Marketing is all about communication. It builds trust with your prospective customers, nurtures relationships, and inspires them to purchase from you.
While you are probably using the popular marketing methods, such as writing blog articles, SEO, social media content, or paid ads, have you ever thought of your internal communications strategy as a fundamental aspect of your marketing?
It brings harmony and consistency to external communications and helps you humanize your brand.
Here is how to use internal communications in marketing.
Transforming Employees into Brand Ambassadors
According to some recent statistics, employees that work in a company they trust are eight times more likely to say where they work. They will repost your company’s social media content, share your blog posts, and take behind-the-scenes photos and videos.
In other words, they will become your most prominent brand ambassadors, helping you boost brand awareness, generate more sales, and attract top talent in the industry.
However, that initiative is not possible if there is no alignment between your internal and external communications teams. Consistent brand messaging gains customers’ trust and establish enduring and relevant brand-customer experiences.
Eliminating the Silo Mentality
One of the major problems companies face is the lack of communication and collaboration between their departments. The silo mentality can compromise the performance of your employees, as well as harm user experiences.
Let’s take a simple example. A user sees your latest marketing campaign and calls your customer service team to learn more about it. Not knowing anything about the marketing initiative, a call center agent puts a customer on hold. While they are manically browsing through a bunch of spreadsheets or talking to a marketing team, a customer is waiting. Chances are they will angrily give up, ditch a phone call, and never come back.
Your internal communications team can help here. Namely, one of their most essential tasks is to provide a wide range of internal and executive communication channels, such as instant messaging tools, video conferencing tools, email platforms, intranets, and so forth. For example, by integrating your office phone system with a CRM tool, your call center agents will be able to retrieve relevant data in real-time without compromising customer experiences.
IC specialists also plan, write, and edit content for internal communications media, such as blogs, regular email newsletters, or monthly magazines. That way, they ensure that everyone at the company is informed about the latest company events and initiatives. They bring employees together and eliminate the gap in their communication.
Enhanced Employee Morale = Customer Satisfaction
Internal communications impact customer satisfaction in multiple ways.
First, they provide your teams with clear guidelines on how to communicate. When merging internal and external communications, you will gain customers’ trust and increase brand recognition.
Namely, businesses should treat employees like their most loyal customers.
Unfortunately, many brands do not play by these rules.
You cannot use an impersonal and cold tone when communicating with employees and, yet, expect them to deliver friendly and effective service to customers. A solid IC policy ensures that managers communicate with their staff like they want them to talk to their target audiences. Once your employees feel valued, they will be motivated to deliver better results.
Helping You Build a Consistent Brand Presence
One of the top priorities of an internal communications team is to create a thorough internal communications plan that is in line with your brand values, culture, and image. It is a guide on how to communicate with coworkers and how to do that consistently.
The consistency of internal communications also enhances external communications. It ensures that your teams, including marketing, sales, and customer service, provide consumers with recognizable and on-brand experiences at every touchpoint.
Precisely because of that, it is essential to align external and internal communications. Create a cohesive brand style guide that applies to every team in your organization. Every element of your brand, from your tone to vocabulary, should be consistent.
Unified internal and external messaging will offer better organization alignment. Above all, you will harmonize and grow your brand image from the inside out.
Boosting your Employer Brand
Employer branding is not a new concept. Every company has it, but it not necessarily the one they want. For example, have you ever googled your business online to learn what your employees and candidates say about you? There are many business directories, job listing platforms, and employer review sites where your potential candidates can gain insights about your company.
Every review and rating, either positive or negative, is shaping your employer brand. Internal communications play a critical role here.
As mentioned above, the role of your internal communications team is to work cross-functionally with the HR department.
Internal communications specialists are responsible for creating an internal communications plan. That way, everyone in the team knows what behaviors are acceptable or not acceptable. That increases workplace transparency and enhances employee morale.
Second, an IC plan also navigates your HR team through candidate screening, interviewing, and onboarding. It ensures that this process is the same for everyone, ensuring the utmost transparency and candidate-friendliness.
Finally, internal communications associates work closely with them on planning and realizing internal events that have a direct impact on employee engagement and satisfaction.
These factors will help you strengthen your company culture and promote it externally. Both your candidates, employees, and partners will be satisfied with their status. They will start sharing the positive word of mouth about your company and, thus, strengthening your employer brand.
Once you position your business as employee-centered, you will not need to struggle with finding top candidates anymore. They will come to you.
Align Internal and External Communications for Greater Consistency
In the fast-paced era of digital communications, marketing goes far beyond your printed flyers, Facebook ads, or blog articles. It goes hand in hand with internal communications. Customers are more likely to purchase from relatable brands that share their values and missions.
Only by hiring an IC team, building a solid IC policy, and investing in the right tools will you be able to grow a recognizable brand presence from the inside out.
Above all, you will enhance employee satisfaction and turn them into brand advocates, which is immensely important for your brand image.
Leave a Reply