7| Minute Read
What is a Company Newsletter?
A precise meaning of company newsletter is that it is an electronic or printed communications piece that is used by an organisation for its internal and external communication. The company newsletter shares details of the activities, the latest news and updates about the company. Company newsletters are sent to employees, subscribers, customers, community members and target audiences.
Have you ever been tasked with improving the company newsletter? Or is it your job to increase the engagement rates of your company’s newsletter?
If so, there are a few tips to test your emails and some tricks to creating the best company newsletters and we’ve got them covered in this blog.
So where do you start?
This blog focuses on the electronic version of a corporate newsletter and by the end of it, you will know how to write a company newsletter that performs as well as learn what is needed to create and design a great corporate newsletter.
Lastly, we look at 5 of the best company newsletters examples and explore what features make them our top picks!
Blog Contents
Email Newsletter Best Practices
1. Plan and design the best newsletters
2. Break down email deliverability jargon
3. Identify the key email marketing metrics you should be watching and why
How to Write The Best Company Newsletters
Email newsletter publishers earn an open rate of 22%, which is a high engagement rate compared to other media outlets.
Sending a company newsletter is not something that should be an afterthought. All the best company newsletters are planned and executed strategically in line with business and organisation objectives.
Writing the corporate newsletter is a big responsibility.
If you aren’t a seasoned newsletter writer, editor or creator then it can be a little daunting.
When people first delve into the world of email marketing, one of the first things they will try out is a newsletter. However, a bad newsletter will get opened once and worst-case scenario, never again.
It’s important when creating the organisation’s newsletters you follow best practices by including interesting articles, encouraging engagement and following design rules.
- Will your audience like it?
- Will it get read?
- Will people find it interesting?
- Did I spell everything correct?
- Why does it look so bad in Outlook?!
These are the type of questions you may ask yourself when it comes to creating your newsletter, but with the right planning and tools in place, you will be able to create the best company newsletters.
Company Newsletter Ideas
To make your company newsletter stand out, be the best and be sure it gets open and engaged with, try out some of these top company newsletter template ideas:
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Use polls
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Use video snippets
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Round up of blogs
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Surveys and survey results
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E-books/Training resources
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FAQ’s
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Upcoming webinars
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Job openings
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Employee stories/series
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Emoji reactions
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Deals and promotions for employees
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Team spotlight
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Company updates
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Listicles
Company Newsletter Design
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Logo at the top
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Small intro
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Top articles at the top
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Less important articles towards the bottom
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Email footer at the bottom
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Social icons at the bottom
Your company newsletter design should also try to incorporate the following design elements:
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Prominent CTA
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Three columns (ideally)
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Use white space
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Embrace emojis (if suitable)
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High-resolution images (avoid blurry low res images)
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Mobile responsiveness
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Email safe/friendly fonts
Download Now -> Free Email Newsletter Best Practices Guide
Company Newsletter Testing
Humans are very familiar with the traditional style of the newsletter and it is best practice to keep your newsletter layout similar each month.
Whilst following the standard company newsletter layout, if you want to be producing the best corporate newsletters you should conduct some A/B tests. Make sure you conduct one test at a time. Some tests you could carry on your organisation’s emails include;
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Test CTA position
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Test column layouts
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Test adding socials to the top instead of the bottom
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Test different colours on CTA’s
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Test copy length
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Test article numbers
Company Newsletter Templates
In order to create a high-quality company newsletter, a template is a good asset to develop and keep handy. Company newsletter templates help to keep you on-brand with your company message.
If you don’t use guide rails for business and newsletter writing, you could stray from the company ethos and publish something that senior management frowns upon.
10 Tips to Create the Best Company Newsletters
Decide on an objective
Before crafting your company newsletter, establish a clear goal for what you want to achieve. Whether you’re aiming to increase sales, drive traffic, or simply share updates, having a focused objective helps shape company newsletter content and guide your approach, ensuring that your message aligns with your larger business goals.
Use one key call to action (CTA)
A well-placed CTA in your company newsletter can guide readers towards your main goal, be it visiting your website, signing up for a service, or learning more. Choose a single, clear CTA that directs your audience towards taking that next step, minimising confusion and increasing engagement with your company newsletter.
Use an email marketing platform
An email marketing platform is essential for efficient, scalable, and professional-looking company newsletters. These platforms provide templates, segmentation tools, and analytics to optimise your communications and allow you to track the effectiveness of your campaigns, making stakeholder communication more impactful.
Review successful company newsletters
Looking at successful examples can offer inspiration and insights. Analysing how other companies communicate with stakeholders in their company newsletter through effective content, design, and CTAs can help refine your approach, making your company newsletter more engaging and appealing.
Mobile accessible
With the rise in mobile usage, ensure your newsletter is responsive and looks great on any device. Mobile accessibility makes it easy for readers to engage with your content wherever they are, which is crucial for retaining your audience’s interest.
Keep text to a minimum
Minimal text helps readers quickly absorb your message without feeling overwhelmed. Focus on concise, impactful language that delivers your message effectively, making it easier for your audience to grasp your key points at a glance.
Use high-quality images
High-quality visuals create an immediate impression and enhance the professionalism of your corporate newsletter. Use images that are visually appealing and relevant to your message, helping to convey your brand’s personality and capture readers’ attention.
Test your company newsletter
Testing ensures your corporate newsletter looks and functions as expected. Test on different devices and email clients to catch any formatting issues, broken links, or typos, giving you the chance to optimise and correct any problems before reaching your audience.
Be consistent with your publishing
Consistency in your publishing schedule of your corporate newsletter builds trust and anticipation. Whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, a reliable schedule allows stakeholders to expect your updates, keeping your brand top of mind and fostering long-term engagement.
Include free resources
Offering free resources, like guides, templates, or tools, adds value to your corporate newsletter and incentivises readers to engage. It demonstrates goodwill and positions your brand as a helpful resource, which can build trust and strengthen your relationship with your audience.
5 of the Best Company Newsletters Examples
We have handpicked some of the best company newsletters examples and examine what makes them our top picks.
I personally really like the Email on Acid newsletters. With this company newsletter, the EOA team makes great use of white space in their newsletter giving room for their text to look readable and giving the attention their graphics deserve.
Although they use two CTA’s, they are both strong. They are bold, clear and use intriguing language that make the reader want to click.
The language used in the Email on Acid newsletter is informal but very targeted. The “Hey Devs, this ones for you” text is a great example of this, it’s engaging, intriguing and is very targeted towards segments of their audience.
All in all, a big thumbs up and 5 stars, this is easily one of the best company newsletters around.
This company newsletter from the ACIAR is a stand out. The structure of this newsletter is very typical of a corporate communications organisation. They stick to the standard autonomy of a company newsletter, logo at the top, introduction, main article and footer.
What’s extra nice about this newsletter is that they use text sparingly, encouraging their users to read more. The read more button expands and collapses the text for the reader meaning they aren’t overwhelmed with heaps of text.
The use of high-resolution imagery in this corporate newsletter also draws the reader’s attention and adds to the professional design of the company newsletter.
A stand out example for the more formal world of corporate communications and government. Solid all-round newsletter.
Another example from the corporate communications sector or a corporate newsletter. This newsletter template designed by Swift Digital for FairWork Ombudsman is ready to be used as their company newsletter.
This company newsletter uses space very well and manages to get three articles and an introduction all within the one page, minimal scrolling required.
The use of a poll is a fantastic addition to boost readers’ engagement.
This company newsletter template also uses quick links so readers can easily navigate to their favourite articles, a superb little feature for the skim reader.
A clean, modern, no fuss corporate newsletter template. Drop some high-resolution images and interesting content in there and it’s ready to go.
This newsletter example from the ATO is a newsletter for the not for profit sector. It bucks the traditional newsletter design layout and opts to use a different layout with the main article featuring a snippet of text that is linked.
This might not work for all, but it works very well due to the design of the newsletter.
The design of the newsletter is clean, minimal and uses block and block colour to separate the elements, this style ensures you can add text links and they are not crowded or lost.
They add the footer and social links to the bottom as per traditional newsletter designs and keep the introduction short and sweet.
A well designed, thought out newsletter that deserves to be in the running for the best company newsletters.
Below with have the August edition of Zapier’s monthly newsletter. This newsletter opts for a one-column layout and a slightly longer layout. The slightly longer layout works for this newsletter as it is not text-heavy allowing for each part of the newsletter to stand out and be seen.
The graphics are clean, not fussy and very on-brand with a very strong call to action button. The colours blue and orange are a perfect contrast to ensure the CTA stands out. The use of language in the newsletter entices the reader to want to know more and the sparse use of icons adds to the simplicity of the design.
All in all a good monthly newsletter that demonstrates that you don’t necessarily have to follow the traditional newsletter layout to make it work.
Use Email Marketing To Create Your Next Company Newsletter
Is your company looking to up their newsletter game and create a newsletter people actually want to read?
Whether it is an internal or external company newsletter, Swift Digital has all the tools you need to make sure your corporate newsletter doesn’t end up in the junk, deleted or thrown to the side.
Swift Digital’s newsletter email builder has interactive tools including polls, emojis, videos, surveys automation and means you can create better company newsletters that you know will get read!
Swift Digital can share more resources and best practices relating to your industry and how they successfully send internal and external corporate newsletters.
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