One of the best ways to engage employees is to create internal newsletters that share information and initiatives. Done imaginatively and constructively, introducing new company newsletter ideas can endorse your company brand voice and style and increase productivity. It can also play a pivotal role in internal communications.
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A March 2025 Forbes article by Edward DeAngelis, CEO of EDA Contractors Inc., a Forbes Council Member, tackles How To Build A Workplace Culture With Proactive Communication. He states that when people feel valued as individuals, they are more likely to perform better and contribute positively to a workplace experience. This, in turn, creates a workplace culture that fosters respect, kindness and humanity.
“Take the time to remember your employees’ names–and even the names of their family members. In doing so, you will build a workplace culture of trust, boosting morale and cultivating collaboration as you create an environment where everyone affiliated with your organization truly feels valued.”
Edward DeAngiis
One way to do this is to consistently distribute employee newsletters within a company. This tends to contribute positively to the work environment and is a relatively easy way to promote connectivity across the board, at the same time enhancing all-important internal communications. But the challenge is to present your company or employee newsletter in a way that it will be noticed and read. You want employees to look forward to it and not ignore it.
Here are some guidelines, together with 32 great company newsletter ideas that will help ensure employees in your organization welcome every employee newsletter and see it as effective communication.
32 Best Employee Newsletter Ideas to Encourage Your Staff
The best way to ensure employees will read a company’s employee newsletter is to get them excited and engaged. Including them in the newsletter in some way is also a great strategy. But what should a riveting employee newsletter include?
Asked to share their strategies for creating the most effective newsletters, members of the Forbes Communications Council are sometimes asked to come up with some useful suggestions. These suggestions from members (and some previous members) range from keeping content simple, fun, and lighthearted, to including video links and interactive content. Consistent employee engagement is a particularly important factor. Here are some examples.
#1 Be Concise To Keep Your Readers’ Attention
Astrid Pocklington of Enghouse Interactive believes the key to encouraging regular readership is to keep content engaging but brief. It’s all about finding that “sweet spot” where information meets interest within a limited attention span. This means that concise, compelling content is most likely to capture the attention of your staff, disseminate important company updates, promote a sense of community, and enhance overall employee engagement.
#2 Experiment With New Formats
Kerry-Ann Betton Stimpson, chief marketing officer of the JMMB Group, maintains that a best practice is to not wed yourself to a typical newsletter format if it’s not getting read. For example, your monthly newsletter could be a monthly internal video podcast instead. But why? The goal is to ensure that internal communications receive great engagement. So, if your employee base would better engage with a video podcast, then move away from a traditional newsletter format.
#3 Use Your Newsletter to Highlight Team Members
Colin Jeffries VP of Marketing and Communications at BrightView Health states that his company found that leveraging biweekly internal newsletters to showcase the passion and dedication of our exemplary staff worked really well. He finds that this often manifests in multimedia content to increase engagement. Limiting text and letting pull quotes, graphics, images and videos do the heavy lifting is absolutely a best practice!
#4 Focus On Company Culture to Increase Engagement
Robert Neely, Director of Marketing at Lima One Capital believes it’s important to make sure messages focus on culture and are not overly corporate. The newsletter should depict your culture, not simply share information. This will engage employees more and remind them why they chose to work at your company, which raises their spirits and ultimately improves retention. Once employees are engaged, they will also be more receptive to any information that needs to be shared.
#5 Include Content that Builds Community
Antony Robinson, CMO of Novalnet, states that one best practice for creating a monthly internal newsletter for staff members is to ensure a balance of content that informs and engages. To achieve this, he says you should balance your monthly internal newsletter with updates, announcements, and employee spotlights. This fosters community and connection, humanizes the workplace, boosts morale, and enhances employee satisfaction and retention.
#6 Stick to a Consistent Schedule and Format
Sarah Danzl, chief marketing officer of Skillable, believes it’s important to be consistent with timing and content. If your team knows when to expect it and where to look for key information, it will improve their desire to read. Keeping it to crucial information and reminders is also important. She points out that the team will know to take it seriously and that they will miss important updates if they neglect to consume the information.
#7 Include Information from Each Department
Victoria Zelefsky, VP of Communications at the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation, reckons a great rule of thumb for internal newsletters is to source content and information from all units across the organization. If each team is responsible for a small piece of the content each month, they’ll be much more inclined to open and read the newsletter since they had some ownership in its creation. It also helps keep the newsletter top of mind without necessarily sending additional memos.
#8 Create Content for Your Specific Audience
Matt Naeger, CSO of Trilliad, and former Global Chief Marketing Director of Merkle, states that as with other communications, the audience is the central consideration. He advises internal communicators to tailor content to the people they are targeting. Consider what info you need for their jobs and what will resonate with their values and interests. Ensure the distribution lists are honed, the length is digestible and the cadence is manageable. His bonus tip is: Content should never live only in a newsletter — give a teaser with a path to learn more!
#9 Create a Sense of Belonging by Highlighting Accomplishments
Daria Opanasiuk, Chief Marketing Officer of Impulse – Brain Training identifies the need to share your company’s achievements from the past month. This, she says, is a great opportunity to maintain a high level of team morale and create a valuable sense of being part of something big and important.
#10 Stay Focused On What’s Important
Abby Salameh, Chief Growth Officer of RFG Advisory and former Chief Marketing Officer of CAIS, likes to focus. She says that the main goals of a company or employee newsletter should be to keep employees informed of ongoing product launches and organizational changes and to share some wins or success stories. These monthly touchpoints with employees will continue to drive satisfaction and connection among employees and further define the culture of the firm.
#11 Include Links to Newsletter Sections for Easier Reading
Rekha Thomas, CEO and Principal Consultant of Path Forward Marketing LLC believes that one of the best practices is to make your newsletter easy to scan by using a list of topics with jump links to specific sections at the top of the newsletter. Like customers, employees are faced with a deluge of content at work and outside. She points out that employees are going to look for detailed information on their topics of interest and skip the rest. You might as well make it as easy as possible for them.
#12 Add Excitement With a Call to Action
Dora Hrkac, Global Head of Marketing and Communications of Esyasoft Technologies, suggests treating your employees the same way you would treat your customers. Once you get their attention, ensure your content is informative, helpful, supportive, educational, valuable, and empowering. There is always an initiative requiring a call to action. So, use that communication channel as one that will put a smile on their face whenever possible or even get them excited every time they receive it.
#13 Include Different Types of Content
Lianna Kinard, Chief Marketing Officer of The Buckner, likes to incorporate a variety of content types to keep the newsletter engaging. This could include a mix of articles, updates, success stories, upcoming events, and relevant company news. When you diversify content, the newsletter becomes more interesting and caters to different employee preferences and interests. She believes that this best practice will foster a sense of community and connectedness among employees.
#14 Include Ways for Employees to Engage with Content
Harshida Acharya, Partner and CSO of Fulfilment IQ, finds that one best practice for internal newsletters is to include interactive material. She suggests including polls, quizzes, or feedback sections in your newsletter to actively involve employees. This method not only keeps the content dynamic but also encourages two-way discussion. It immediately contributes to the goal of increasing employee engagement and participation, ensuring employees feel heard and valued within the organization.
#15 Ensure Content Is Relevant to the Entire Team
Jessica Marie, Founder and CEO of the Omnia Strategy Group, advises keeping it simple and useful. Curate content that is directly relevant to all staff, such as company news, employee milestones, and educational resources. This strategy keeps employees informed and engaged, helping meet the goal of fostering a cohesive company culture and a sense of community within the organization.
#16 Aim To Use It as a Powerful PR Tool
Jessica Wong, Founder and CEO of Valux Digital, believes one best practice for creating a monthly internal newsletter for staff members is to ensure it serves as a powerful internal PR tool. This means that the newsletter should not only provide valuable information but also focus on strengthening internal communications, fostering a sense of belonging, and celebrating employees’ contributions.
#17 Stay Consistent for High Readership
Kimberly Osborne, VP at UNC Greensboro, advocates that internal newsletters must be delivered consistently with high-quality, relevant information for employees. As she says, employees will start looking for the newsletter at the same time and day of the week if they know that is where the company will announce or share information first — before it is shared with other key stakeholders.
#18 Consider Design Elements and Formatting
Scott Hitchins, CSO of Interact Software, reckons people are so used to firing off quick emails that it’s easy to forget about the impact of design. He reminds us that content is essential, but adding photos, calls to action and visuals creates more engagement. It’s important because every company needs employees to be aware not just of key updates but of the general cultural ebb and flow. Greater engagement drives greater awareness.
#19 Ask employees what They Want to Know
Amanda Ponzar, Chief Communications and Strategy Officer at Community Health Charities likes to ask employees to contribute internal newsletter ideas. It’s also good to include an employee representative to help create and review content. She also emphasizes the need to measure open rates, click-throughs, and other metrics to assess what content is being read.
#20 Be Transparent and Share Information that Aligns with Company Goals
Kobi Ben Meir, Founder of Marketing Trailblazer, believes in sharing future plans and management news. Community and culture news is also valuable when it aligns with company goals.
#21 Share Issues that Trigger a Response
Irene Froehlich, Chief Communications Officer of DrFirst, Inc., advises sharing content that elicits an emotional response. This can be things that employees are busy with or ways that the business impacts its customers. While her business is healthcare, the same idea translates to the full spectrum of industries.
#22 Inspire and Educate Employees
Parna Sarkar-Basu, Founder and CEO of Brand and Buzz Marketing, LLC, likes to share insights from entrepreneurs and innovative business operators. She also finds news and industry reports useful. Her top tip is to make sure a company newsletter is visually appealing and not just a list of informative text.
#23 Make Content Meaningful and Inclusive
Johannes Marlena, owner and Chief Marketing Officer of Paradigm Shift, aims to keep content focused on employees. At the same time, it needs to be relevant to company values and culture, he says. The way to do this is to encourage employee input or to present some of their stories.
#24 Keep Content Short and Simple
Michelle Gabe, Marketing Director at TRUFF, likes to share any information that will get employees excited. But, she says, keep it short and simple.
#25 Include Employee Content
Kate Barton, Marketing Director at OneDigital and the former Marketing Manager at Clearview Advisory reinforces the idea of including employees in a company or employee newsletter. Use their pictures, quote them, and invite them to provide original content. It makes perfect sense. If they are included, they’re going to read the newsletter and encourage their friends and colleagues to read it too. And don’t just share news, “talk with people it will affect.”
#26 Get Team Leaders to Contribute
Roger Boutin, Senior VP of Communications at SCORR Marketing, agrees that it’s great to get the CEO and other top management to contribute, but invites input from executive leaders as well. This can be especially valuable in companies that have diverse management teams.
#27 Provide a Means for Employees to Share News On Social Media
Tracy Sestili, Chief Marketing Officer of Intellimize, advises organizations to always include some kind of industry and/or company news in an internal employee newsletter. Also, make it easy for employees to share relevant news on various social media platforms. An important caveat (that she doesn’t mention) is that it is important not to allow employees to share privileged company information that might be included in the newsletter.
#28 Spotlight Employee Achievements
Brittney Manchester, Director of Communications at Catholic Charities of Oregon (amongst other positions), echoes what several others have said. She favors spotlighting employees and teams, particularly if they have been working outside of their department. She says this is one of the best ways to break silos in an organization. It illustrates how the work of everyone in the organization connects to the overall mission.
#29 Don’t Be Too Serious
Melissa Kandel, CEO of Little Word Studio, emphasizes how important it is to ensure that a company newsletter isn’t “dry.” She reckons it’s easy to do this by adding lighthearted, fun turns of phrase. The caveat here is to ensure that they are appropriate.
#30 Include a Video Link
Pat Scheckel, VP of Product Management at Singlewire Software, encourages employees and internal communicators to add links to short videos. Ideally, these should be recorded by people within the company. The benefit, he says, is that it creates a stronger connection with your internal employee audience.
#31 Pay Attention to Design and Headlines
Daniela Martucci, President and CEO of DMH & Associates Communications, recognizes the art of creating good, effective headlines. As with all forms of written communication, a good headline will trigger interest and encourage employees to read the content. The key here is to ensure that the message the headline portrays matches the audience it is intended for. Design, she says, should be responsive but simple.
#32 Include Interactive content
Carol Kimura, VP of brand, digital, and growth marketing at Omnicell, advocates including interactive content in newsletters. This, she says, will boost engagement. Examples include surveys, calculators, games, and interactive infographics.
Employee Newsletter Examples for Different Industries
While the basic rationale for producing internal newsletters remains the same across the full spectrum of industries, the focus needs to be different depending on the business and application. For example, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and technology industries will all target different areas of interest.
Here are some examples. In each case, the topics should be tailored to meet the specific interests and needs of the organization producing an employee newsletter. A hospital newsletter will be different from a pharmaceutical company’s internal newsletter. A bus company that provides transportation will have a completely different approach in its employee newsletter to a manufacturing company producing buses.
Company Newsletter Ideas for Healthcare
Health and safety updates can provide information about health protocols, safety measures, and any changes in healthcare procedures. Related to this, it would be interesting to provide information about the latest medical technologies, treatments, and breakthroughs.
But not all employees want to read technological topics. This is why it’s important to balance updates and information with content that recognizes healthcare professionals for their dedication and exceptional care. Inspiring stories showcasing successful patient outcomes and recoveries are also well-read, particularly when employee roles are highlighted.
The other area of interest for a healthcare company or employee newsletter is community outreach. Here you can share initiatives, events, or health education efforts in the local community.
Company Newsletter Examples for Manufacturing
In the many varied fields of manufacturing, news about production milestones, process improvements, and efficiency enhancements can make great content. Quality control insights about processes and achievements in maintaining product quality will interest some people. So will information on supply chain resilience, logistics, and vendor partnerships.
To ensure a balance, be sure to include employee spotlights as Brittney Manchester suggests. Highlight employees’ contributions and innovations on the factory floor.
Another area to focus on involves sustainability initiatives. Depending on the relevance to the organization, you could include snippets updating environmentally-friendly practices, recycling efforts, and sustainability goals.
Internal Newsletter Ideas for Transportation
Transportation is a very varied field, but safety and compliance issues are important. These might include updates on safety regulations, compliance measures, and accident prevention that employees need to know about. Industry trends may also be interesting to some. These could include emerging trends in transportation, such as electric vehicles or autonomous driving.
Depending on your audience, information on fleet maintenance, fuel efficiency, and vehicle technology upgrades could be topics that employees would value and want to read about. You might also consider including tips and strategies for optimizing transportation routes and reducing costs.
But again, it’s the all-important balance that’s important. For instance, make sure you include stories that recognize the value of your employees. These might be exceptionally dedicated drivers who have achieved noteworthy safe-driving records.
Company Newsletter Examples for Technology
Technology is another hugely varied industry. The content of company newsletters designed for employees might include industry insights that highlight industry trends, market developments, and/or technology advancements. Product releases might also be something employees want to know about. But check out your audience, and consider giving those who are keen to learn a link to get more information.
Cybersecurity updates are another area of potential interest. You might consider including ongoing snippets of information about cybersecurity measures, data protection, and best practices in the digital realm.
But never forget about your employees in the technology sector. Recognize and celebrate employee-driven innovations and projects. And showcase how the company’s technology solutions have benefited customers and solved their problems.
How Important Is the Company Newsletter?
Not that long ago, company newsletters were printed and distributed in-house. While they incorporated the benefits of look, feel, and touch, they took time to produce and were often costly. Today an employee newsletter is typically a digital document that is shared online or via email that keeps employees informed and engaged with the organization. Many employees will want to read it on their mobile devices, so this is an important design factor too.
A company newsletter provides the opportunity to share a wealth of content that will keep employees constantly informed. This may include company news, project updates, customer anecdotes, upcoming events, job openings, team member spotlights, and significant company achievements. Also, it can range from lighthearted and playful to serious and time-sensitive.
Whatever the approach, the aim is to actively involve employees, boost morale, and elicit valuable feedback from them. An effective newsletter is an omnichannel communication tool that may be used for desk-based and deskless remote workers.
With the right tools and platform, you’ll be able to personalize and automate the newsletter process and ensure it’s being read.
What’s the Best Way to Circulate a Company Newsletter?
We’ve said that internal newsletters are shared online or via email. Sometimes organizations have sections of their company web page that are restricted for internal use only. An employee newsletter might be posted here for ease of access. However, it makes it more difficult to ensure that employees will bother to read and/or download it.
Nevertheless, there is no dispute that email remains the best channel for internal communication. For instance, Gallagher’s Employee Communications Report 2025 highlights the value of email communications in its various forms:
- 84% of those who responded to Gallagher’s State of the Sector 2024/25 Survey said they use email announcements that appear to come from leadership, and these are 80% effective.
- 92% said they use email announcements from the company to employees and they find these to be 78% effective.
- 65% said they use e-newsletters and that these are 75% effective.
Only 10% said they still use printed employee newsletters, though these are 58% effective.
However, at the end of the day, the challenge is to get employees to open and then read every newsletter you produce, regardless of how you distribute it.
What is the Best Content for an Employee Newsletter?
We’ve mentioned some of the items you can include in your newsletters. But essentially, you need to be sure it is relevant to your employees. If it isn’t, they’re not going to read it.
The key lies in crafting newsletters that are brimming with valuable and relevant content that genuinely piques employees’ interest. It is imperative to incorporate captivating employee newsletter concepts that maintain a balance between content centered on employees and content related to the company. This approach will usually entice employees to consistently explore the contents of any company or employee newsletter, ensuring readership remains high.
Of course, the content will also depend on the industry niche of the organization. For example, the topics that will keep healthcare professionals engaged will be quite different from those software providers will want to read about.
How Long Should an Email Newsletter Be?
Length is an important factor for any form of the written word. Since newsletters generally include a mix of content, as opposed to an email that generally focuses on one topic, it will be longer. But it’s important not to make it too long. You can provide fairly comprehensive content as long as it’s manageable for readers. Internal communicators need to prioritize content relevance and engagement to ensure that employees are motivated to keep reading.
Easy-to-use newsletter tools will enable you to format a company newsletter like a traditional newsletter or a quick read. Or you can opt for something in between.
So, how long should it be? There are so many formats you can use for newsletters, the length factor is versatile. The traditional format will be longer and will require at least 1,500-2,000 words, depending also how much of the newsletter is taken with pictures. A much shorter headlines-plus format could be as short as 500-1,000 words. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide on the best balance for your employee newsletter. Just be aware that the longer your newsletter content is, the more difficult it is likely to be to retain employee engagement.
How To Get Employees to Read a Company Newsletter
Length and content are both key to getting employees to read a company newsletter. These factors are particularly important for those who will want to access the newsletters on their mobile devices.
Keeping them informed via regular newsletters and encouraging participation (ideas for content for example) should increase readership. But unless you check open and click-through rates you’re not going to know for sure what your success rate is. You’re going to need reliable software to achieve accurate data.
You can read more about how to ensure employees don’t miss your next employee newsletter. It all hinges on creating what we describe as “a personalized cross-channel experience” your employees will appreciate.
Once you’ve done the research, keep successful company newsletter examples in a file so you can refer to them later on.
Benefits of a Well-Crafted Company Newsletter
We’ve discussed the importance of internal newsletters together with certain factors that will ensure your company’s employee newsletter is well-crafted and effective. Elements include well-written content that is relevant, as well as optimum length. But what are the benefits of a well-crafted internal newsletter?
Ultimately, a well-crafted internal newsletter can (and should) be a versatile tool that enhances internal communication, employee engagement, and overall organizational success. Here are 15 of the top benefits.
15 Benefits of a Well-Crafted Employee Newsletter
- Effective communication. This serves as a reliable channel for sharing important information, updates, and news with employees, ensuring everyone is on the same page.
- Employee engagement: Engaging content fosters a sense of belonging and interest among employees, making them feel more connected to the company and its mission.
- Information dissemination: A well-crafted company newsletter efficiently delivers vital information. This will include company news, project updates, and announcements, ensuring that your employees are well-informed.
- Morale boost: Recognition, spotlights on achievements, and positive stories can boost employee morale and job satisfaction.
- Feedback collection: Newsletters can include surveys or feedback mechanisms, facilitating two-way communication and providing valuable insights for improvement.
- Team-building: Features on employees, teams, or departments promote a sense of community and teamwork within the organization.
- Promotion of company culture: It reinforces company values, culture, and goals, aligning employees with the company’s mission.
- Training and development: employee newsletters can offer resources and insights on employee development, training programs, and career growth opportunities.
- Promotion of initiatives: They can raise awareness about sustainability efforts, corporate social responsibility, or community involvement, encouraging employee engagement and participation.
- Internal marketing: Promoting internal events, initiatives, or products/services can substantially increase employee engagement and support for company initiatives.
- Time and cost efficiency: A well-structured company newsletter can streamline communication, reducing the need for individual emails or meetings.
- Consistency: Regular company newsletters establish a consistent rhythm of communication, creating stability and reliability for employees.
- Inclusivity: Newsletters can include content that celebrates diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within the organization.
- Recruitment and retention: Sharing success stories and positive company culture can attract potential hires and retain current talent.
- Knowledge sharing: Well-crafted company newsletters facilitate the sharing of industry insights, best practices, and lessons learned among employees.
Cerkl Solutions for an Engaging Employee Newsletter
Once you’ve got a strategy for creating good, relevant content for internal newsletters, you’re going to need to decide what design and production path you’re going to follow.
It’s extremely important to have the right tools to create an engaging and successful digital company newsletter. These are different from the tools used for the traditional printed newsletters of the past.
Cerkl Broadcast has an ideal platform that enables organizations to build employee newsletters using failsafe templates.
You will find one capability incorporated in the hugely popular Email Blasts, which offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop email builder with an employee newsletter template.
Broadcast’s News Digest is another great solution. It organizes, presents, and sends personalized newsletter-type wrap-ups to employees automatically. The best part about News Digest is that you can allow your employees to select their own special interests as well as when and how often they want to receive News Digest. The same applies when you use News Digest for customers.
If you opt for Cerkl News Digest, you will find that it’s incredibly easy to personalize results for your subscribers. To achieve this, there are preferences or options that you can choose from. These relate to topics, schedules, format, and the people you want to send your News Digest to.
Format is a vital element. There are three options. The traditional format mimics the old-school (sometimes still popular) newsletter. On the other end of the scale, you can opt for a headline-only format. That can work if you want to provide links. Otherwise, you can use the headlines-plus format. This includes headlines and images that draw readers in, as well as short text or summaries.
Then there are all-important analytics.
How to Measure Success with Cerkl
Email Blasts have an audience metrics page that provides stats including unique opens and the open rate, and unique clicks and the click rate.
News Digest has its own Insights that provide a snapshot as well as delivery and subscriber metrics.
Snapshot gives you an engagement score, an open rate, a click-through rate, and a personalized percentage for your audience. The delivery metrics tell the delivery, open, and click-through rates. The subscriber metrics reveal your total audience, subscribers, and the number of people who unsubscribe.
What’s Next?
Are you ready to create an employee newsletter template for your internal communications strategy? We’ve got lots of employee newsletter ideas to help you do this.
Stuck for Monthly Newsletter Ideas?
It’s not always easy to be inspired to find relevant employee newsletter ideas month after month that employees will relate to. We know this, so have created a series of posts to help you with your newsletter content planning process every month.
Check our free newsletter ideas for each month of the year below:
FAQ
An internal company newsletter provides information that is useful for employees. It is also an important resource that all kinds of organizations can use to recognize employees and promote productivity. The best internal newsletters engage employees and make them want to read them on an ongoing basis.
There are lots of ideas for company newsletter content. But, above all, it needs to be relevant and interesting so that a large percentage of employees read it and look out for the next one.
You can introduce a sense of fun into a company newsletter by changing your tone and making it lighthearted. Even if you are introducing a serious topic (in fact more so), you can lift the mood with a bit of humor. Employee input can be invaluable here. So, ask for anecdotes that will make other employees laugh in a positive way.
This is a million dollar question. But it has a very simple answer. An internal company newsletter is successful if it engages employees and makes them want to read it. Of course, content is vitally important and so is design. But if the best-written, beautifully designed employee newsletter remains unread by a large percentage of the workforce, it cannot be labeled successful.
