Friday 5 June 2015

Nine ways to wonderful: How to create an engaging newsletter



Company newsletters are often a missed opportunity to build employee engagement. A boring, ugly, tedious read will never positively impact your culture. Here are a few tips to help make your company newsletter more interesting!
  1. Be inclusive. Dedicate a page from each department, including HR and ask for submissions from employees at all levels; not just people who are in sales or management positions. The content doesn't always need to be company stats. You can include helpful tips, interesting articles from subject matter experts (most will give permission to reprint a blog posting), fund raising initiatives, lunch & learn events, etc.
  2. Don’t write in too much detail! Keep articles between 75-125 words max.
  3. Don’t post poor quality photos. Photographs should be from a minimum 10 megapixel camera.
  4. Use the newsletter to create cohesion in your company by picking a charity to raise money for. Ask for volunteers and post updates.
  5. Show your employees you are interested in their development. Include news about upcoming training programs the company may sponsor.
  6. Keep the tone of your articles up beat. Used properly, the newsletter can be a bit of a positive propaganda tool. Use it to influence the energy in your company, rather than letting the energy at your company influence the newsletter. Your messaging can have an amazing impact on people's perception of the company and their team mates. What messages do your employees need to hear?
  7. Use the newsletter to reinforce company values. Most companies really fall down on this. The newsletter is a perfect opportunity to remind everyone of the values that are supposed to guide their decisions at work.
  8. Create a theme for each newsletter and have each submission reflect the theme. For example, if the theme for April is "Spring into Action", then focus on new initiatives. You can also pick a company value and use it as a theme. This requires a little bit of planning, but if you scribble a theme out for each month in advance, then you will have an idea of how to direct submissions. Of course, you want employees to participate (see Tip # 1).
  9. Make your newsletter accessible to everyone. There are many ways to do this. You can email it, post it on the intranet, print up copies for the lunchroom and shop floor. You can even build your own app for your newsletter! Make sure the font is large enough for everyone to read. If you have office locations where the dominant language is not English, then translate it!
Renée Cormier is a Public Relations & Communications professional, published author, employee engagement specialist, sales & marketing sage and constant producer of quality content. Need help with your communications? Visit www.reneecormier.com

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