The newsletter formatting pressure test: 4 questions to ask

Employees are already skimming through internal messaging and mentally sorting every piece of communication into one of two buckets: worth the read or the save-for-later pile. For communicators charged with creating newsletters, this brings formatting decisions into greater focus.

Niamh Emerson, editor of YourYale at Yale University, told Ragan that through an audit process, her team noticed that newsletter readers were selectively engaging with certain items rather than reading the newsletter top to bottom. That knowledge has made formatting more important than ever for Emerson and her team.

“We’re finding that people are clicking maybe one or two things in the newsletter, and then that’s what you get for your click,” Emerson told Ragan. “So you’ve got to make sure that you hit them with something worth clicking so that the next week they come back and still click at least one thing.”

Here are four questions communicators can ask to pressure-test their newsletter formatting and keep employees engaged.

1. Can employees navigate this newsletter without thinking too much about it?

During interviews for this story, a theme that repeatedly surfaced was the need for consistency of format over novelty. Readers should know where to find the information they care about without relearning the layout every time the newsletter lands in their inbox.

Emerson said that philosophy is what makes Yale’s employee newsletter so successful. It’s always formatted the same way and is released around the same time each week.

“It works because it is the same thing every week,” Emerson told Ragan. “We know exactly what’s going in the lead slot, here’s the two secondaries and here’s the engagement piece. People know what they’re getting.”

The structure itself should also allow employees to see your company culture reflected, said Mary Beth McCloy, vice president of communications and family engagement at Goddard Systems.

“You should avoid anything inauthentic to your brand and your voice,” McCloy said. “If you’re a finance company and it’s a very serious environment, you’re probably not going to want a bright pink and orange newsletter with tons of imagery. But if you’re in a more creative environment, you should lean into that.”

Pressure test checklist for communicators:

• Can employees quickly scan for what they need?
• Are your recurring sections always in the same spot?
• Does the layout reflect your culture and brand?

2. Does your format help the audience find one useful thing quickly?

Visual appeal is just as important as text and layout formatting. Emerson said that great photography helps hook readers into the written content of the YourYale newsletter.

“You grab people with that picture as soon as you open it,” she said. “That’s one of the premier features of the newsletter for us because it catches attention immediately.”

Katie Satterlee, internal and editorial communications specialist at Roku, said that her team follows a similar game plan, avoiding big blocks of text to keep readers engaged.

“People tend to glaze over blocks of text,” she said. “So we like to keep it short, fun, colorful and employee-focused. We have word-count limits depending on the section because we know employees are scanning and trying to get the information quickly.”

Pressure test checklist for communicators:

• Use imagery to anchor key stories.
• Break up long sections every few paragraphs.
• Review your newsletter on mobile before sending.

3. Can employees see themselves in the newsletter?

The way employee voices and visuals are positioned inside a newsletter is critical. Satterlee said that she aims to tailor newsletters so that when they show up in an employee’s inbox, a glance shows that it was customized for them.

“We really want to make your newsletter special to you and personalized,” she said. “If India has some specific line items, that goes in the subject line for them. We want employees to feel like this version was made for them and speaks directly to their experience.”

Emerson said that Yale approaches newsletter items about employee benefits coverage with a similar set of tactics, floating employee quotes at the top of an item for better visibility.

“My rule of thumb is that you have to bring in one or two staff quotes as to why the benefit was good,” she said. “Otherwise, you’re just regurgitating the website. If somebody can explain how a program actually helped them or their family, people respond to that differently.”

Visual representation matters as well, as McCloy said that allowing readers to physically see themselves in the material is just as important as the metaphorical sense.

“We try to include as many franchisee photos and school photos and teacher photos as we can get,” she told  Ragan. “We want employees and franchisees to recognize themselves and their communities in what we’re sharing.”

Pressure-test checklist for communicators:

• Do employees feature prominently in quotes and visuals?
• Can employees answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” with ease?
• Are different employee populations represented in customized formats?

4. Are you designing your newsletter around assumptions or actual employee behavior?

Your newsletter format needs to evolve based on audience behavior and feedback you observe, not your instincts. Satterlee said that at Roku, she combines audience analytics with regular focus groups to help her team refine everything in the newsletter, from formatting to regional specialization.

“We actually ask employees, ‘How do you like to receive your information? Do you like reading newsletters?” Satterlee said. “We want to know what’s working for them and what isn’t. We value employee feedback a lot because that’s what helps us make changes that actually improve the experience.”

Those discussions have even influenced stylistic choices, including grammar and formatting differences between regional editions.

“Do you notice that we use UK grammar?” Satterlee said, referring to questions she’s asked British Roku employees. “Do you like that? Does that make you feel like this version was made for you?”

At Goddard Systems, McCloy said that engagement metrics help her figure out what parts of the newsletter are the most engaging. This information helps her repeat what’s working in future editions.

“We track open rates, click rates and click-through rates,” she said. “That gives us a lot of anecdotal evidence on what people are looking at and what’s interesting to them.”

Pressure test checklist for communicators:

• Review your click-through rates by section.
• Conduct reader surveys or focus groups.
• Base your formatting adjustments on what you’ve learned about your audience, not what you assume.

No matter your exact topic or audience, the best newsletter formatting decisions come from paying close attention to how employees actually experience the communication.

“We value employee feedback a lot because that’s what helps us make changes that actually improve the experience,” Satterlee said.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications.