How to Create a Newsletter

Step 1

Plan your content

Use the Experience Gazette Confluence page to plan your content from a template — then paste the finished copy into the newsletter builder section by section.

Leave images until last. You'll need the written content first to generate illustrations in ChatGPT, so focus on copy and links before sourcing any visuals.

Here's everything you'll need to gather:

  • 2–3 projects — What are people working on, or have recently completed? This doesn't have to be limited to the CX team.
  • A trivia question — Doesn't have to be CX-related. Something fun and surprising works well.
  • 1–2 project images. If you don't have images yet, no problem. You can generate illustrations in ChatGPT later once you have the written content (instructions further down).
  • A CX-related quote — Choose one that feels relevant to this edition's theme. Aim to include diverse perspectives across editions — mix genders, backgrounds, and disciplines.
    Design (general)
    "Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."– Steve Jobs
    "You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people."– Dieter Rams
    "Good design is not about what medium you're working in, it's about thinking hard about what you want to do and what you have to work with before you start."– MaryAnn F. Kohl
    "Design brings content into focus; design makes function visible."– Jennifer Morla
    "Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking."– Ellen Lupton
    UX and usability
    "People ignore design that ignores people."– Frank Chimero
    "Good UX is good business."– Andrew Kucheriavy
    "Want your users to fall in love with your designs? Fall in love with your users."– Dana Chisnell
    "The next big thing is the one that makes the last big thing usable."– Blake Ross
    "We must design for the way people behave, not for how we would wish them to behave."– Don Norman
    "You can't get what you want without giving your customers what they want."– Andrew Kucheriavy
    "Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers."– Seth Godin
    "The best UX is invisible. If you're doing it right, no one will notice."– Rei Kamis
    Research, process, and teams
    "To find ideas, find problems. To find problems, talk to people."– Widely attributed to UX research culture
    "You can find more problems in half a day than you can fix in a month."– Steve Krug
    "Designers can have an impact and shape how technology affects people and empowers them."– Jon Yablonski
    "Designers must act as stewards of design rather than dictators."– Cassie McDaniel
    "Design is not only about shelter, it should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think."– Zaha Hadid
    CX and product thinking
    "Culture, leadership, and employee engagement are the essentials for great customer experience."– Clare Muscutt
    "Like art, design must function by filling a need and provide value to the person using it. A design that isn't useful is a design that has failed."– Yael Levey
  • An insight related to your work — A stat, finding, or observation from your projects. An image to accompany it is great — or generate one later once the content is written.
  • Return on Creativity — Rate a product, campaign, or experience on the ROC scale. What's it doing well creatively? Where could it go further?
  • The Grapevine — 3 things the industry is talking about this month. Pull from articles, social media, or the CX weekly newsletter.
    Search the web for 3 things people are actively talking about right now in [insert your topic — e.g. CX and AI / sustainability / workplace culture / fintech] from the past month. Quality rules: - Only use sources from recognised industry publications, research firms, or credible news outlets (e.g. Gartner, Forrester, Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, Reuters, BBC, industry-specific trade press). No blogs, listicles, or content marketing pieces. - Prioritise findings that include real data, studies, or named expert quotes — not opinion or speculation. - Avoid anything that feels like a press release or vendor pitch. What makes a good pick: - Something genuinely surprising, counterintuitive, or that challenges a common assumption - Something with a clear "so what" for a broad audience — not just specialists - A mix of angles where possible (e.g. one data story, one industry shift, one human/cultural angle) Output format — return each item as a single line only: [emoji] [Catchy, conversational headline as a hyperlink to the source] Example: 💸 Gartner Says AI Customer Service Will Cost More Than Human Agents by 2030 No summaries, no explanations — just the three headlines, ready to drop into the newsletter. You can swap the topic in the first line to make this work for any section of the newsletter, any team, any week.
  • 3 Procrastination Station links — Fun, amusing, or educational links. These are surprise links, so readers just see an image — no descriptive text needed. Just find an image for each.
    Search the web for 3 fun, interesting, or genuinely useful things to try online right now — games, tools, interactive experiences, or educational rabbit holes. Prioritise things from the past 2–3 months that feel fresh and discoverable, not household names. Quality rules: - Stick to credible sources: Product Hunt, Hacker News, The Verge, Wired, The Guardian, Kottke, or similar. No listicles, no "top 10 tools for productivity" roundups. - Prioritise things that went viral organically — hit #1 on Hacker News, spread by word of mouth, or got written up because someone genuinely loved them. - Free or free-to-try strongly preferred. No paywalled tools. - Avoid anything work-specific, jargon-heavy, or that requires technical knowledge to enjoy. What makes a good pick: - Something you'd send to a friend with "just try this" - A mix of types where possible — e.g. one game, one creative tool, one educational or mind-expanding experience - Things with a clear "wow" or "I didn't know this existed" moment Output format — return each as a short paragraph with: - The name as a hyperlink to where people can try it - One sentence on what it is - One sentence on why it's worth 10 minutes of your time - A suggested image description for the editor to source (no emojis) No rankings, no scores — just three things genuinely worth clicking.
Step 2

Format your copy with WPP Open

Before you start building, run your raw content through the WPP Open tone of voice agent. It automatically rewrites your draft to match our voice — saving you editing time and keeping every edition consistent.

  1. Gather all your raw copy — headlines, body text, links, and any notes.
  2. Paste it into the WPP Open agent.
  3. Copy the formatted output and use it as your copy as you fill in each section.

Tip: paste one section at a time if you have a long edition — it gives you more control over the output.

Step 3

Fill in the editor fields

Work through the form on the left — the live preview on the right updates as you type.

  1. Header: Set the edition date (e.g. April 2026).
  2. Hero image: Paste the Cloudinary URL for your main banner image. Aim for at least 1,200px wide.
  3. Content blocks: Click Add Block to insert sections. Choose from:
    • Standard — heading + body text
    • Image + Text — image alongside a text column
    • Two Column — side-by-side content
    • Feature — full-width highlighted section
  4. Procrastination Station: Add 2–3 interesting links for the closing section.
  5. Footer: The footer is pre-populated — update the date if needed.
Step 4

Add and size your images

Images make the newsletter. Follow these steps to get them in and looking right.

How to upload to Cloudinary:

  1. Go to cloudinary.com and sign in.
  2. Click Upload and drag your image file in.
  3. Once uploaded, click the image and copy the URL from the details panel.
  4. Paste the URL into the relevant image field in the editor.

Image size guidelines:

  • Hero/banner images: 1,200px wide minimum
  • Content images: 600px wide minimum
  • Team/person thumbnails: square crop, face centred
  • File size: under 1 MB per image
  • Avoid SharePoint or internal network links — they won't load for all recipients
Step 5

Preview and send

The right-hand panel shows a live preview of your newsletter as you work. Use it to sense-check layouts and spot any copy issues before you send.

When you're happy with everything, copy the preview directly into Outlook:

  1. Click inside the preview panel on the right.
  2. Select all the content by dragging your mouse from the very top to the very bottom of the preview.
  3. Copy it (Ctrl+C / Cmd+C).
  4. Open a new email in Outlook and paste into the body (Ctrl+V / Cmd+V).
  5. Add your subject line, recipients, and send.

Tip: send a test to yourself first to check everything looks right before the full send.

Tips & best practices

Write like a human

Warm, conversational, and inclusive. Think colleague over coffee, not corporate memo. Short sentences. Active voice.

Keep paragraphs short

2–3 sentences per paragraph maximum. Walls of text won't get read — break it up and lead with the most interesting detail.

Real photos over stock

Candid team shots and event photos outperform generic stock imagery every time. Authentic beats polished.

De-AI your drafts

If you use AI to help write copy, run it through the WPP Open tone of voice agent first, then do a quick sense-check before pasting into the editor.

Check character counts

Headings: under 100 characters. Body text: under 1,500 characters per block. The editor will warn you if you go over.

Link smartly

Every link should open in a new tab. Use descriptive link text — avoid "click here". Make links worth clicking.

AI Tools

Generate illustrations with ChatGPT

Use ChatGPT to create custom illustrations for your newsletter. Paste your section content at the end of the relevant prompt below — it will generate a branded illustration in our red-on-white style.

Copy your newsletter content, then expand the prompt you need, copy it, and paste it into ChatGPT with your content at the bottom.

Hero image (1200 × 600px)
You are an illustration generator. You will receive newsletter content after this prompt. Your job is to: Output specifications: * Format: Wide hero banner, 1200×600px * Background: solid #FADADD — no transparency, no white * Colour: Use only #EB3F43 for all linework, patterns, and fills — on the #FADADD background * No gradients. No shading. Flat linework only. Style: * Hand-drawn linework with visible texture — ballpoint pen or fine-tip marker feel * Slightly wonky isometric perspective, intentionally imperfect and organic * Extremely dense composition — no empty space, every gap filled * Every object must have a unique decorative fill pattern: dots, stripes, florals, grids, stars, hearts, cross-hatching, or similar * Organic filler elements (vines, leaves, flowers, small clouds) weave between objects to fill all gaps * No people. No faces. No realistic shading. No gradients. * Mood: playful, warm, detailed, explorable Composition rules: * Perfectly centred composition with safe margins on all sides — nothing cropped or cut off at any edge * Visual weight balanced evenly left to right * All objects layered and connected — nothing floating in isolation Typography — strictly controlled: * Integrate ONLY the text "CX Gazette" in hand-drawn block lettering * The text must feel embedded in the illustration — surrounded, partially overlapped, or framed by illustrated objects * CRITICAL: The image must contain absolutely no other text, letters, numbers, words, labels, or characters of any kind — not decorative, not incidental, not partial. Zero. Only "CX Gazette" exists in this image. Objects to illustrate — two layers, used together: Standing objects (always present): * Strategy and decisions: levers, switches, branching pathways, forks in the road, ladders, keys, vaults, directional arrows * Data and insight: charts, graphs, magnifying glasses, nodes, dashboards, dials, gauges * Digital and systems: screens, grids, wireframe boxes, puzzle pieces, signal waves, toggles, sliders * Communication: envelopes, speech bubbles (empty), megaphones, broadcast towers, connection lines * Value and commerce: coins, card shapes, ticket stubs, tags, locks, padlocks * Craft and making: pencils, rulers, compasses, scissors, paint brushes, stamps * Growth and time: clocks, calendars, gears, springs, hourglasses, seedlings, arrows in motion * Organic fillers: vines, leaves, flowers, small stars, clouds, swooping lines This issue's objects (woven in alongside the standing objects): * In addition to the standing objects, include symbolic objects drawn from the newsletter content provided below. Do not illustrate anything literally or use any brand names. Instead, translate each topic or theme into a single recognisable everyday object that represents it — for example, a journey map becomes an emotion line with rising and falling peaks; a toothpaste brand becomes a toothpaste tube; a music theme becomes piano keys or headphones; a luxury hotel becomes an ornate archway or a luggage tag; a digital wallet becomes a card on a phone lock screen. Find one symbolic object per major theme and weave them into the composition alongside the standing objects. Rules for objects: * Do not illustrate any brand names, product names, company names, or proper nouns * All objects must be generic and symbolic — no logos, no recognisable interfaces * Layer all objects tightly into one unified, interwoven scene FINAL RULE: The only text permitted anywhere in this image is the exact phrase "CX Gazette". No other letters, numbers, symbols, or characters may appear anywhere in the composition under any circumstances. [PASTE CONTENT BELOW]
Section images (1200 × 400px)
You are an illustration generator. You will receive content after this prompt. Your job is to: 1. Extract the key themes, ideas, metaphors, and concepts. 2. Translate them into a single illustrated scene made up of symbolic objects and diverse people interacting with them. 3. Combine everything into a cohesive composition where elements are thoughtfully arranged with breathing room — busy enough to be interesting, spacious enough to be readable. Style (strictly follow every time): * Use only the colour #EB3F43 on a pure white background. * Hand-drawn linework with visible texture (ballpoint pen / fine-tip marker feel). * Slightly wonky isometric perspective — intentionally imperfect, organic. * Moderate density — aim for 60–70% coverage of the frame. Leave intentional pockets of white space to let the eye rest. * Objects should have varied decorative fill patterns (dots, stripes, florals, grids, stars, hearts, cross-hatching, etc.) but not every single object needs one — some can be simple outlines. * Include organic filler elements (vines, leaves, flowers, clouds) sparingly to connect sections. * Include 3–5 small, simple figures of diverse people (different body shapes, hair textures, heights, abilities) interacting with the objects — climbing, pointing, carrying, sitting on, reaching toward. Keep figures stylised and minimal (no detailed facial features — just suggested expressions through posture and gesture). * No realistic shading. No gradients. No photographic detail. * The mood should feel playful, warm, and inviting — like an editorial spot illustration scaled up. Composition rules: * Format as a wide hero banner (1200×400px). * Ensure the composition is perfectly centred with safe margins — nothing cropped at edges. * Balance visual weight evenly left to right. * Use 2–3 larger anchor objects to ground the scene, with smaller objects and figures arranged around them. * Layer objects so they feel connected but not claustrophobic — overlap is fine, but each key element should be individually distinguishable. How to interpret content: * Do NOT illustrate literally. * Convert ideas into symbolic objects: * Behavioural science → levers, switches, pathways, branching decisions * UX / systems → screens, wireframes, grids, puzzle pieces * AI / robotics → sensors, robotic arms, eyes, signal waves * Data → charts, nodes, dashboards, magnifiers * Strategy / growth → ladders, keys, vaults, arrows * Summer / lifestyle → fruit, drinks, sun shapes, tropical elements * Transport / future tech → cars, tracks, networks, routes * Communication / alignment → megaphones, bridges, intersecting paths, swim lanes * Onboarding / journeys → open doors, winding roads, signposts, stepping stones * Then arrange all objects and figures together into one unified scene with clear visual hierarchy. Output: A single detailed illustration matching all rules above. No explanation. No text in the image. [PASTE CONTENT BELOW]