8 Reasons Why You Need an Employee Newsletter
If you saw this article in a newsletter, you’re already sold
If you subscribe to any newsletter using your personal email account, then you should have an employee newsletter.
- Clearly you see the value in such communication.
Newsletters are everywhere, whether you receive bulletins from your child care center, The Skimm, updates from your favorite sports and hobby groups, your church’s monthly update, etc.
- Businesses like Axios, The Skimm, and Morning Brew thrive on the fact that newsletters are valuable for consumers (readers).
- Email isn’t going anywhere, and neither are newsletters.
Here are eight reasons why you should create an employee newsletter.
1. Your Audience Is Busy
Your employees are busy, distracted, and overwhelmed with information overload.
- The average office worker receives 121 emails and sends about 40 each day, according to The Guardian.
Employees need curated material. Just like you can’t read all of nytimes.com every day for the news, and just like you don’t have the time to search the web for everything that’s new about your favorite hobby (the Red Sox, growing succulents, knitted toaster covers), you want the information curated and delivered to you.
- Tell employees the most important and relevant information today, so they can be informed and then move on.
- Don’t make employees look for the information they want.
- Time is money. Saving your employees time means saving your company money.
2. Newsletters Drive Action
At scale, newsletters can quickly encourage employees to take action or remind them of a behavioral change you’re trying to implement.
- You can effect behavioral change.
Using a call to action, you can make it simple and easy for employees to:
- Increase sales (by informing them of a new product)
- Sign-up for instructional sessions, like webinars or classes
- Share content to social media channels to promote your brand
- Donate money to causes
- And a hundred other activities
On the flip-side, you can get employees to stop doing things, such as:
- Not use a certain elevator bank during construction
- Upload sensitive documents to external accounts
- Call IT to fix an issue when there’s a self-service option
- Not open an email that’s suspect (phishy)
- Not use a help-line reserved for customers
- And a hundred other activities
Newsletters can be a one-stop-shop for the action employees need to take to do their job better.
3. You Can Measure Effectiveness
You can measure interest and engagement in your calls-to-action.
- Closely related to point #2.
- There are myriad ways you can count activity, whether it’s volumetrics (e.g., clicks), surveys, or other means.
Knowledge is power. If you know which content drives which attitude or behavioral changes, you can refine the content you deliver and how (e.g., tone changes; increasing cadence).
- Do more of what’s working.
- Stop doing what doesn’t generate results.
- Always try something different to test your influence.
4. Newsletters Are Targeted
You know 100% of the readership.
- That’s more than any consumer-facing newsletter can ever say.
You literally have a list of readers (employees) and know so much basic information — tenure, location, position, names, etc. — that your content can be extremely precise.
With that much information at your fingertips there’s no reason to create content that is irrelevant. Every sentence counts!
5. Newsletters Are Low Cost
Compared to other media, newsletters can cost just time and labor.
- Videos, events, paper mailings, digital signage, etc. all have many more overhead costs than the simple newsletter.
There’s no need to be fancy. Tools like Microsoft Outlook can be very effective in creating and disseminating information at scale with very little training and funds.
- Just remember: There is a skill to creating newsletters; a sloppy copy-and-paste from Word can discredit your organization.
6. Newsletters Build Trust and Credibility
Done right, you can be seen as the arbiter of the kind of information your employees seek.
Trust increases when you include the voices and perspectives of more and more employees from around the company.
- Encourage employee participation!
Trust decreases when your newsletter sounds like a corporate propaganda machine.
7. Newsletters Foster Relationships
Over time employees will contribute to your newsletter and comms programs.
- This expands your influence and your network.
- Related to point #6.
The more your employees contribute, the more optimized your newsletter operation (internal comms team) can be.
- This frees you up to do more value add projects.
8. Readers Feel Valued
When you speak to your reader, she feels good.
- It feels like someone has taken the time to care about the employee’s needs (and not just what the C-suite wants to tell employees).
Increasing the value employees feel supports the virtuous cycle related to points #6 and #7 (which increases positive feelings for the firm, which increases motivation, which increases the quality of work and productivity, etc. etc. etc.)
