Newsletter guidelines

Internal vs. external

Sometimes content is more relevant to staff than it is to audiences outside of the ELIXIR network.

Examples of internal content:

  • Staff meetings and minutes
  • Events only for campus staff
  • Staff leaving and joining (unless a significant role is being filled)

Examples of external content:

  • Updates and promotions of Node activity that have not been shared through social media or will be explained in more detail/context through the newsletter
    • Example: a new video might have already been shared through social media, but a newsletter would provide more information about the activities mentioned in the video or other communication materials to be released in the near future
  • Upcoming events
  • Activity highlights
    • Example: short summary of papers published, collaborations made, databases/tools developed, etc.
  • Vacancies

It is possible that some internal content is newsworthy, such as talks at an institute within the Node, driverless electric vehicles to be used as transport to campus or surveys that could use input from both external and internal stakeholders. To prevent confusion, and still draw readers to sections that are relevant to them, you may want to mark this specific content (eg. as “internal news”).

Content

  • Feel free to copy and paste or summarise content from the Hub, as well as sharing news unique to the Node
  • Inform the Hub at info [at] elixir-europe.org if you would like for Node content to be shared either in the internal “ELIXIR Weekly Brief” or the external “Informed: ELIXIR Newsletter”
  • Restrict newsletter length to the most essential information and write concisely
  • Categorise content into sections that would be relevant to your network. These sections can be thematic (i.e. “Open Science”, “Life-Science Technologies”, and “Data-related Training” as seen in DTL’s newsletter) or based on the type of content (i.e. “Milestones”, “Data Service Highlights” and “Science News”)
  • Categories can change depending on the content to share

Format

It is strongly recommended to send your newsletters in HTML (rather than in pdf). Here are six reasons why:

  1. HTML newsletters display much better on mobile phones (in fact you can specify different display settings for different devices)
  2. Very few people take the time to open an PDF attachment unless they urgently need it
  3. You can track the number of people who open your newsletters and see what links they click on
  4. HTML newsletters are less likely to get blocked by SPAM filters
  5. HTML email services automatically remove people from your email list if their email ano longer exists or if they unsubscribe
  6. HTML newsletter are easier to share on social media

To create an HTML newsletter, you can use an HTML email service. There are many different services of this type. You should use a platform that enables you to do the following:

  • Schedule campaigns
  • Measure the success of a newsletter (i.e. open rate and click rate over time)
  • Design a newsletter easily (i.e. no necessity to learn HTML code, ability to import/customise/re-use templates, etc.)

MailChimp (https://mailchimp.com) does all of the above and is free up until you reach 2,000 subscribers or 12,000 emails per month. Mailchimp also offers many detailed resources that will guide you through every stage of designing a newsletter.

Resources

To start with you can use ELIXIR MailChimp newsletter template: https://us4.admin.mailchimp.com/templates/share?id=7549201_da61b0ea8be7e4f87cd2_us4

To use this template, you first need to create a MailChimp account and log-in to it. Once logged in, you can click on the link above which will point you to your Mailchimp account and automatically create a new template in it. You can then adapt it as your own newsletter.

Good practice examples of existing Node newsletters

Author(s)
Premysl Velek
Appears in
Node-toolkit
Communications
Legacy updated

Newsletter guidelines

Internal vs. external

Sometimes content is more relevant to staff than it is to audiences outside of the ELIXIR network.

Examples of internal content:

  • Staff meetings and minutes
  • Events only for campus staff
  • Staff leaving and joining (unless a significant role is being filled)

Examples of external content:

  • Updates and promotions of Node activity that have not been shared through social media or will be explained in more detail/context through the newsletter
    • Example: a new video might have already been shared through social media, but a newsletter would provide more information about the activities mentioned in the video or other communication materials to be released in the near future
  • Upcoming events
  • Activity highlights
    • Example: short summary of papers published, collaborations made, databases/tools developed, etc.
  • Vacancies

It is possible that some internal content is newsworthy, such as talks at an institute within the Node, driverless electric vehicles to be used as transport to campus or surveys that could use input from both external and internal stakeholders. To prevent confusion, and still draw readers to sections that are relevant to them, you may want to mark this specific content (eg. as “internal news”).

Content

  • Feel free to copy and paste or summarise content from the Hub, as well as sharing news unique to the Node
  • Inform the Hub at info [at] elixir-europe.org if you would like for Node content to be shared either in the internal “ELIXIR Weekly Brief” or the external “Informed: ELIXIR Newsletter”
  • Restrict newsletter length to the most essential information and write concisely
  • Categorise content into sections that would be relevant to your network. These sections can be thematic (i.e. “Open Science”, “Life-Science Technologies”, and “Data-related Training” as seen in DTL’s newsletter) or based on the type of content (i.e. “Milestones”, “Data Service Highlights” and “Science News”)
  • Categories can change depending on the content to share

Format

It is strongly recommended to send your newsletters in HTML (rather than in pdf). Here are six reasons why:

  1. HTML newsletters display much better on mobile phones (in fact you can specify different display settings for different devices)
  2. Very few people take the time to open an PDF attachment unless they urgently need it
  3. You can track the number of people who open your newsletters and see what links they click on
  4. HTML newsletters are less likely to get blocked by SPAM filters
  5. HTML email services automatically remove people from your email list if their email ano longer exists or if they unsubscribe
  6. HTML newsletter are easier to share on social media

To create an HTML newsletter, you can use an HTML email service. There are many different services of this type. You should use a platform that enables you to do the following:

  • Schedule campaigns
  • Measure the success of a newsletter (i.e. open rate and click rate over time)
  • Design a newsletter easily (i.e. no necessity to learn HTML code, ability to import/customise/re-use templates, etc.)

MailChimp (https://mailchimp.com) does all of the above and is free up until you reach 2,000 subscribers or 12,000 emails per month. Mailchimp also offers many detailed resources that will guide you through every stage of designing a newsletter.

Resources

To start with you can use ELIXIR MailChimp newsletter template: https://us4.admin.mailchimp.com/templates/share?id=7549201_da61b0ea8be7e4f87cd2_us4

To use this template, you first need to create a MailChimp account and log-in to it. Once logged in, you can click on the link above which will point you to your Mailchimp account and automatically create a new template in it. You can then adapt it as your own newsletter.

Good practice examples of existing Node newsletters

Author(s)
Premysl Velek
Appears in
Node-toolkit
Communications
Legacy updated
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