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Digital newsletters

We use digital newsletters as a cost effective way to engage with residents and businesses in Derbyshire as well as our employees.


Across the council there's a wide variety of digital newsletters on different departmental topics including Our Derbyshire, school closures, jobs and many more. We currently have over 140,000 subscribers to our digital newsletters.

The online sign-up is the best way to get residents to subscribe to a newsletter.

Subscribers are usually more interested and likely to engage with newsletters that are specific to them and their interests.

If you're interested in setting up a new digital newsletter please contact the digital communications team email: econtent@derbyshire.gov.uk

Once the digital communications team have received your email they'll work with you to create a strategy for a new digital newsletter and develop your newsletter with its own look and feel. You'll then be responsible for managing this newsletter using the digital newsletter solution GovDelivery.

Using GovDelivery

We use GovDelivery as our email communications solution to inform and engage with people in Derbyshire.

GovDelivery allows you to create new digital newsletters, add your content and send them to your mailing list.

Using GovDelivery you can also measure the success of individual newsletters including open rates, click-through rates and failed deliveries. You can also create detailed reports on campaigns.

If you're interested in getting access to GovDelivery then please email: econtent@derbyshire.gov.uk. All new users to GovDelivery will be provided with training led by the digital communications team.

Tips on writing digital newsletters

Here are some top tips for writing digital newsletters:

  • be concise – make content brief and to the point
  • good content is easy to read – use words that are easy to understand and short paragraphs
  • know your audience – make content specific to them and their interests
  • 'front load' headings, sub headings, titles, bullet points and links to put the most important information first
  • engage users by using calls to action and actionable language
  • look at the stats to review and improve your newsletters
  • write an engaging subject line to grab reader’s attention
  • proofread, and proofread again