively by using an email builder like Contact Monkey. 

However, use GIFs in the right situations to make a great impression on your employees. 

4. Introduce training and career advancement opportunities

Company newsletters serve as an excellent platform to keep everyone informed about the various training and development stipends or opportunities you offer. 

Keep your employees in the loop about upcoming training sessions, conferences, webinars, and even bonuses for completing certificate classes. 

5. Reuse old content wisely 

Not everything you create will be seen by everyone. Your employees will miss some content, no matter how much time you put into it. 

Reusing content is an effective strategy to ensure that key messages, articles, or links reach more employees. 

You can still engage readers by rightly balancing older and newer content. A good way is to track the links the staff members click and identify which content is worth reusing. 

If a particular feature isn’t getting much attention, use a different format or change its position in the newsletter. 

External newsletter ideas 

1. Write emails that are aspirational and visually appealing

Emails don’t always have to be strictly informative or focused on driving action to be effective. 

Occasionally, employee newsletter content can serve as a source of inspiration and evoke a sense of admiration for your brand.

Depending on your business, your email marketing campaign can encourage recipients to browse through products and possibly click to make a purchase. 

Instead of pushing new products or promotions, try to cultivate a specific ambiance and emotion that perfectly represents your brand in a single email.

2. Tell your customer about the little known ways to use your services or products 

You can use your email marketing to educate and fascinate your customers at the same time! Let your subscribers know of unique ways they can use your products or services. 

It’s always a good feeling when people know easy ways to use your product. You can also let your subscribers inspire you with their innovative uses for your products!

3. Give your customers the most relevant information first

Not all information holds the same weight.

There are the more important ones and the extras. Ensure that your essential information takes center stage in your staff newsletter.

Nobody appreciates having their time wasted. Keep the most important details easily accessible at the beginning of your newsletter. 

User attention significantly decreases after the initial view, so prioritize placing your key information front and center.

If all the content in your company newsletter is valuable and beneficial to your customers, you’re likely to achieve the engagement you want.

Company Newsletters Challenges: Issues and Solutions

While there are many advantages to having an employee newsletter, there are also various obstacles that can arise when trying to create and maintain an effective one. 

Here are some common challenges and potential solutions:

1. Creating content

Issue: It can be challenging to come up with fresh and interesting content for each newsletter.

Solution: To address this, consider creating an editorial calendar to plan out content in advance. Additionally, encourage contributions from different departments and employees to bring in different perspectives and sources of content.

2. Engagement

Issue: One of the main challenges is ensuring that both employees and customers actually take the time to read the newsletter.

Solution: Focus on making your content visually appealing and easy to digest. Incorporate eye-catching headlines, images, and multimedia elements to capture attention. Also, include interactive features such as polls or surveys to boost engagement.

3. Consistency 

Issue: Juggling various tasks can make sticking to a consistent publishing schedule tough, especially when resources are scarce.

Solution: Designate a specific team member to oversee the newsletter and keep everyone on track with deadlines. Use project management tools to simplify processes and hold team members accountable. If needed, adjust the frequency of newsletters to a more sustainable level that meets audience needs.

4. Relevance and customer engagement

Issue: It can be quite a task to keep the content relevant and captivating for the potential customer, especially when dealing with a wide range of preferences and demographics.

Solution: Conduct audience research to get a better understanding of your target audience’s interests, preferences, and challenges. Categorize your audience based on factors like job roles, interests, or past purchases, and then customize your content accordingly. Seek feedback from your recipients through surveys, polls, or direct inquiries to measure satisfaction levels and pinpoint areas that need improvement.

5. Feedback and performance measurement

Issue: It can be difficult to gather valuable feedback from your customers and assess the impact of the company newsletter without defined metrics or systems in place.

Solutions: Monitor vital performance metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and engagement stats by using tracking tools or analytics programs. Test different content styles, designs, or distribution schedules through A/B email testing and find out what resonates the most with your audience.

Ask your customers to share their thoughts by taking part in surveys, polls, or feedback forms so that you can collect input & make use of data-driven strategies for ongoing improvements. 

Conclusion 

Creating a killer company newsletter is crucial to reaching out to your staff as well as clients when doing business. 

When you know the types of different newsletters and what they aim at, you’ll be able to create content that really speaks to your audience, hence helping you achieve your communication objective.

Use the employee newsletter ideas to ensure that your newsletters stay engaging and fun. 

Your employee newsletter, despite the challenges, can evolve to be a key part of your overall communication plan through detailed planning and a well-thought-out strategy.