Internal Marketing for Engaging Your Employees
Marketing isn’t just about getting the attention of your customers (even if that’s how most people think of marketing). There’s also the challenge of marketing your customer to your employees. This is what’s often referred to as internal marketing—providing activities or other resources that will emphasize your company’s mission, objectives, and value to the people who work for you.
I know what you’re thinking: Why do I have to market my company to my employees? They work for the company! They don’t need to be sold on anything.
But stop and think for a second. Do you really not need to sell your employees on the value of your company? Or is it actually just as important to get your employees to recognize the value of your company as it is to get your customers to believe it?
Remember that your employees are your most valuable asset. They’re more important than your brick-and-mortar location, and they’re more valuable than any media you use for marketing. Your employees are the ones who make your business run, who engage with your customers every single day, and who do all of this because they believe in what you do.
Internal marketing to your employees accomplishes several important goals, so let’s take a quick look:
Internal marketing gives your employees a stronger sense of belonging because they have an in-depth understanding of your company. It’s hard to be passionate about something if you feel as if you’re out of the loop.
Internal marketing helps you retain top talent because your team members are constantly reminded of why they work for you. This will also help you save on hiring costs, as things like recruiting talent and even training new hires costs a lot of money.
Internal marketing improves productivity because motivated employees tend to have a better time of focusing on everyday tasks and long-term goals.
It’s important to remember, however, that the strategies you use for external marketing—that is, the marketing you’re using for attracting customers—is different from your internal marketing efforts toward your employees. In fact, if your internal marketing tactics feel too hokey, there’s a chance it will have the opposite effect and turn your employees off. You can’t simply show them an image or video with a feel-good message about how your product or service changes people’s lives. Instead, you have to help them understand what it means to be a part of your company mission.
These are some important methods you can try if you want to improve your internal marketing efforts:
Start by educating your team about your brand
This is something that’s usually done during onboarding or new employee training. Give your employees a brief history of your company, highlighting how your operations and your mission have changed over the years (if applicable). This gives your employees a better appreciation of how your company got to where it is now and why it’s current mission is relevant. If you’re doing this education portion during new employee training, this would also be a good time to give a team member some employee swag, such as a shirt, hat, tumbler, or mug. This merchandise helps your employees feel as if they are part of a community.
Be sure to show employee appreciation
Once your team members feel as if they’re part of your company community, it’s important that they see your culture is an appreciative one. Your employees want to feel valued. Make sure their work gets noticed and praised. Employee appreciation can take several forms, but common ones are notes of gratitude (a simple “thank you” for a job well done goes a long way), incentive programs (a little bonus always feels good), and award events (give outstanding employees the shoutout they deserve). This shows your employees that their efforts are noticed and they mean something.
Use communication wisely—give them the info they need and want, but don’t waste their time
Communication is valuable because it provides people the information they need to get their job done properly. More importantly, employees who are kept out of the loop will get frustrated and even feel as if they aren’t valued. After all, if they’re important, wouldn’t they be given important updates? However, we’ve all had to sit in a meeting that could have been an email, or we’ve been part of an email thread where everyone wants to hit “Reply All”. Bombarding your team with unnecessary information could have the opposite effect. So integrate all company communication with a streamlined app like Slack, thus ensuring all the information is available, organized, and conveniently accessible.
Make time for team bonding.
Finally, don’t neglect consciously creating times when your employees can get together for something other than work—let them have the chance to get to know one another. This will create a stronger sense of teamwork and will even make the workplace a lot more fun.