You’ve just finished laying out your employee newsletter for the upcoming month after rounds of editing and approving your team’s work. You walk over to the breakroom, to clear your head and grab a cup of coffee. Some of your colleagues from the Finance department are in there as well making casual “watercooler-style” conversation. One of them mentions the professional development workshop happening tomorrow morning and asks the others if they’ll be attending. 

“Oh, where did you see that? I guess I didn’t get that email,” another responds. 

We’ve all had those frustrating moments where employees talk about missing their communications. Whether you hear it in passing or receive actual complaints, it can be disheartening to feel as though your work has little impact. 

Here at Cerkl, we’ve increased our client’s internal communications by an average of 32%, and I’ve compiled some of the best practices they’ve used to decrease the amount of missed employee messages. 

1. Spend Time Crafting Your Employee Newsletter Subject Lines

Why should your employees read the email you’re sending them? Their inboxes are full of Microsoft notifications, meeting invites, and email threads.

You can get your foot in the door by focusing on your email’s first impression: its headline. 

Take the time to workshop it; don’t just use the first thought that comes to mind. I challenge myself to come up with at least five variations with a 40 character max. That way, they aren’t cut off in the preview of the inbox and stay mobile-friendly. 

When you’re writing, then ask yourself, “What is the benefit the reader will get from this communication?” If it’s the professional development workshop previously mentioned, then good examples may be “Free professional development workshop” or “Coffee and conversation with our CFO.”

2. Cut Down on the Number of Employee Emails You Send

We’ve all received five emails from our organization before lunch, and wish we could mute them.

The average office worker receives 121 emails per day. Reducing the number of emails your employees receive makes them less likely to skip over your communications. 

First, look at your delivery metrics for the best times and weekdays to send your newsletter. These times are different for each industry, but if you’re in healthcare, we’ve sifted through 4.5 million client data points to find the most popular delivery stats.  

If you want to increase your open rate, even more, give your employees the power to select their own delivery time and frequency. Twenty of the emails that you would send could turn into two while leaving you with an option to send time-sensitive communications if need be.  

3. Plan Your Internal Content Around a Dispersed Workforce

A contractor doesn’t need updates on employee benefits. A Customer Service Representative from Milwaukee shouldn’t be getting the same material as an IT person working out of Ireland. 

Your team should be planning your corporate communications around your workforce. Segmenting by location, job type, interests, and more will make your emails employee click-bait instead of scrolled-past content.

Make sure your plan considers different time zones when thinking about your global communications deliveries. I’d hate to get an email in the middle of the night from my company just because it’s 9 am EST. 

4. Create a Centralized Employee Communications Experience

Internal communicators want to meet their employees where they already are. The need to create content on social media, intranet, newsletter, and possibly mobile app makes sense. With this many touchpoints, it makes sense that there would be a decent amount of overlap. 

That’s why streamlining your communications is an essential part of creating an engaging employee experience. Why should your employees get your newsletter only to see the same pieces the moment they log in to the intranet?

If an employee misses communications, make sure there’s an easy way they can search it. A content archive pulls in your website, intranet, app, and video pieces, making one place that’s able to search across all your channels. 

What’s Next?

If you’re interested in learning more about creating a personalized, cross-channel experience, we’d love to show you how we can simplify and help you improve your internal communications.

Are your newsletters achieving your internal communication goals? Get our strategic comms audit for free, no risk, no commitment.

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