How do you segment and personalize your internal newsletter for different audiences?

The best way to segment your audience is hearing from them directly. Start out by segmenting them by their role or department. Then segment them into leaders and line staff. Finally, offer your readers a chance to opt into particular types of articles and news channels. You'll end up with a much more likely to be read and powerful individual newsletter for each reader.

In addition to deciding the types of content and topics you want to include in your newsletter, also consider the ones you don't want to include. There are other communication channels beyond newsletters, and one or more of them may be better to use depending on the urgency, relevancy and importance of a communication. For example, you can share quick updates via Slack, communicate big changes with a one-off email, or track project progress in Asana or Monday.

Employees always love to hear about success stories. Share recent project wins, outstanding employee and team accomplishments, and how your employees are engaging with their communities outside of work. Each segment should have a communications plan. Write communications that dovetail with your company values. Offer your staff an opportunity to engage with your communications by developing a tip line.

Understand how your audience works. I wrote a newsletter for a hospital where the majority of staff rarely sit down at their computer and look at their email. So, while we still emailed the newsletter, we printed it out and delivered it to departments and incorporated printable links within the newsletter for managers to print and use within their departments. Some may think printing out newsletters in 2023 is archaic, but if you want to get information in front of nurses, it just so happens to be the best way.

Experiment with formats and test them to see what resonates with your internal audience. And no matter the format, remember that you need to have a compelling story, even if it's only for internal audiences. The actual format of your newsletter only matters to the extent that it helps your audience better digest and engage with that story.

Keep your design simple and straightforward. Employees care more about content than fancy designs...especially given how many communications pass their eyes every day. Use bullets, headings, and images to break up your text as much as you can. Most people do not have the patience to read New Yorker-style heavy text...especially at work. Consider putting # of words or average amount of time to read at the top of your articles. That will help you be more concise and also allow your reader to know if it's worth their time. Help your reader by making it easy to scan the whole newsletter to see which articles are worth reading. And always put your most important content at the top...just in case they lose interest or get distracted.

When you're considering personalization, it's tempting to personalize everything as much as possible and take advantage of all the dynamic features in the tools you have. However, ask yourself which information actually needs to be personalized and how it will be valuable to the recipients. You may not need to use someone's first name in a monthly internal newsletter, for example. But if you have valuable information that helps someone do their individual role better, then that's worth adding.

The best way to personalize your content is in your writing style. Address each article directly to your reader. Use conversational prose and make your content easy for anyone to read, whether they are a technical person or not. Avail yourself of tools to address your audience by name and segment the information they receive. And don't forget to allow them an opportunity to talk back to you...whether that's an email address, a Yammer link, or another way to add to the discussion.

Beyond looking at the stats, talk to the internal audiences you're trying to reach and solicit their feedback. Don't wait for it to come to you. Ask them whether they find the newsletter to be useful, and how you can make it more helpful to them. Ultimately, it should serve as an enablement tool that gives them information they're interested in or need. If you're only looking at opens and clicks, you might miss more valuable qualitative data.

Metrics are great! Absolutely avail yourself of open and click rates and other analytics. I like conducting surveys of my readers to find out if I'm meeting their needs. Ask your readers what kinds of articles they like to see the most and which types of articles are less interesting. Ask them regularly for tips of content.

In a few words: never be boring! No one is going to want to read your letter if it's overly wordy, full of jargon, or written in the passive voice. Make your content compelling and fun. Avoid acronyms if possible, and write directly to your readers. Focus your content on how you can make your readers' work lives easier. Offer tips and information that they can use to save time, money, or headaches. Be concise, and make your content easy to read.

People love seeing themselves and love seeing their colleagues. Including photos, videos, perspectives from others', showcasing others, etc. will greatly increase your engagement.