No matter the size of your organization, sending a regular internal newsletter to employees has many benefits. Not only do internal newsletters greatly help with internal communications, they also provide a good way to boost staff morale and maintain a positive working environment.

Starting up an employee newsletter for the first time can be daunting. Which content to include, how to put it together, when to send... These are all valid questions to consider during the planning process.

To help give you some inspiration, we're giving you an exclusive inside look into the model we use for our own internal newsletter here at Mail Designer 365 HQ, as well as useful tips to consider when creating a successful internal newsletter for your own organization.

Skip to

• Benefits of creating an internal newsletter
• Our internal newsletter Strategy - an inside look
• How to create an internal newsletter

Benefits of creating an internal newsletter

You may be asking yourself why you should spend the time creating an internal newsletter when there are so many other communication channels available. Here are 3 key benefits:

1. Communication

While Slack and similar internal messaging tools may be more convenient than email, their fast moving nature makes it very easy to miss an important announcement.  In contrast, an internal email newsletter goes straight to your employees' inboxes and is much more likely to be opened.

2. Convenience

The number of communication platforms now available (e.g. messaging channels, intranet, bulletin boards, social media groups, etc.) can result in news and announcements being shared in multiple different places. This can be confusing and makes it hard for staff to keep track.

An internal newsletter allows you to compile all of this information into one convenient email so employees can catch up on anything they may have missed.

3. Corporate Identity

Brand image is an important aspect of any business; both internally and externally. While there are many tools that allow you to communicate with staff, an email newsletter is the best way to ensure you're maintaining your corporate identity whilst doing so.

Creating a custom template for your email newsletter ensures important aspects like your logo, company ethos, brand guidelines, etc., don't go forgotten. This is especially effective in larger organizations, as it helps give everyone in the team a sense of unity, regardless of their physical location.

Our Internal Newsletter Strategy

For obvious reasons, accessing internal newsletters from other companies to show you as examples is not really an option. Because of this (and because we're also super proud of it), we're giving you an insight into how we do things here at Mail Designer 365 HQ.

Here's a quick profile of our internal team newsletter:

• Name: Zeitpunkt Journal (named after our beloved HQ, Zeitpunkt Haus.)
• Editor in Chief: Our very own Lisa Heisenberg
• Sending frequency: Every week on Wednesdays
• Topics covered: Office announcements, personell news, important reminders, current affairs, team fun, memes, and more!
• Newsletters sent: As of today (July 15th 2020), 69 issues

We start off all our weekly journals with the issue number and a quick introduction message before getting to the main content

What we include in our internal newsletters

Primarily, we use our internal newsletter as a tool to share important news and announcements with the whole team. Good communication is a super important part of our workflow and our newsletter helps keep everyone up to date on new changes.

Here are some recent examples of content we've included in our internal newsletter:

Health and safety guidelines: Covid-19 has been difficult for us all to come to terms with. To help prevent the spread, we (like many other businesses) recently reviewed our health and safety measures and shared the new guidelines in our internal newsletter.

Your internal newsletter is THE place to let everyone know about important new changes.

Team updates: We are a growing team and enjoy welcoming new people on board (take a look at our current job offers.) The Zeitpunk Journal is the perfect place for us to announce new staff members to the rest of our team and also help newcomers feel welcome when they start.

Important dates: Like many businesses, we hold regular events, such as team building activities, meetings, and social activities. We use the Zeitpunkt Journal to remind everyone in the team about upcoming dates and any events they may want to add to their calendar. Here is a recent example for the Apple WWDC Keynote event.

Help the team keep track of important dates by including them in your internal newsletter.

Recurring sections in our internal newsletter

Of course, the content we include in our internal newsletter changes from week to week, but there are a few segments we like to keep consistent. Here are some examples of recurring sections you can typically find each week in the Zeitpunkt Journal...

Zeitpunkt Haus Survival Tips: Useful tips and life hacks to help make office life easier.

Useful tips to help make life in the office easier.

Tweet of the Week: Because who doesn't love Twitter? Here we showcase the funniest content found on Twitter that week.

Sad, but painfully accurate.

Team Lunch Friday: On Fridays, we get together and cook great food as a team. What better way to announce this than via a segment in our internal newsletter?

Feeling hungry?

Team activities: When we're not busy working on Mail Designer 365, we also love to partake in fun team building activities. In the last few weeks, the whole team has been taking part in an exciting table tennis tournament. Our internal newsletter has been a great way to keep track of results and upcoming matches.

Use your internal newsletter to promote team building activities.

How to build an internal newsletter in Mail Designer 365

If you're planning on sending out an internal newsletter each week, you need the right tools to do this with. Of course, we use Mail Designer 365 to build, edit and send our newsletter to the whole team.

Mail Designer 365's drag and drop layout builder makes it easy to create professional email designs in minutes.

Our top tips for creating internal newsletters in Mail Designer 365:

• Save and duplicate your master template to reuse the layout in all your future newsletters
• Set up text styles to make editing easy and keep the design consistent
• Make your designs fun using tools such as the Unsplash library for photo backgrounds and shapes & graphic elements for buttons and eye-catchers

Mail Designer 365 has a wide range of shapes and graphic elements to help you spice up your designs.

• Use the smartphone view to optimize your design for mobile for those viewing it on the go
• Send via your work email account in Mail Designer 365 to securely send your newsletter directly to your staff. Here's how to set this up

We hope you have enjoyed your insider look behind the scenes at how we create our internal newsletters here at Mail Designer 365 HQ. Head over to Mail Designer 365 today to test these tips and try your hand at creating an internal newsletter your team will love.

Don't have a Mail Designer 365 plan yet? Sign up for your free trial today to test all these features and discover a wide range of creative tools and HTML email Design Ideas.

Until next time,

Your Mail Designer 365 Team

Even the most seasoned email marketers shudder when they hear the words "email disclaimer." However in reality, writing an effective email disclaimer is actually far more straightforward than it seems.

In this guide, we're quickly taking you through all the basics of best practice for email disclaimers to make things easier than ever when it comes to sending your next marketing email.

Jump to:

• What is an email disclaimer?
• Email disclaimer laws by country
  • USA
  • European Union
  • United Kingdom
  • Canada
• What to include in an email disclaimer
• Creating an email disclaimer template

What is an email disclaimer?

An email disclaimer is a small section of text typically located within your email footer, separate to the main body of your message. It is one of the most important parts of any email you send, as it protects your business from any potential legal issues and contains key information for your customers.

The laws on what information businesses need to provide recipients with differ from country to country. For this reason, it's imperative that you know exactly what you need to include in your email disclaimer, as your business can receive a hefty fine if certain rules are not adhered to.

Email disclaimer laws by country

Below, you can find a brief summary of the email disclaimer laws for your country or region.

Email Disclaimer Law in the United States

CAN SPAM Act of 2003 requires all businesses sending marketing emails to provide certain information in their email disclaimer. This includes, a physical address for the sender and a clear and functioning unsubscribe option.

You can find more detailed information on this here.

Here is an example by Bed, Bath & Beyond:

Email Disclaimer Law in the European Union

The EU Directive states that all business communication emails must contain a standard disclaimer with the following information:

• Company registration number
• Place of registration
• Registered office address

However, individual countries have slightly different requirements, so it's important to check based on the country your business is based in.

For example, in Germany businesses are required to include:

• Company name
• Office location
• Court register
• Registration number
• Name of the managing director and the board of directors

You can find more detailed information about individual EU countries here.

Email Disclaimer Law in the United Kingdom

Along with a clear unsubscribe link, Trading Standards requires registered companies in the UK need to include the following information in all of their business emails:

• Registered company name
• Company registration number and place of registration
• Registered company address

You can find more detailed information on this here.

Example by Jack Wills:

Email Disclaimer Law in Canada

According to CASL (Canada's Anti Spam Law), all businesses need to provide clear contact information for the sender, as well as an opt out link in their electronic marketing messages (including email, SMS, and social media messages.)

Possible fines for non-compliance can reach up to $10 million.

You can find more detailed information on this here.

What else to include in an email disclaimer

As a force of habit, many people receiving your emails will automatically look to the footer area to find important information about your business.

In addition to the mandatory information listed above, there are several other things your business may want to include in your email disclaimer to help protect you from legal issues and also ensure your customers can find the information they are looking for.

Unsubscribe link

As mentioned above, the unsubscribe link is a legal requirement for all marketing emails, with most transactional emails being an exception. Although this does not have to appear in your email footer (some designers opt to place it at the top of the design) the vast majority of customers will expect to find it here.

Your unsubscribe link must be clearly visible and must provide the recipient with a straightforward way to opt out of receiving your emails.

This example by Bunches is great, as it clearly explains to the recipient why they have received the email and where to click to opt out:

Terms and conditions

Adding a brief terms and conditions section to your email disclaimer is a good way to clear up any possible confusion surrounding your promotional offer. In this section, you could cover things like offer expiry date, offer validity (e.g. in store or online, on all products or selected, etc.) and eligibility (e.g. new customers only.)

If you wish, you can also use this opportunity to link out to a separate, more detailed terms & conditions landing page.

In this promotional email, ASOS clearly outline the terms and conditions of their sale to customers:

Privacy Policy

Since GDPR came into force, there has been an emphasised importance on data protection and privacy. Many businesses now use their email disclaimer as a place to also refer to their company's privacy policy. This is a good way for recipients with questions to locate the information they need.

This email by Bupa Dental Care is a great example of how to use your email disclaimer to make readers aware of your privacy policy.

Contact information

In addition to the mandatory information required (i.e. company address), it's also best practice to give your customers an easy way to get in touch with you.

Many marketing emails come from no-reply addresses, so including a support email address or a link out to a contact form in your disclaimer allows customers to contact you if they have questions.

Tip: Use a mailto link so your customers can contact you in just one click. In Mail Designer 365 you can even configure the email subject line and message to make things easier:

Provide readers with a direct way to contact you.

Creating an email disclaimer in Mail Designer 365

One key thing to remember about your email disclaimer is that the core content is often the same. Once you've put together an informative disclaimer that meets all the legal requirements, you should be able to keep reusing it in future emails.

Mail Designer 365 allows you to create custom layout combinations and save them for future use. This is perfect for your email footer area:

• Build up your disclaimer using text blocks, spacers and images
• Insert all the relevant text, links and contact information
• Select your group and drag into the sidebar under "Layout Blocks" > "Ready-Made" > "My Saved Blocks" where you can instantly access them in your next design and tweak as needed

Drag and drop layout combinations to save them in your ready-made layout blocks collection and use for future emails.

We hope this information has been useful and that you'll bear these tips in mind when working on your email disclaimers.

As well as the practical, ready-made layout blocks feature, Mail Designer 365 also offers a wide range of email templates, text styles, and mobile optimisation tools to make sure your email disclaimers are clear and effective. Not got a Mail Designer 365 plan yet? Sign up today for your free, no-strings-attached trial.

For B2B organizations, a well-executed webinar is often a great way to generate more leads. However, in order to ensure your webinar is a success, you first need to promote it effectively amongst your target audience. Coming up with a solid email marketing strategy for webinars is one way you can achieve this.

In this guide, you'll find useful tips on developing an effective email marketing strategy you can use to guarantee your webinar is a success.

Jump through this guide:

• Getting Started with Webinars
  • What is a webinar?
  • Benefits of hosting a webinar
• Email Marketing Strategy for Webinars
  • Building up to the webinar: Invitation emails
  • Just before the webinar: Reminder emails
  • After the webinar: Follow up emails
• Key Takeaways
• Designing an Email Series for Your Webinar

Getting Started with Webinars

What is a webinar?

A webinar is an online meeting or seminar where participants are invited to discuss a range of topics within a certain field. Usually, the webinar is lead by an expert or group of experts in that field who will present information and answer any questions. The size of a webinar can range from just a handful of people to hundreds of attendees.

Especially in B2B, webinars are also often used as a way to introduce a product or service to potential new leads by means of a tutorial or case study.

Benefits of hosting a webinar

Hosting a webinar gives you the chance to demonstrate your expertise in your field. It is a unique form of content marketing which, when executed correctly, helps establish you as an authority figure to your audience and creates a sense of trust. For example, the team at Really Good Emails upload weekly videos about email design which clearly establishes them as a leading authority in that field.

Here are some more great benefits of hosting a webinar:

• Lead generation opportunity - Participants signing up for a webinar are great potential leads whose data can help you in future campaigns.
• Advertising - A webinar is a clever way to promote your product or service to a new audience by showcasing its potential in unique ways. Case studies, live demos, and follow along tutorials are just a few examples.
• Make your business relatable - Hosting a webinar helps both existing customers and new leads put a friendly face to your business. This works wonders for your relationships with customers.
• Get to know your audience - One of the hardest aspects of marketing is finding out what your target audience wants. In a webinar, viewers can submit questions and feedback which gives you an insight into their needs and helps you optimize your product or service accordingly.
• Affordable - A webinar offers many of the same advantages as a physical event but comes without the added costs (i.e. venue hire, travel, food & drink.)
• Flexible - Your webinar can take place whenever you like, wherever you like. Geographic restrictions don't apply.

Email Marketing Strategy for Webinars

Once you've taken the first steps in deciding you want to host a webinar, you now need to make sure it's a success. Here is our 3 step email marketing strategy for promoting your webinar.

Step one: Email Marketing Strategy in the Build Up to the Webinar

In the weeks building up to your webinar, the focus is on promoting it to the right audience and ensuring you get as many sign ups as possible.

Identifying your target audience

The first step in creating an email marketing strategy for your webinar is identifying your target audience. This will allow you to segment your email list accordingly, and choose the appropriate tone for your email.

Think about the content of your webinar and who will find it most relevant. This will become your target audience. For example, if your webinar is an introductory walkthrough of your product, you will most likely want to consider new sign ups or demo users as a target audience.

Make your invitation a teaser email for the webinar

Once you've identified the segment of your email list you want to target, you can start designing the email invitation. We like to know what we're getting into, so the element of surprise is not desirable here.

In the initial announcement email, be sure to include a preview of the key topics your webinar will be covering. This will help get recipients hyped up for the event and also helps your recipients assess whether the webinar is relevant to them. Whatever the aim of your webinar is, you only want participants who are genuinely interested, as they are more likely to engage.

This email by Teachable makes sure those invited know exactly what is being covered in the webinar.

Helpful hint: Using your subject line to convey the main topic of your webinar is a great way to capture readers' attention from the first point of contact with the email.

Make the sign up process easy and straightforward

The best way to encourage more sign ups is through a clear and effective CTA (call-to-action) button. If your recipient has read your email invite and still can't figure out how to register for the event, something has definitely gone wrong.

As a general rule of thumb, your CTA button should...

• Stand out against the rest of your email,
• Display a simple and direct command (e.g. "register here", "secure your place"),
• Lead to a sensible target link (i.e a dedicated landing page or registration form).

Not only do Litmus choose a striking color for their CTA button, the text is also short and snappy.

Be sure to include all of these characteristics in your email invitation to improve your chances of a high sign up rate.

Time your invitations right

Sending out the invitations to your webinar at the right time is key and bad timing can often lead to you missing out on a huge chunk of potential leads. If you send out an announcement last minute, many of your target audience will already have plans in place - especially if you are targeting busy business users. For this reason, it's important you give invitees plenty of notice for your webinar.

On the other hand, sending out an invitation too far in advance is also not recommended. This not only increases the chance of customers forgetting about your webinar, but could also deter others from signing up if they don't know how their schedule will look that far in the future.

We recommend you send out your first email a few weeks in advance to give attendees the chance to pencil you in to their calendar. Don't forget to also create a calendar event for the webinar and link to this in your email.

Step two: Email Marketing Strategy just before the Webinar

A few days before your webinar takes place, you need to make sure everything is in order. This involves reminder emails, last minute checks and providing key information.

Send out reminder emails with key information

Many of us have super busy schedules and it's natural for things to slip our minds. For this reason, it's important to make the experience as straightforward and accessible as possible. The last thing you want is for previously interested leads to not take part on the day because they forgot about the webinar, can't find the email invitation, or are missing relevant information. You need to be on the ball.

Take the time to send out a reminder email a day or so before the webinar to finalise all the important details participants need to know in order to be prepared. This includes key information such as:

• The link to join the webinar
• The date and time it's taking place (remember to think about time zones if you are targeting people in different states/countries)
• How long it will last
• What the format is (e.g. Q&A, case study, presentation)

This email contains all the key info about the webinar which helps attendees get prepared.

With this information all at hand in one helpful email, your participants can look forward to the webinar whilst also feeling sufficiently prepared.

Chase up lost leads and target last minute opt ins

In some cases, your original invitation email may have gone unread, or the recipient may have forgotten to act. To ensure you don't miss out on any potential sign ups, it's also a good idea to chase up any lost leads you may have by sending a secondary invitation email.

Split your original list segment up into leads who signed up and leads who did not. Then, send those who aren't already signed up another email encouraging them to register for your webinar.

Try using time-sensitive language such as "last chance" or "only x hours left" to really emphasise the importance of signing up and generate a sense of urgency. You could also create a sense of urgency for your webinar by implying a shortage of spaces. This plays on the recipient's 'fear of missing out' and may be the final push they need to sign up.

Step three: Email Marketing Strategy after the Webinar

Your webinar has taken place and everything went well. However, the after-event follow up is still a key part of any good email marketing strategy for webinars.

Send out a follow up email with a clear CTA

Now that your webinar is over, you need to make sure you meet your original goal. No matter how many took part, in the end, it's their actions that really count. Be prompt and send out a friendly follow up email shortly after the webinar has finished to target your leads while the content from your webinar is still fresh in their minds.

In this follow up email, be sure to thank participants for joining in with the webinar before leading on to your main call-to-action. For example, if this was a demo of your product, now is the chance to encourage customers to buy. If the webinar was purely informative, pointing new leads to sign up to your email newsletter or follow you on social media is also a proactive way of expanding your audience.

Finally, you should also include the chance for participants to provide you with feedback. This could be feedback to their general experience with your business, or targeted feedback about the webinar. Either way, you can use this to improve for next time!

Create an on demand video to send to customers

Sending a reflection email to share a recording of the webinar has many great benefits. Firstly, participants who tuned in live on the day can watch back and go over any key points they might have missed or want to play back. They also have the chance to share the content with coworkers or other potential new leads; simultaneously promoting your business via word of mouth.

Secondly, an on demand video can also be a good way for those who signed up but did not tune in (i.e. due to illness, lack of time, unforeseen circumstances, etc.) to catch up on what they missed and experience your content in a different way.

Lastly, you could also send this video to other segments of your mailing list in future, to help promote your webinars in general. By giving new users a taster of the great content you produce, you increase the chances of more people signing up next time.

Email on Acid do a great job of promoting a past webinar by including a link at the end of this email newsletter.

Key Takeaways

Here are the 4 key emails you should be sending as part of the email marketing strategy for your webinar:

1. The invitation email
2. The reminder email
3. The follow up email
4. The reflection email

Designing an Email Series for Your Webinar

Mail Designer 365 has all the creative tools you need to design email templates to use as part of your webinar email marketing strategy. Here is an example of a webinar email invitation template now available in Mail Designer 365. Sign up free today to try it out for yourself!

Webinar email invitation Design Idea - exclusively available in Mail Designer 365

You might also like:

How to Convert Keynote or PowerPoint Slides to Email - Our Quick Guide

Design Effective Onboarding Campaigns to Increase Customer Engagement

How to Get More Responses for Your Email Survey - 6 Easy Tips

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team