What is an employee newsletter?

Simpplr Employee Newsletter is a paid add-on to the core Simpplr intranet, a purpose-built newsletter creation, management, and distribution platform that puts the power of internal communications directly into the hands of your team.

Employee Newsletter is a fully integrated, template-based builder with drag-and-drop editing, smart content blocks, multi-channel distribution, and rich analytics, all within your Simpplr environment.

With Employee Newsletter, your communications team can:

• Group and distribute company-wide or site-specific content to targeted audiences.

• Remind employees of content they may have missed.

• Offer extensive customisation and formatting options.

• Drive company-wide adoption and engagement across the intranet.

Why use an employee newsletter?

Internal communications are most effective when they are timely, targeted, and easy to consume. Employee Newsletter is designed to solve exactly that by giving communications, HR, and marketing teams a single, streamlined tool to reach employees wherever they are, without relying on external email platforms or manual workarounds.

Key reasons organisations use it:

• Saves time and money: no need for third-party email tools; everything is built into Simpplr.

• Targeted communication: send to the whole organisation, a specific audience, or members of a particular site.

• Dynamic, personalised content: smart blocks pull in fresh, relevant content at send time, tailored to each recipient.

• Multi-channel reach: distribute via email, SMS, Microsoft Teams, or Slack from a single send.

• Measurable impact: built-in analytics track opens, clicks, devices, and engagement over time.

Key features at a glance

Who can create and manage newsletters?

Newsletter access is granted and managed through App Manager settings.

Users with newsletter permissions

Users assigned newsletter permissions through Audience Control Groups (ACGs) and App Manager settings can create, manage, and distribute newsletters to authorised audiences. Access is governed through assigned permissions and ACG membership.

Note: Site ownership or Site Manager status alone does not grant newsletter creation or distribution permissions. Users can only access and manage newsletters for the audiences and sites they have permission to access.

How employee newsletter works

The newsletter creation process consists of five main stages.

1. Configure newsletter settings

Before newsletters can be distributed:

• IT administrators must add Simpplr newsletter IP addresses to their allowlist:

  • 54.240.71.135

  • 54.240.71.136

• App managers configure sender domains and email addresses from: Manage > Application > Setup > Newsletter

This ensures successful email delivery and helps prevent newsletters from being flagged as spam.

2. Create a template and theme

Employee Newsletter is template-based. Before building a newsletter, you create (or select) a template that defines the layout, and a theme that controls the branding header, logo, colours, social media links, and more.

There is also a minimal template option, designed to resemble a standard email from Outlook or Gmail. This is ideal for leadership messages, HR updates, or sensitive communications that benefit from a more personal, direct tone.

3. Build a newsletter

Using the drag-and-drop editor, newsletter creators assemble content using two types of blocks:

General blocks: user-entered content:

• Text (with rich formatting options)

• Images (with optional links, including mailto)

• Buttons (call-to-action links)

• Embeds (external URLs, videos, articles)

• Dividers and spacers

• Video (requires Native Video add-on)

Smart blocks: dynamic content pulled from the intranet at send time:

• Content: manually selected or dynamically recommended pages, events, and albums, personalised per recipient

• People: employee profile cards

• Sites: links to featured or specific intranet sites

• Recognition: highlights from Recognition Suite (requires Recognition add-on)

• Surveys: active surveys from Employee Listening suite

Newsletters auto-save every 60 seconds, so work is never lost due to inactivity or unexpected interruptions.

4. Configure, test, and send

Once a newsletter is ready, creators move to the sending step to configure:

• Subject line: with optional personalisation (e.g. recipient's first name) and AI-assisted suggestions

• Preview text: the snippet recipients see in their inbox before opening, with optional AI-assisted suggestions

• Category: for organisation and analytics grouping

• Sender address: the "From" email address

• Recipients: the whole organisation, a specific audience, or site members

• Distribution channels: email, SMS, Microsoft Teams, Slack, intranet, and Simpplr mobile app

Before publishing, creators should send a test newsletter to themselves or designated reviewers to verify:

• Formatting and layout

• Images and embedded content

• Personalisation tokens

• Smart block content

• Links and calls to action

• Rendering across devices and email clients

After reviewing and making any necessary adjustments, creators can proceed with the final send. Newsletters are sent in batches of 100 recipients at a time, so delivery times may vary for large audiences.

5. Track performance

After sending, Employee Newsletter provides detailed analytics for each newsletter:

• Recipients: total number of users a newsletter was sent to

• Open rate: percentage of recipients who opened it

• Click-through rate (CTR): percentage of recipients who clicked at least one element

• Opens by type: breakdown by channel (email, SMS, etc.)

• Unique clicks by type: individual recipients who clicked specific elements

• Time spent: how long recipients spent on linked content (capped at 30 minutes per link per user)

• Heatmap view: a visual overlay of click data on a newsletter

• CSV download: for opens and bounce data

Analytics become available shortly after delivery and continue updating as recipients engage with content.

Activity dashboard

Activity Dashboard provides aggregate performance reporting over time, including:

• Average open rates

• Average click-through rates

• Historical newsletter performance

• Sent newsletter reporting

Employee Newsletter enables organisations to create, personalise, distribute, and measure internal communications from a single platform. With dynamic content personalisation, audience targeting, multi-channel delivery, AI-assisted content creation, and comprehensive analytics, communications teams can improve employee engagement while reducing reliance on external tools.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Who is allowed to create and send newsletters?

Ans: Access is granted and managed through App Manager settings. Users assigned newsletter permissions through Audience Control Groups (ACGs) can create, manage, and distribute newsletters to their authorised audiences. Note that Site ownership or Site Manager status alone does not grant this access.

Q: Can I send the same newsletter through multiple channels at once?

Ans: Yes. Employee Newsletter supports multi-channel distribution, so a single send can go out via email, SMS, Microsoft Teams, Slack, the intranet, and the Simpplr mobile app.

Q: How do smart blocks differ from general content blocks?

Ans: General blocks contain static, user-entered content like text, images, and buttons. Smart blocks pull dynamic content from the intranet at send time, personalised for each recipient, such as recommended pages, employee profile cards, or active surveys.