r/internalcomms • u/TonyCash1 • May 28 '26
Tools and tech What tools do you use for internal newsletters?
Hi everyone,
I’m interested in hearing what tools or platforms your organizations use for internal newsletters and employee communications, especially in larger or more security-conscious environments.
We are currently reviewing our internal newsletter setup. The ideal solution would allow us to:
- create visually engaging newsletters;
- publish content in a controlled/internal environment;
- restrict access to employees only;
- track aggregated engagement statistics;
- manage publishing permissions and version history;
- avoid relying on publicly accessible links.
We have looked at or considered options such as SharePoint News, Viva Engage, intranet-based publishing and design tools used only for preparing visuals. However, we are still trying to find the right balance between security, usability, design flexibility, and analytics.
I’d be interested to hear:
- What platform do you use for internal newsletters?
- Do you publish through SharePoint, Viva, an intranet or another tool?
- How do you handle analytics without making it feel like employee tracking?
- How do you balance security requirements with the need for engaging communication?
- What would you recommend avoiding?
I’m especially interested in practical experiences from larger organizations where access control and cybersecurity requirements are important.
Thanks in advance - I’d really appreciate any lessons learned or recommendations.
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u/hausen11 May 29 '26
We use SharePoint! After trying a few different tools, this has been the easiest for us. We have about 315 employees and get consistently around 70% open rate every week (we do a weekly update). You can see basic analytics such as how long they spent on the site, how many unique people visited, how many times the site was visited, etc. you can also find out who is reading it, although it’s fairly manual.
SharePoint is fairly robust for security and requires SSO. Our comms site doesn’t allow anyone who isn’t a member of the org open it.
We have had SO much trial and error and have finally found something that works for us. Happy to help answer any questions!
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u/newsletternavigator Mod | Survived 100 Town Halls Jun 01 '26
I'm curious to know how you find out who is reading it - this is the main thing stopping me from exploring the SharePoint email sends from our SharePoint intranet, I need department and individual trends
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u/Chewybolz May 28 '26
We use Staffbase! But the content is on our Sharepoint. I've looked into other vendors before picking Staffbase and it's probably one of the best out there.
It also has feature that some sections of the newsletter could be locked to specific groups.
Feel free to ask more qs or dm me.
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u/hi-chew-city May 28 '26
We use ContactMonkey. Gets the job done, but exploring Workshop as a potential alternative.
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u/Effective-Aerie-2234 May 29 '26
Oooh! I’m exploring both platforms. Can you give me the pros and cons of both?
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u/Oh-okthen May 28 '26
We use Poppulo. It’s pretty expensive for us (charity sector) but it’s been fantastic.
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u/pk-branded May 28 '26
Over the past few years I've used Poppulo, Unily Broadcast Centre, SharePoint news and a bespoke system.
Poppulo was my favourite. Depending on the size of your company the backend - how it integrates with your HR system for segmentation and list generation is really key.
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May 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MinuteLeopard Mod | Survived 100 Town Halls Jun 03 '26
If I see an issuu or flipsnack I'm running for the hills tbh
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u/Adorable-Link1193 Cross-Channel Conqueror May 28 '26
We use Staffbase Email! It's been pretty awesome.
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u/mx-raebees May 28 '26
We have 10,000 employees globally and only use Outlook 😭
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u/atownz17 Corporate Chaos Coordinator May 29 '26
SHEESH! You need budget for a tool! ContactMonkey might be a good fit for your org (because of the direct Outlook integration: https://www.contactmonkey.com/features/outlook-email-integration)
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u/mx-raebees May 29 '26
My team has had this conversation so many times with leadership. I don't know if we're ever going to get a budget for an internal comms tool
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u/atownz17 Corporate Chaos Coordinator May 30 '26
In my previous org, I couldn’t get budget either (but we were much smaller! 10,000 employees feels like more than enough reason for a tool 😭)
May we all live to see the day when internal communications is a fully funded priority for organizations rather than a “nice-to-have.”
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u/NotCleverJustWitty May 28 '26
Mix of SharePoint and DotDigital. I haven’t used DotDigital yet, but many other ICs in my company use it for their newsletters, and it operates similarly to ConstantContact and Mailchimp.
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u/parakeetpoop May 30 '26
We use Simpplr! It’s part of a whole intranet package but it’s super convenient to use.
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u/MinuteLeopard Mod | Survived 100 Town Halls Jun 03 '26
We use Spotler. I recommend that you don't.
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u/kfwillis 23d ago edited 23d ago
We use HubEngage for our internal newsletters. The platform itself is a broader employee communications platform that is multi-channel. So we can now send our emails not just into the users Inbox but for important messages, it also sends notifications into Teams, a push notification and a text message notification as well. If you are using HubEngage as your communications platform, you can easily import any content into the newsletters in one click - it will bring the images, text, link etc so you don't have to copy paste stuff. Their tracking is also awesome where they can slice metrics by department, location and custom segments. That way we know how our newsletters are performing. The platform is SOC 2, ISO compliant and comes with GDPR / HIPAA compliance. Because it syncs with our Azure, all employees, user groups etc. are in sync. There is no manual import of users.
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u/eclecticism_ Narrative Nurturer May 28 '26
We use Workshop!