Employee communications: how to write a great newsletter

LinkedIn newsletter header

The thing I love about being a sole trader is that internal communication is easy.  I may run the risk of talking to myself on a regular basis, but I find it’s sometimes the best way to get a straight answer!

Equally, if you only have a handful of employees keeping everyone up to date is simple, but what happens when your business grows?  You may have an increased workforce or have opened new premises so you can’t rely on word of mouth communication any longer.

In those circumstances, a company newsletter can be a straightforward way of making sure everyone is aware of new developments, but done well it can be hugely beneficial in other ways.

Make your employees feel part of the team

If your employees are geographically distant from each other it can start to feel as if everyone works for a different firm.  This is particularly true if they don’t have the opportunity to get together very often.  Hearing news from other offices helps employees feel connected to each other even when they haven’t met.

Sharing achievements and initiatives and showing how they’re being implemented elsewhere also helps staff to remember that they’re all working towards the same goals even if they’re doing it in different places.

Newsletters for business development and change management

Managing change is always challenging but a great newsletter can help you to demonstrate transparency regarding the process when there may otherwise be uncertainty.  Whether change is only affecting one office or one particular section of the business, ensuring that all your employees know what’s going on will help them in their dealings with staff who are affected.

On a more positive note, you can use team or staff profiles to increase awareness of other areas of the business.  If you offer a range of different services, highlighting them in your newsletter enables employees to cross sell or simply to provide accurate information when they receive a query.

How to write a newsletter people will read

Make it about your employees in the same way that you make marketing about your customers.  Engaging your employees involves showing interest in their lives, what they’ve achieved and how any new developments affect their work.

Keep the content fun and positive as much as possible.  Focusing on positive stories most of the time promotes a ‘feel good’ culture that helps keep morale high.  This doesn’t mean you should avoid sharing bad news where it’s appropriate, but this should be kept to a minimum.

Using great graphics, or even video if you’re publishing digitally, makes the overall experience much more enjoyable and makes it more likely that staff look forward to receiving the newsletter.

Be consistent with your content and keep it short!  There’s a reason weekday newspapers are shorter than the weekend editions – no one has time to read anything longer.  Keep articles in bite size form if you have a lot of topics to cover.

Be consistent with your format too – we’ve all got our favourite sections of the newspaper that we flick to first and your newsletter will probably be the same.  Keeping the design of each edition the same and also having a consistent release date will help your updates become part of the landscape of your employees’ working lives.

Do you already have a company newsletter or are you thinking of starting one?  If you want to try a new approach to your internal communications or content marketing, I’m for hire! Get in touch or register here to receive regular updates, special offers and a free copy of my guide, ’10 Tips to create copy that converts’.