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Communication and Collaboration

Introducing Employee Newsletter

Your intranet is full of good content. With the new Employee Newsletter feature, it can now reach even further, straight into every employee's inbox. The one place everyone already checks.

Manraj Riat
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Employee Newsletter is ThoughtFarmer’s built-in tool for building, sending, and tracking branded email newsletters from content you’ve already published on your intranet. That content can become a branded newsletter in minutes, sent to the groups who need it, with every link bringing people back to the intranet for the full story.

One send, two wins: employees who might’ve missed the update on your intranet are in the loop, and your intranet gets a little more of the traffic it deserves.

What Employee Newsletter does

Employee Newsletter lives in the Broadcast Center, alongside the tools you already use to communicate with your team.

  • Start building in seconds using one of three pre-made templates, including The Editorial, Event Invite, or Employee Spotlight, or create from scratch
  • Pull in pages or news posts already on your intranet to combine them into a single send
  • Easily customize by updating images, editing text, adjusting the layout
  • Send to specific security groups or individuals, right away or scheduled for later
  • Save a draft, duplicate a past send, or turn any newsletter into a reusable template

Customers who’ve made the switch notice the difference right away.

The newsletter is incredibly easy to put together. The learning curve wasn’t steep at all, and I really appreciated that.

Claudia Garcia, Senior Manager of Employee Communications & Events at DUCA Financial Services Credit Union

ThoughtFarmer employee newsletter templates

Plus, once the email is sent, you can access analytics to see how it performed: opens, total clicks, unique clicks, and clicks per item, so you know what people actually read. For teams coming from a basic email tool with no tracking at all, that visibility alone is a big step up.

We’d been sending our newsletter for years with no way to know if it landed. Now the dashboard shows us open rates and exactly which stories get clicked. ThoughtFarmer knocked it out of the park.”

Claudia Garcia, Senior Manager of Employee Communications & Events at DUCA Financial Services Credit Union

ThoughtFarmer employee newsletter analytics

Why we built Employee Newsletter

When we talked to customers, common patterns kept showing up. Organizations were building newsletters by hand with someone doing their best to design it even though they aren’t a designer. Teams were bolting on (and paying extra for!) tools, such as Mailchimp and Constant Contact to reach employees’ inboxes. Both technically work, in the sense that the email goes out. However, neither connects back to the intranet, and both are a headache to maintain in the long run.

ThoughtFarmer already gives you two ways to share updates: the automated digest, which surfaces your most-read content, and the custom broadcast, which is perfect for a time-bound, urgent update. Employee Newsletter adds a third option: full control over what goes out, built the same way you’d build any other newsletter, and pulled straight from what’s already on your intranet.

Employee Newsletter: before and after

BeforeAfter
Copy content from the intranet into a separate email tool by handPull intranet pages directly into the newsletter builder in a platform you’re already familiar with
Manage two subscriber lists across two platformsSend to your existing ThoughtFarmer security groups
Pay monthly for a separate newsletter toolIncluded in your ThoughtFarmer subscription
Send from Outlook with no open or click trackingClick-through tracking for every content item to easily see what resonates
Let an automated digest decide what goes outFull control over what gets sent and when

How teams can use Employee Newsletter

Here are a few practical ideas for how you can use Employee Newsletter:

  • Weekly company updates. Build from the Editorial template, pull in the CEO’s latest post, an upcoming event, and a team spotlight, then schedule it for Monday morning
  • Department-specific sends. Each team or location sends its own newsletter, with its own branding and content, to just the people it’s for, then checks per-item clicks to see what actually landed
  • Compliance reminders. HR sends a targeted newsletter to one department with direct links to the relevant policy pages
  • New employee onboarding. Build from the Employee Spotlight template, with links to the resource pages new hires actually need
  • All-hands announcements. Use the Event Invite template to announce a town hall and link straight to the agenda

Employee Newsletter is included in your subscription, no extra cost

We built Employee Newsletter to be part of the intranet you already have, not a separate purchase. It’s included in your ThoughtFarmer subscription. No extra software, no added licensing cost, no IT setup required. If you’ve been using the news feed or a third-party tool as a workaround, this is built to replace it.

Employee Newsletter FAQ

Is Employee Newsletter included in my ThoughtFarmer subscription?

Yes. Like all of our features, Employee Newsletter is part of your ThoughtFarmer subscription at no added cost.

Does Employee Newsletter require any setup from IT?

No. Unlike other tools, there’s nothing to whitelist and nothing to configure before you send.

I already use an external newsletter tool. Should I switch?

If you’re currently using Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or a manual Outlook process to reach employees, yes, it’s worth trying. You’ll get the same newsletter capability without paying for and maintaining a second platform. Our [buyer’s guide to employee newsletter software] breaks down the tradeoffs in more depth if you want the full picture.

Can I test Employee Newsletter before rolling it out to my whole organization?

Yes. Send a draft to yourself, check how it renders, then expand to the full list once you’re happy with it.

Get started with Employee Newsletter

If you’re still comparing intranet platforms and want to see how newsletter features stack up more broadly, our guide to employee newsletter software breaks down what to look for.

Book a demo to see Employee Newsletter as part of the full ThoughtFarmer platform.