Newsletters are a cornerstone of internal communication. They foster a sense of community, keep employees informed, and align teams toward common goals. By delivering timely updates, recognizing achievements, and sharing company news, newsletters can significantly boost employee morale and productivity.
Newsletters also play a crucial role in aligning teams towards common goals. By keeping employees informed and connected, they contribute to a stronger company culture and improved employee satisfaction.
Recent studies underscore the importance of newsletters in the modern workplace. For example, Gallagher’s State of the Sector 2023/2024 report shows that 87% of people in the business world globally find newsletters effective. By creating a consistent and informative newsletter, you can tap into its benefits and strengthen your company culture.
While Microsoft Outlook might not be the most sophisticated platform for creating newsletters, it can be a handy email tool for sending out quick and informative updates to your team.
In this post, we’re going to walk you through the process of creating and sending a newsletter in Microsoft Outlook. We’ll include information on building a mailing list and how to attach a portable document format (PDF) version to satisfy those employees who prefer this option. We will also provide some alternatives for sending your email newsletters to ensure you get the right message to your internal audience.
A Timeless Channel for Effective Newsletters
In an era dominated by social media and instant messaging, email remains a powerful and reliable channel for delivering newsletters. With billions of emails sent daily, it’s clear that email remains a cornerstone of digital communication.
Internal newsletters thrive in an email format. They offer a dedicated space to share important information, build relationships with recipients, and drive engagement. Unlike social media platforms with constantly changing algorithms, email provides direct access to your audience, ensuring your message reaches its intended recipients.
Moreover, email allows for customization and personalization. You can segment your audience and tailor content to specific groups, increasing relevance and effectiveness. Additionally, email offers measurable metrics, such as open rates and click-through rates, providing valuable insights into reader behavior.
According to Statista, as of April 18, 2024, the United States was the country with the highest number of emails sent daily, with almost ten billion. Employee newsletters are incorporated within this number. Their stats also show that by December 2023, more than 241 million emails were sent globally within each and every minute.
Before setting up and sending your newsletters via email, you need to create your newsletter content. It is vital to define the newsletter’s purpose, target audience, and key messages. The content must be compelling, and it’s important to use strong subject lines, write clear and concise copy, and where possible, incorporate one or more relevant visual images.
Then, here’s what you will do when using Microsoft Outlook.
How to Create a Newsletter in Outlook
Before hitting send, you’ll need to create the content and decide on the overall look of your newsletter. The caveat is that you will be limited by what you can do using Microsoft Outlook when it comes to design. But don’t let this put you off.
These are some basic steps to follow when you create a newsletter in Outlook.
Familiarize Yourself with Microsoft Outlook
It should go without saying that you need to know how Outlook works. If you aren’t familiar with the program, get to know how it works before you start.
Create Your Content
We’ve highlighted the importance of newsletter content. But be completely sure you have your content planned out and ready to use. You can do this in a separate word processing document like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, or even using presentation software like PowerPoint. Keep your content simple and concise for optimal rendering across devices. This will ensure better open rates.
Launch a New Email
In Outlook, click on “New Email” to create a new message. Use a clear and concise subject line that shows you are sending a newsletter. Here’s where you’ll paste your prepped content.
Format for Readability
Break up the text with bullet points and headings to make your newsletter easy to scan. Visuals can enhance your newsletter, but use them judiciously. Too many images can slow down loading times and distract from your content. Aim for a balance of text and visuals to maintain reader engagement. White space can help to improve readability.
Save As a Template
If you plan on sending similar newsletters in the future, you can save this email as a template for easy reuse. Click “File” -> “Save As” and choose “Outlook Template” from the “Save as type” dropdown. This is an optional step.
Check for Compatibility
Preview your newsletter in different email clients like Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, and Apple Mail. This will ensure consistent display for all your recipients. Remember that different email clients render HTML differently, so it’s essential to verify that your newsletter looks as intended across various platforms.
Create a Distribution List
Create a distribution list for efficient sending. This might vary according to the personalization requirements for each newsletter. Often organizations create newsletters that are designed to focus on specific topics for different departments.
Send Your Newsletter
Use your distribution list to send the newsletter to your chosen audience. Check How to Send a Newsletter in Outlook below for more details.
How to Create a Newsletter Mailing List in Outlook
An essential part of sending newsletters is having a list of recipients. This is what you need to do to create a dedicated contact group in Microsoft Outlook specifically for your newsletter distribution.
- Create a contact group: Click on “Contacts” in the navigation bar.
- New contact group: Click on “New Items” and then select “Group.”
- Name your group: Give your group a descriptive name that reflects the newsletter’s purpose (eg Employee Benefits Update).
- Add members: Click “Add Members” and choose how you want to add recipients. You can select from existing contacts, create new contacts, or use an external list (if applicable).
- Save your group: Once you’ve added all your recipients, click “Save & Close.”
Alternatively, you can use the “To,” “Cc,” and “Bcc” fields when composing your newsletter, but this can become cumbersome for large groups.
How to Send a Newsletter in Outlook
Once your newsletter is crafted and your mailing list is ready, here’s how to send your newsletter quickly using Microsoft Outlook.
- Compose your email: Open a new email or use your saved newsletter template.
- Fill in the “To” field: Enter the name of your contact group or manually add recipient addresses.
- Subject line: If you haven’t done so already, craft a clear, attention-grabbing subject line that reflects the newsletter’s content.
- Attach a PDF (optional): If you want to include a downloadable PDF version of your newsletter, click “Attach” and select the PDF file.
- Pick the right sending time: People are more likely to check their email during certain days, or times of the day (eg mornings or after work). Sending your newsletter when they’re more receptive can lead to a better open rate.
- Proofread and send: Double-check your content for errors and then click “Send” to deliver your newsletter.
How to Send a Newsletter PDF Attachment in Outlook
Some recipients might prefer a PDF version of your newsletter rather than one that is simply an email message. The other advantage of sending a newsletter as a PDF is that your design can be more creative, sophisticated, and visually appealing.
Here’s how to send a newsletter in Outlook by attaching a PDF version to your Microsoft Outlook email.
- Create your PDF: Design your newsletter in a program like Word, Publisher, or Google Docs and export it as a PDF document.
- Attach the PDF: Compose your email as usual and then click the “Attach” button. Navigate to your saved PDF and select it for attachment.
- Include a brief note (optional): In the body of your email, include a short message letting recipients know that a PDF version of the newsletter is attached for their convenience.
- Send the email: Click “Send” to deliver your newsletter with the attached PDF.
What Kinds of Newsletters You Can Send in Outlook
Newsletters are a versatile communication tool. There are many different types of internal communication newsletters you can create and distribute via Outlook.
- Employee benefits newsletter: Inform staff about company health insurance plans, retirement savings options, and other perks.
- Employee wellness newsletter: Share tips for healthy living, stress management techniques, and upcoming wellness events.
- Employee spotlight newsletter: Recognize outstanding employees and celebrate their achievements within the company.
- Hospital employee or any other specific department newsletter: Tailor content to a specific department or hospital wing, keeping staff informed about relevant updates, procedures, and department-specific news.
By following these steps and keeping your content clear and engaging, you can create effective newsletters using Microsoft Outlook to keep your employees informed and connected. Remember, while Outlook definitely has limitations for complex design, it can still be a valuable tool for internal communication.
What are the Limitations of Creating and Sending a Newsletter in Outlook?
Let’s look at some of the limitations you may face when creating and sending a newsletter in Outlook
- Sending limits: Outlook limits the number of emails you can send per day. It also limits the number of recipients you can include in a single message. The daily limit for Microsoft 365 subscribers is 5,000 recipients, and the maximum number of email addresses you can put in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields is 500.
- Manual employee distribution lists: You can create contact groups in Outlook. This amounts to a list of emails that you can send as a single entity. However, it can be time-consuming to add and manage large numbers of employees manually.
- Lack of analytics: Outlook doesn’t provide built-in analytics for tracking email opens, clicks, or unsubscribes.
- Formatting and rendering issues: Your email may not display correctly across different devices. For instance, margins may be off-center, content could be squished, and GIFs may not animate.
- Limited design functionality: Microsoft Outlook offers limited design functionality and lacks a drag-and-drop builder, making it difficult to customize your newsletter.
- Challenges with multimedia content: It can be challenging to add multimedia content such as buttons, videos, and charts.
Overall, while Outlook is a great tool for everyday email, it may not be the best choice for creating professional-looking newsletters.
How Can Broadcast Help With Newsletters
The creation of any newsletter relies on a strong foundation of content development, and visual appeal, often facilitated by specialized software tools. When it comes to distribution this necessitates reliable email marketing software to manage subscriber lists, track performance, and ensure timely delivery.
Cerkl Broadcast won’t help you create newsletters, but it will help you deliver them dynamically using Email Blasts. You can’t go wrong.
If you want to consider an additional approach that will help you to personalize messages, News Digest is your answer.
St. Elizabeth Healthcare had been using a static employee newsletter PDF to communicate with its associates. Instead of a regular newsletter, they shifted to Cerkl Broadcast’s approach of distributing news content that matched their employees’ interests, locations, and positions.
By individualizing all the articles in your newsletter, you can use NewsDigest to distribute this content based on segments. This saves time for internal communicators. There’s no additional creation or scheduling… everything is automated.
Whichever option you choose, Broadcast enables you to measure your results with reliable analytics.
What’s Next?
Creating an internal employee newsletter can be a challenge. But, if you follow a good framework of rules, you will find that you can achieve excellent results. We’ve created a comprehensive guide for creating newsletters just for you. You can download it now at no charge or obligation.
FAQ
To send an email newsletter in Outlook, create a new email, design your content with formatting and images, and send it to a distribution list of recipients.
To send a PDF newsletter in Outlook, create a PDF of your newsletter and attach it to a new email.
Outlook offers basic templates, but they are limited. For more advanced designs, consider using third-party tools or creating your own template. It’s not difficult.
All you do is generate or cut and paste the text you want with headings and images. However, inserting a newsletter in the body of an email is generally not recommended due to formatting issues and potential size limitations. When emailing via Microsoft Outlook, it’s better to attach the newsletter as a PDF.
