4 minute read

Your first list

The software part takes about four minutes. The thinking part is worth ten, and this guide is mostly about that.

Last reviewed

1. Name it after who is on it, not what you send

“Manchester site updates” tells somebody in three words whether it is for them. “Comms Newsletter v2” tells them nothing and makes them ask a colleague.

The name shows on the form people fill in, on the page where they update their details, and on every link you share. It is the most-read piece of copy you will write, and you write it in about four seconds.

2. Ask for less than you want to know

This is the one decision that determines whether the list works. Every extra question loses people, and it loses the ones who were least sure about signing up - which are exactly the ones worth having.

Ask what changes what you send
If knowing somebody's site means they get different content, ask. If it just means you have a column called site that nobody filters on, do not.
Do not ask for what you already have
Payroll number, job title, line manager - if it is in the HR system, asking again gets you a second copy that goes out of date on a different schedule from the first.
Four is a good number
Email, name, one thing that segments your list, and one thing that tells you what they want. You can add a question later; you cannot un-ask one that made somebody close the tab.
Make the optional ones optional
A required question that somebody cannot answer honestly gets answered dishonestly, and then you have a list that is confidently wrong rather than usefully incomplete.

If you would rather not start from a blank page, there are four starting points built in - a departmental newsletter, an employee network, a site or building list, and an alumni network. Each is a real set of questions you can then cut down.

3. Publish before it is perfect

A form nobody has filled in is not a form, it is a draft. You will learn more from the first ten replies than from another afternoon of rewording, and questions can be added, reordered or removed afterwards without losing anybody.

The answers people already gave are kept even if you remove the question later, so publishing early costs you nothing. Nobody has to fill it in twice.

Publishing gives you one link. It is unguessable, so it is safe to put in an all-staff email, and it works on a phone without an account or a password - which matters more than it sounds if some of your colleagues sign up with a personal address rather than a work one.

Where to put that link, and what to say next to it, is the next guide.

Worth knowing before you start

  • The trial is 30 days and needs no card. Up to 3 colleagues and 500 people on your lists.
  • You are not sending from here. This holds the list and keeps it accurate; you send from wherever you send today. That is deliberate - swapping your sending tool is a much bigger decision than fixing your list.
  • Everything exports. CSV, whenever you like, without asking us. If this turns out not to suit you, you leave with your data.

Read next

Getting people to actually sign up

A form nobody fills in is a spreadsheet with extra steps. Where to put the link, what to say, and how to reach colleagues who pass a notice board more often than they read an inbox.

Keeping a list clean without chasing anyone

Every list falls out of date - people move team, change site, leave. The answer is not to chase harder; it is to stop being the only person who can make a correction.

Do you need consent for internal emails?

Employment does not make every internal email lawful, and consent is often the wrong basis to claim. Which messages need what, and the record that settles an argument.

How to organise your internal mailing lists

Most internal lists are organised by who somebody is, because that is what the directory knows. Nearly everything people actually want is organised by interest, and the gap between the two is where the administration comes from.

What is a preference centre?

The category these guides assume, defined without selling anything: what one is, what it is not, and who needs one.