Marketing
You’re So Shallow: Balance Your Marketing Efforts with What’s on the Inside—Internal Communication
Monday, August 24th, 2009 | Internal Communication, Marketing, Public Relations | No Comments
As marketers, we are shallow and superficial. We work tirelessly to unveil our prized marketing campaigns to external audiences, but we fail to promote these campaigns internally, thus losing out on much needed field support and brand advocacy.
We all know that branding starts with frontline employees, and if they are not reflecting your brand, it could undercut your efforts to grow the company.
A few years back, I was working in the marketing department of a medium-sized corporation with a growing PR program. We were beginning to tackle bylined article placements and securing sources for trade articles, but when we would call our resident specialists, they would fail to return phone calls or even cooperate with our requests.
This problem stemmed from the lack of education about the PR function and the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) for helping out with the aforementioned articles.
After developing an internal communication vehicle where we could feature our latest PR and marketing efforts as well as explain a little more about the PR function, we started to see a rise in employee cooperation. Employees were now able to see the value in serving as a source for an article or writing a bylined article. They were able to see how a single placement could skyrocket their credibility.
By using internal communication mediums to better inform employees of marketing initiatives, you can produce an internal troop of brand evangelists and foster much-needed marketing support.
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