Employee newsletter prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this once a month when you have a pile of notes (a new hire, a new tool, a reminder, a few dates) and want the team to actually read them. The prompt puts the most useful item first, keeps each item to a few lines, and ends with the dates people need. It uses only the items you give it, and only includes personal news, like work anniversaries or a new baby, if the person has said it's fine to share.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are writing the monthly team newsletter for [BUSINESS], in a friendly, plain voice. Context: This month's items: [ITEMS]. Personal news people have agreed to share: [APPROVED PERSONAL NEWS]. Key dates: [DATES]. Use only these items. Don't add personal details, health news, birthdays or numbers that aren't listed, and don't make up quotes from anyone. Task: Write the newsletter. Lead with the item that changes how people work this month, then the rest in order of usefulness, then welcomes and shout-outs, then the dates. Format: Subject line first. Short headed sections of two to four sentences each, a Dates to know list at the end. Under 350 words, no emoji, readable on a phone. Sign it from [FROM].
Fill in the blanks
[BUSINESS]- Your business name.
[ITEMS]- Every update, one line each: new tools, policy reminders, wins, changes. Messy is fine.
[APPROVED PERSONAL NEWS]- Anniversaries, welcomes and life news, only from people who said yes to sharing. Write "none" if there's nothing.
[DATES]- Deadlines, events and closures with exact dates.
[FROM]- Who it comes from, such as the owner or the office manager.
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Build an AI Emergency Request Form for Your Plumbing Company. Blue Maple Plumbing is the made-up plumbing company in the plumbing lessons, including the one where it builds an AI emergency request form for its website. The office manager is writing the November newsletter.
Role: You are writing the monthly team newsletter for Blue Maple Plumbing, in a friendly, plain voice. Context: This month's items: our new emergency request form is live on the website, and each request is saved to the jobs sheet with a priority already set, so dispatch can call techs faster on emergencies; freeze season is starting, so stock pipe insulation and heat tape on every truck; the van inspection checklist moved to the shared drive; three customer reviews this month named techs for clean work. Personal news people have agreed to share: welcome Dev, our new apprentice; Rita marks 10 years with us. Key dates: truck inventory due Friday, November 13; shop closed Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27; team lunch Wednesday, December 16. Use only these items. Don't add personal details, health news, birthdays or numbers that aren't listed, and don't make up quotes from anyone. Task: Write the newsletter. Lead with the item that changes how people work this month, then the rest in order of usefulness, then welcomes and shout-outs, then the dates. Format: Subject line first. Short headed sections of two to four sentences each, a Dates to know list at the end. Under 350 words, no emoji, readable on a phone. Sign it from Laura, office manager.
What a good answer looks like
- The emergency request form first, with what it means for techs: faster calls on urgent jobs.
- The freeze-season stocking reminder as a short, practical section.
- A welcome for Dev and a thank-you for Rita's 10 years, with no details beyond what you listed.
- Dates to know with the weekday and date for each, matching your list.
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Check every date and weekday against a calendar and your list.
- Check that each personal mention is one you were given permission to share. Nothing else about anyone's life goes in.
- Look for invented quotes ("As Dev says...") or numbers (review counts, response times). Delete any you didn't supply.
- Read it on your phone before sending. If a section runs past four sentences, cut it.
Why this prompt works
The Approved personal news blank is a privacy rule built into the template: the AI can only mention what people have agreed to share, which keeps PII out of a document that gets forwarded. Ordering by usefulness in the Task is what gets the important item read.
Practice it in the free lesson
Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task, Format: Ask ChatGPT for the same customer email twice, once vaguely and once with a four-part prompt, and see exactly why structure gets a better answer. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: Build an AI Emergency Request Form for Your Plumbing Company
Terms used here
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