Although the workforce is more scattered than ever due to hybrid offices, there is one thing that can bring your internal comms team together: email newsletters. Okay, your first thought might be, “don’t we already get enough emails as is?”
While this is a valid point, an internal communications email newsletter doesn’t have to be sent more than once a week or twice a month to have value. Plus, this form of informative, cost-effective, and community-building communication will benefit the entire comms team.
Read on to discover why your internal comms team will benefit from an internal email newsletter, what content a newsletter might contain, and how to get started on crafting your own internal comms email newsletter.
What Is the Purpose of an Internal Comms Email Newsletter?
Good questions. Let's take a look at the comms landscape.
Communicators require trusted sources of information, while hectic lives lead to reduced time for checking the news and staying up-to-date. However, following industry trends is an essential element of a successful communicator workflow. Fortunately, internal comms email newsletters can help remedy information gaps.
Internal emails are sent within an organization and can be targeted to specific departments. These emails are used for communication, collaboration, sharing information, and coordinating work-related activities. Creating an internal email for the comms department can achieve several department-specific goals and address the unique needs of professional communicators.
The communications landscape is evolving, especially in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Many communicators want to know what AI tools are at their disposal and how to integrate them, as well as how to address ethical concerns. Unfortunately, there is a lot of fear and misinformation out there.
Internal communications emails are one way to address and ease rising uncertainty.
The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer found that while authority is declining and far fewer people trust figures such as politicians, there is a new source of trust taking over. Businesses are now the top source of providing trusted information to the public, as more people turn to their employers for answers.
This is where newsletters come into play. Many communicators share common work challenges that can be resolved with clear communication. When a comms department establishes a digestible, reliable, and informative newsletter for all workers, these uncertainties can be clarified.
Communicators want easy-to-access and trusted sources that they can turn to for both continuous learning and professional development. As skillsets diversify and comms professionals are tasked with an expanding array of work, they can benefit from the information internal communications newsletters provide.
Overall, creating an internal communications email can accomplish these three goals:
- Increase team motivation, connection, and collaboration
- Offer growth and learning to diversify skill sets and knowledge
- Give updates to inform the team and ease fear about changes
And with these goals comes many benefits ...
7 Benefits of Offering Your Comms Team an Internal Communications Email Newsletter
Why should workers take the time to read your internal comms email? Here are seven reasons that you can use to sway readership. Internal comms emails matter because they allow people to:
- Stay informed: Newsletters provide curated updates on industry news, trends, and developments in the field that people work in. Who doesn't want to be up-to-date?
- Develop professionally: Staying informed about the ever-changing comms landscape empowers readers to enhance their skills and knowledge and consider areas to expand professionally.
- Save time: Valued comms emails should be short, informative, and concise. They allow communicators to learn while saving time they would otherwise spend sifting through websites.
- Be ahead of the curve: Reading about industry trends, emerging topics, and relevant discussions can provide communicators with a competitive edge that inspires change.
- Learn from the experts: Emails should provide a curated list of comms news that comes from trusted and learned voices that will give relevant and honest updates for communicators.
- Find inspiration: Let's face it, we all hit creative blocks. Internal comms emails should promote inspiration and inspire campaigns, ideas, and best industry practices.
- Practice continuing learning: Lifelong learning is a necessity. If you are serious about your comms role, turn to industry newsletters to expand and update your knowledge.
Now, let's discover how to create an effective internal comms email for your team.
Strategies for Captivating Your Internal Comms Audience
When it comes to tailoring a message to your internal comms team, there are many strategies to consider. The goal is to get your communicators to open the newsletter and read it through. Even better, they should eagerly anticipate it. It all starts with the first thing receivers see: the hook.
Craft compelling and relevant subject lines that get readers excited to open the email. When it comes to the body of the email, employ storytelling techniques to keep readers hooked and engaged. Meanwhile, be sure to optimize the visual appeal of the email through a carefully selected layout and imagery.
Above all, be sure to personalize the content to your team. Include news, updates, tools, tips, and resources that are relevant to your internal comms team. What makes a good internal comms newsletter?
First, it's essential to define the goal of your internal communications email newsletter. You should consider it a source of reliable and relevant information that comms professionals can trust to keep them up-to-date on industry changes and trends.
A good internal communications email newsletter should give your comms team digestible information that they can quickly glean to gain an educated understanding. It should contain high-quality and trustworthy resources that don't require a lot of time to read.
Let's break down the elements of a successful internal comms email newsletter:
- Brevity — It should not require a lot of time to read your email newsletter.
- Quality — Communicators should walk away feeling informed and updated.
- Reliability — Readers should receive the newsletter at the same time.
- Trust — Sources should always be carefully selected to maintain truth.
- Appeal — Select a template and maintain familiarity with the layout.
So what sources should an internal comms newsletter contain?
Now that you have a better idea of the goals of an internal comms email, let's move on to content. When it comes to our Staffbase newsletter, You've Got Comms, we rely on a template when we create new issues twice a month. Our emails start with a storytelling aspect before diving in with relevant information.
In each edition of our internal comms email newsletter, we aim to address the current questions in the comms world. We offer our readers a list of new articles, updates in the comms world, resources for job improvement, and top voices to check out. This includes sharing book and podcast recommendations that are relevant to the comms world. We also include online events and webinars to checkout.
With these key factors in mind, let's move on to the process. Fortunately, creating an email newsletter is not too complicated. Meanwhile, once a format is defined, future issues will be easy to manage.
4 Easy Steps to Start Your Internal Comms Email Newsletter
1. Define your content.
The first step you should take when starting your internal comms email is to define what content you will release. Keep in mind that your team likely wants short, digestible tidbits. The goal should be to provide concise and accurate information that only takes a few minutes to read.
2. Decide on the logistics.
Next, it's time to lay out a template. To maintain a level of reliability, it's important to maintain consistent visuals. While these can be tweaked and updated over time, it is important to create a template. Using a service such as Staffbase Email will simplify and streamline this process. Then, you can easily plug in new information for future newsletters.
3. Pick a release plan.
Select something that you know will work when it comes to your release schedule. This could be every week, twice a month, or every month. The most important thing is that you stick to this release schedule no matter what. Your team should be able to trust the content for consistent releases.
4. Stay consistent.
Lastly, stay consistent! Plan out your content ahead of time. Schedule releases when you know you have a vacation coming up. Establish your internal communications email as a reliable source of information that your team can count on being sent.
Pro Tip: Create an Internal Comms Content Calendar to avoid being overwhelmed. Download Staffbase's FREE Internal Communications Content Calendar for 2024.
Don't Forget: Choosing the Right Channel for Delivery
When it comes to communicating with your comms team, it's essentially that all workers are reached at the same time. Therefore, it might be wise to send the newsletter on your employee app via an intranet solution so that workers have access to the information based on their department.
We are proud to provide Staffbase Email, a dynamic solution that crafts and delivers internal newsletters. Staffbase Email provides an intuitive drag-and-drop designer to easily improve visuals. You can personalize newsletters and target the delivery to employees with scheduling to relevant audiences.
Additionally, Staffbase Email allows for comprehensive analytics. It's important to track metrics to refine your newsletter strategy. Staffbase Email provides insightful metrics such as read times, open and click rates, and heat maps, allowing you to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns. By understanding what resonates with your audience, you can continuously refine your strategy to drive better outcomes.
Sign Up for You've Got Comms Today — The Internal Communications Newsletter Written for YOU
Here at Staffbase, we are proud to offer our very own internal comms email — You've Got Comms. We write this email for YOU, the people who join us in making comms great.
Our newsletter, released twice a month, provides our subscribers with an overview of news, events, media, and tips related to the world of comms. Readers can expand upon information they are interested in to promote growth and stay up-to-date on industry trends and news.
P.S. If you speak German or have Google Translate embedded into your email, be sure to check out our German internal comms newsletter Ikone for more international comms news and updates!