As technology advances, communication choices continue to expand. The challenge is choosing what works best for each situation. This is especially important in the workplace, where effective communication fosters collaboration, teamwork, and a clear understanding of goals and expectations.
Despite the rapid evolution of workplace communication, email and Eblast remain among the most effective internal communication tools. When used strategically, they enhance engagement, ensure clarity, and serve as a cornerstone of a successful strategy.
Email’s strength lies in precision and personalization, enabling organizations to deliver targeted, relevant messages to the right employees at the right time. Few other methods match its ability to consistently reach and engage a dispersed workforce while providing measurable insights into effectiveness.
But is email really the best form of digital communication for internal communicators?
Statista research shows that the number of email users worldwide increased from 3,823-million in 2018 to 4,481-million in 2024 — and are expected to increase to 4,894-million in 2027.
According to Project.co’s Communication Statistics 2025, email remains the most popular tool for internal communication (36%). It is also the most widely used tool for client communication (57%).
The latest version of Gallagher’s definitive State of the Sector report, Employee Communications Report for 2025, confirms that email remains the most used channel for leader-to-employee announcements (84%) as well as company-to-employee communication (92%). It is still the most effective channel for leaders (80%), although leader videos to employees come a close second (79%) followed by leader email newsletters (77%). However, the latter aren’t used much (47%). The most effective company-to-employee channels are all-employee in-person conferences, roadshows, and town halls (87%) and the virtual versions of these (86%). Email announcements rank third with a vote from 78% of respondents.
Table of contents
- What is an Eblast?
- Why is Eblast Important for Internal Communication?
- How to Build an Effective Email Blast?
- Elements of Successful Email Blasts
- Best Practices & Features for Crafting an Email Blast
- Eblasts’ Internal Communication Campaigns
- Best Eblast Subject Lines
- Evaluating Eblast Success: Tracking and Analysis
- How Cerkl can Improve your Email Reach?
- What’s Next?
What is an Eblast?
In generic terms, an eblast is a mass email sent to a large group of recipients at once. The first eblast was sent by a Marketing Manager at Digital Equipment Corp., Gary Thuerk, now dubbed the Father of Spam! His original eblast went out to about 400 users in 1978.
This wasn’t long after Ray Tomlinson, a programmer working on an Arpanet Project sent the first electronic mail from one computer to another in 1971.
It wasn’t until 1991 that the World Wide Web (www) was made available to the public and email usage started to increase.
Yahoo, launched in 1997, was one of the first big email successes. As a result, it only took a year for Microsoft to buy the company for $400 million. In 2004, Google introduced Gmail to the public, and within three years they had overtaken all other email providers! However, neither Yahoo, Microsoft’s more recent Outlook, or Gmail are designed for mass email campaigns, even though they enabled users to dump marketing and other messages into millions of email inboxes.
Until relatively recently, the concept was to reach as many inboxes as possible, leading to huge frustrations with spam and the development of anti-spam filtering tools. Ironically, in 1996, one of the first anti-spam tools was advertised via a mass eblast!
However, email best practices have changed, and increasingly, internal communicators realize that improved engagement results from sending smaller, targeted eblasts to a genuinely interested audience. Now recognized as potentially a powerful marketing tool, eblast features include segmentation, personalization and automation.
Eblasts can be incredibly useful. But ultimately, if you want high-impact results, be sure to opt for an email platform that ensures deliverability, personalization, and compliance, allowing you to reach the right audience effectively without overwhelming inboxes or triggering spam filters.
Why is Eblast Important for Internal Communication?
We’ve highlighted the importance of email in general. However, it is vital to ensure that the email platform you choose is effective and will enhance employee engagement, rather than having the opposite effect.
The Grammarly for Business 2024 State of Business Communication report states that communicating with others now takes up 88% of the workweek compared with 72% in 2023. Their question: “Is the time we spend communicating going up because the quality of communication is decreasing?”
“This uptick in communication is leaving workers overwhelmed. Communication is becoming synonymous with work. And in some instances, overwork. HR teams, large teams (20+ members), and hybrid workers report spending over 40 hours each week on communication alone.”
Grammarly
The report doesn’t mention email, but their 2023 report showed that while verbal communication increased, workers who were surveyed said they spend an hour more each week writing to others. Platforms mentioned included email, text-based chat, and text messaging, email communication increased by 21% year-on-year.
Gallagher also discusses the importance of employee listening and listening methods in its Employee Communications Report 2025. A listening method is a structured approach to gathering, analyzing, and responding to feedback from employees or stakeholders to improve communication, engagement, and decision-making. It takes the usefulness of email and Email Blasts beyond announcements, which most companies seem to focus on.
The Gallagher report reveals that email was the most divisive “listening method.” While nearly half of communicators (49%) use it, only 25% perceive it as valuable, and 46% see it as having “moderate value for usefulness.”
This highlights the importance of ensuring that every Email Blast has all the elements it needs to be opened, read, and acted on.
Mass Personalization
In the context of emails, mass personalization refers to the practice of sending out a large volume of emails while tailoring the content to make it more relevant and personalized for each recipient. This approach involves leveraging data and segmentation techniques to customize certain elements of the email. These include the recipient’s name, preferences, or past interactions with the sender.
Mass personalization aims to create a more individualized and engaging experience for recipients within the constraints of mass email distribution, improving the chances of resonating with diverse audience segments.
It stands to reason that to achieve effective mass personalization you will need email software that negates the need to do this manually.
Gallagher’s State of the Sector 2024 report showed that the ability of organizations to offer personalized internal communications was incredibly limited. This, it stated, includes addressing employees by name (50%) and sending communications that are specific to employee age or a life event (48%).
Company Strategy and Goals
Email campaigns can align with company strategy by tailoring content to meet business objectives, such as increasing sales or enhancing customer loyalty. Strategic segmentation ensures personalized messaging for different audience groups, contributing to goal-driven outcomes.
Consistent branding across campaigns reinforces the company’s identity and values. Integration with the customer journey supports overarching business strategies, from awareness to retention. Data-driven analysis of email metrics informs decision-making, allowing for continuous refinement of strategies.
Adaptable Email Blast campaigns can help companies stay responsive to market changes while ensuring compliance with ethical and legal considerations.
What Do Cerkl Broadcast Email Blasts Offer?
Cerkl Broadcast Email Blast or Eblast differs from the traditional eblast concept by offering a more targeted, data-driven, and personalized approach to mass email communication. While a standard eblast is often a one-size-fits-all message, Cerkl Broadcast enhances this process with intelligent automation, audience segmentation, and analytics to improve engagement and effectiveness.
When Cerkl started out, clients were using our original single email creator, Dedicated Email. The Cerkl Development, Success, and Product teams worked hard to understand how clients were using Dedicated Email and how we could improve the user experience. We looked at one year of client comments and suggestions and took that feedback back to the drawing board to reimagine how single email messages are sent. That’s when Email Blasts, created using a quick and easy drag-and-drop email builder, were born.
Broadcast Eblasts give you more options to connect your audience to targeted single messages or generic mass eblasts. Just choose the elements you want to add, put your spin on them, and see the progress as you build. No post-send surprises here; just beautiful messages your audience will love. If you can type a Word document, you can use Broadcast’s Email Blast builder to create a helpful Eblast.
How to Build an Effective Email Blast?
When you begin to create a new email blast, you will be shown three ways to get started.
- Build from scratch
All you need to do is click or drag an Element and start creating exactly what you need. You can add as many Elements as you please. - Use a template
Every Email Blast comes loaded with seven templates that you can customize for your message. You can also add to your template library by choosing the “Save as Template” option in the creator. Or you can convert messages that have been sent into templates. - Upload HTML
You can also upload an HTML file. Just be aware that you will not be able to use any Elements once you choose this option.
Elements of Successful Email Blasts
Recognizing the importance of the elements that make a successful email, Cerkl developed invaluable Elements that are designed for use in every Email Blast you create.
And we didn’t stop there. Since its launch, we have continued to improve the way Eblasts work and what they offer. For example, we’ve added the option for Pulse Surveys and a host of supporting features and capabilities. You can now add images to your Email Blast, create successful Eblast campaigns, and garner insights along with powerful analytics.
When you start creating your first Email Blast, you will discover that your Elements pane is your key to ease of usability. Before we designed Eblasts, we analyzed thousands of messages to identify the tools you would need to make your organization’s message heard. This is the result.
Adding Elements Step-by-Step
Here’s what you need to do, starting with the text.
Text
We opened up the possibilities for formatting your message text. You can pick font face, and size, as well as the layout and background color.
Images
Then we decided to give you more options for using images in your emails. Any image in your message can now link to a website, email address, or phone number.
The image + text Element helps your text and image stay in place, no matter the screen size.
Videos
You can pull in a video from any source. If you are using Vimeo or YouTube, we will automatically pull the thumbnail for the video and place a play button to encourage video clicks.
Buttons
Create and link buttons in the color, font, and size of your choice. Just like images, these can link to a website, email address, or phone number.
Dividers
The divider Element can add some design pizzazz or some horizontal breathing room between blocks.
Social Links
Place your social links where you want with Broadcast Blasts. Using Controls, you can format your footer as you see fit.
Signatures
Give a message a personal touch with this helpful Element. You can add a valediction, name, and position, as well as upload a signature file.
Surveys
If you want to add a Pulse Survey, you don’t even have to leave the page. Just drag and drop it where you want it to appear within the Email Blast, and customize the content to fit your needs.
Element Options
While you can add all Elements via a drag-and-drop, a simple click will append them to the bottom of your message.
But stacking Elements isn’t your only option. An Email Blast allows you to split each row of your message into 1, 2, 3, or 4 columns. Just drag your second Element to the right or left, and watch your storytelling possibilities multiply.
Best Practices & Features for Crafting an Email Blast
Here are some of the best practices you can use to master Broadcast Email Blasts. We start with the basics and include some really exciting new options.
Sending Info
Eblasts show you in real-time what your message will look like and who you are sending it to. Once you are finished creating your masterpiece, you head to the Sending Info section to input your all-important subject line, send-from details, and then target your audience.
You can still target your message to certain segments and categories. As you change options, Blasts will show you the changes to your audience size in real-time. You can easily choose who receives your message based on segment, location, or interests.
Schedule or Send an Email Blast
It doesn’t matter whether your message is for today, or two weeks from now, Blasts has you covered. You can set a schedule, choose to send now or save what you made as a template so other Cerkl admins can access your creation.
Preview & Sample
Before you send, it’s a good idea to get a look at how your message will appear in your recipient’s mailbox. The preview shows you the desktop and mobile preview of your message.
If you want to check how it will appear for your internal users, be sure to send a sample.
Controls
We know how hard it is to manage a brand, so we developed organization and message-level settings to help your fellow content creators stay consistent.
Image Gallery
Broadcast’s Image Gallery allows you and your team to upload and share images for use in Blasts. Once an image is uploaded, the entire team is able to use it, improving brand consistency and reducing redundancy. You can find images easily in several ways:
- Search by image name or alt text.
- Sort by the date uploaded, name alphabetically or last used.
- Filter by which team member uploaded the image. Your name will always appear first in the filter list, so it’s easy to find your own images.
Retargeting
A recent product update is Blast Retargeting. It’s easy for an email to get lost or forgotten in a cluttered inbox. Retargeting a Blast is a great way to increase engagement and give gentle reminders to the part of your audience that missed the first email.
Once you have elected to retarget an Email Blast, you can select the date and time to resend the blast within 180 days. You can also select the desired level of engagement needed by your audience, whether it’s opens, clicks, or either. You can use retargeting to increase awareness, drive action, collect feedback, make data-driven decisions, and much more.
Eblasts’ Internal Communication Campaigns
Campaigns are a great way to group related communications for scheduling and reporting on the communication initiative’s success. You can group communications by audience attributes, topic, or by individual recipient. Internal communicators can compare all metrics and analytics, or filter out any that aren’t relevant. This enables them to identify successful and unsuccessful strategies, accelerate learnings, and make data-driven decisions to improve future communications.
Best Eblast Subject Lines
Internal communication benchmarks highlight key factors that influence readership, including engaging subject lines, compelling preview content, effective layout and design, clear writing, relevant images, message length, and optimal delivery timing. Here are a few examples of strong subject lines that capture attention:
- Company Update: Important news and upcoming initiatives
- Have Your Say: Share your thoughts in our latest survey
- Success in Motion: Key strategies and future goals unveiled
- Stay Informed: Essential updates and team highlights
- Changes Ahead: What to expect and how to prepare
- Spotlight on Achievements: Celebrating milestones and successes
Evaluating Eblast Success: Tracking and Analysis
The most important email metrics you need to track are email open rates (OR) and click-through rates (CTR). They are also the most popular key performance indicators (KPIs) used to track whether an internal communications strategy is working.
Statista’s stats reveal that in 2023 30% of marketers from around the world stated their email marketing campaigns had an open rate of 10%-20%. Another 57,8% stated that their open rates were between 20% and 50%.
“The modern working person opens their e-mail box more often than their physical one. As the number of e-mail users continues to grow each year, it has evolved into a core digital marketing format for businesses across the globe. In 2024, e-mail marketing revenue was projected to surpass 9.5 billion U.S. dollars.“
Statista
The point is that you need to be sure that your audience is engaging when you communicate via email.
When you set up an Email Blast campaign it makes 100% sense to measure and evaluate its success. But according to Gallagher’s 2024 report, only 63% of organizations bother to measure email reach. Additionally, 43% are still lacking appropriate metrics, and 39% lack tools to collate or analyze the data afterwards. That can be a big problem.
Don’t despair. With Broadcast Insights, you can track Eblast’s success in real time.
Something important to consider is that when you use Broadcast Pulse Surveys when employees respond, feedback is automatically recorded in Broadcast Blast Analytics as a shareable, easy-to-understand data visualization. Recording and reporting on your audience’s sentiments has never been easier.
How Cerkl can Improve your Email Reach?
Cerkl Broadcast Email Blast messaging is designed to optimize email communications. It’s the easiest email creator most people have ever used, and incredibly effective when you need to share information quickly. Email Blasts or Eblasts are super simple to build using Broadcast’s drag-and-drop Elements and customizable templates. They are also ideal for campaigns.
Above all else, the implementation of Cerkl Broadcast is simple and effective. You don’t need codes and you don’t need maintenance. Broadcast was designed specifically for internal communicators and those involved in sharing information in any sized company. The Broadcast platform comprises a centralized hub and provides omnichannel capability. While it offers many features, a key capability is the Email Blast which can be used for campaigns or one-off dedicated email messages. Benefits include the ability to personalize messages, segment your audience, and analyze your strategies and their effectiveness.
You can be assured that Broadcast will enable you to increase employee engagement and productivity. One way that an Email Blast or campaign can improve global engagement is by increasing the email click-through rate (CTR).
Here’s an example from one of our clients.
Paycor, a global leader in HR and payroll solutions, had lots of challenges when they reached out to Cerkl. One of their primary objectives was to upgrade their existing internal communications system. Broadcast Email Blasts is just one of the solutions that has worked for them. From 2023 until September 2024, Broadcast powered Paycor to send 614K Email Blasts with a 34% click rate and achieve 68% audience reach with My Paycor News.
What’s Next?
Broadcast, together with its highly successful Email Blast approach can do the same for you.
In the meantime, we are offering you a free Email CTR guide. This will provide you with even more information about the best practices and proven strategies to improve email click-through rates. It also incorporates a guide to the vital internal email metrics including CTRs and ORs, together with best practices.
FAQ
An eBlast email optimizes email communications with features that aren’t normally available with regular email options.
To ensure that an Eblast is effective, utilize all possible features and enhancements including images and retargeting. You should also make sure that your subject line and content will draw interest and encourage recipients to read what you have to offer.
An Eblast is a simple but sophisticated email option that will enable you to increase the number of employees who open and read the email.
An Eblast is an email that is structured for efficiency and maximum communication return.
Newsletters are generally a lot longer than an Eblast that attracts attention when it sends a message.
