🚨 Common Problem

How to Fix: Community Digests Take Hours to Create

Spending 3-4 hours every week manually creating email digests

The Problem

Manually creating weekly email digests or newsletters for your community can quickly eat up 3-4 hours each week. Community managers often spend time gathering top posts, summarizing conversations, formatting content, and scheduling emails. This manual process is repetitive and prone to errors or missed highlights.

Managers may feel overwhelmed by the volume of content to sift through and the pressure to deliver a valuable, visually appealing digest. Common symptoms include late or inconsistent sends, skipped weeks, and burnout from repetitive tasks. The result is a newsletter that feels more like a chore than a community builder.

Why This Happens

This problem often happens because most community platforms do not have built-in digest automation or intelligent content selection. Managers are left to manually collect posts, copy-paste content, and format emails using basic tools.

A key mistake is treating digest creation as an afterthought, without a clear process or automation in place. The psychology behind it is that managers want to ensure quality but do not trust automated tools, leading them to micromanage every detail. Platform limitations like lack of integrations or automation features make the task even more time-consuming.

⚠️ The Impact

If this issue is not fixed, managers risk burnout and may deprioritize digests, causing inconsistency or complete lapses. Members miss out on key updates and highlights, reducing overall engagement and connection.

From a business perspective, inefficient digest creation wastes staff time, increases costs, and leads to lower community satisfaction and retention.

Quick Fixes (Start Today)

  • 1 List your digest sections and create a reusable template in your email tool.
  • 2 Schedule 15 minutes daily to bookmark top posts for the week.
  • 3 Use your platform's export or summary features to collect content faster.
  • 4 Batch similar tasks like copy-paste and formatting to speed up workflow.
  • 5 Set a weekly reminder to gather highlights before your digest deadline.
  • 6 Ask moderators or active members to suggest content for the digest.
  • 7 Use an automation tool to pull recent posts into a draft email.

🎯 Long-Term Strategies

The strategic approach is to automate as much of the digest process as possible. Start by defining clear criteria for what should be included in each digest - such as top posts, trending topics, or upcoming events - and use tools that can pull this content automatically.

Proven methods include using community management platforms or plugins with digest automation, setting up templates, and batching content selection throughout the week instead of all at once. Best practices also involve testing formats, using analytics to see what content performs best, and iterating on feedback from your community.

  • Adopt a community platform or tool with built-in digest automation like StickyHive.
  • Standardize your digest process with templates and documented workflows.
  • Train moderators or ambassadors to help curate and nominate content each week.
  • Analyze engagement analytics to refine digest content and improve value over time.

🚀 How StickyHive Solves This

StickyHive makes digest automation simple. With features like auto-curation of top posts, one-click newsletter assembly, and customizable templates, StickyHive reduces digest creation time from hours to minutes.

You get consistent, engaging digests without the manual grunt work - just review, tweak, and send. Save time, boost engagement, and let StickyHive handle the heavy lifting. Try StickyHive today to transform your community communication workflow.

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