How to Create Internal Newsletters That Won’t Be Missed or Ignored

Many organizations struggle with the challenge of getting their employees to pay attention to the messages they send them internally. Whether it’s email information, intranet sites or the trusty staff newsletter – getting your employees to take the time to read the information can be difficult in the modern workplace.

Internal newsletters are a great way to communicate regularly with your employees, outlining everything from your strategy and vision for the company through to rewarding and recognizing the good work individual employees are doing.

But just because you send it doesn’t mean it is going to get read. These days, information overload through too many different communication channels mean that your newsletter can get lost in the “noise”.

Don’t despair, however, there are ways that you can rise above this to deliver engaging content that your employees won’t miss or ignore.

1.Ensure your newsletter is written for the right audience

This might seem obvious, but there are many newsletters out there that fail to be relevant to their intended audience. If you are doing this, expect that your readers are going to start ignoring your newsletters pretty quickly!

2. Include engaging content

A mixture of well-written, engaging content that your staff finds informative and invaluable will have them looking out for the next newsletter in their inboxes.

3. Pay attention to your format and presentation

A clean, clear, format makes your newsletter easy to read. Also ensure you adopt a uniform look and style to each newsletter so that your employees immediately recognize what it is they are reading.

4. Keep it simple

Not only should you keep the language and information as simple to understand as possible, don’t have really long newsletters that staff will not find the time to complete. Use language that is clear, avoid the use of clichés, adopt an active voice and try to avoid using words with too many syllables.

5. Offer extras

Include items like surveys, trivia, feature profiles of employees and so on to add some light and shade – it doesn’t have to be 100 per cent serious, but it should always remain professional.

6. Keep it web-based

Don’t send a PDF of your newsletter, keep it in email where staff can click through to any links you include.

7. Include graphics

Nobody wants to read a newsletter that’s basically just lots of slabs of text. Break it up by including photos, graphs, charts and other visual elements. This is particularly recommended when your subject matter is dry but important.

8. Include video

Videos from your leadership team or project leaders providing updates on various corporate initiatives are a great engagement tool.

9. Encourage feedback

Strive for constant improvement with your internal newsletter by offering staff the opportunity to provide feedback on what is working and what isn’t working.

10. Utilize DeskAlerts

DeskAlerts will ensure that every single employee knows a new internal newsletter is available – and the way DeskAlerts works means they cannot ignore the message.