375% ROI with Poppulo: Key Findings from Forrester’s TEI Study

A recent Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Poppulo, put real numbers behind something internal comms teams have known for years: that effective employee communication drives serious business value. 

For anyone who's ever had to justify a comms budget—or convince others that internal comms isn’t just about pushing out messages, it’s about making them matter and getting bottom-line results—this study is the kind of proof that changes conversations at the executive table. 

Just look at the key findings from the Forrester study, outlined in a recent webinar by Heather Bicknell and Kristy Alexander:

• 375% ROI over 3 years
• Payback period: < 6 months
• $4.18M in total quantified benefits over 3 years
• 2× increase in employee engagement reach
• 32 working days saved per user annually
• 5% reduction in communications staff turnover

Beyond ROI: Forrester’s Proven TEI Methodology

The Forrester study wasn’t your typical ROI calculation. The TEI framework goes much deeper, factoring in not just quantitative benefits and costs, but flexibility, risk, and qualitative benefits too. They focused on four large Poppulo customers, enterprises from industries like healthcare, marketing, tech, and packaging.

After interviewing internal comms leaders at each company, they created a “composite organization” that paints a picture of what most large companies are facing today.

Before Poppulo: A Familiar Struggle

Every comms pro will recognize the challenges these companies were up against.

They were juggling a patchwork of tools that didn’t talk to each other. Messages were either too broad to matter or too inconsistent to be trusted. Teams were stuck in the weeds, spending hours building email lists or formatting content instead of focusing on the strategic work they were hired to do.

And then there was the data problem: or rather, the lack of it. Without reliable metrics, internal comms felt like guesswork. Ultimately, when you can’t prove what’s working, how do you make a case for more resources? Or even hold your ground?

After Poppulo: Reach, Results, and Real-Time Feedback

Here’s where things turned around.

With Poppulo, employee reach improved dramatically. Better targeting and personalization meant messages were getting read, and understood. Employees spent less time hunting down information, which translated into $2.9 million in time savings over three years. That’s time given back to the business.

On the communicator side, automation and templating freed up serious capacity. Teams saved an average of 32 working days a year. That’s six and a half weeks of time reclaimed per communicator, worth about $1.9 million across the board.

And people noticed. With less admin and more strategic focus, job satisfaction went up. Staff turnover dropped. According to Forrester, that drop saved $492,400 in hiring and training costs alone.

The Intangibles That Matter Most

Some of the most meaningful changes weren’t tied to dollar amounts, but they still mattered deeply. Comms teams gained clarity and consistency. With everything centralized and performance data at their fingertips, it became easier to keep messages aligned across countries, departments, and roles.

Inclusivity improved, too. Poppulo’s cost-effective AI translation capabilities meant employees could receive updates in their preferred language—a game-changer, especially for workers outside of headquarters who often feel overlooked in company-wide comms.

The platform also proved itself in moments of crisis. When speed and clarity were non-negotiable, teams could communicate across multiple channels with confidence and consistency. That kind of agility can’t always be quantified, but its value is undeniable.

And perhaps unexpectedly, professional development got a lift. With repetitive tasks automated, comms pros had more time to think bigger—investing in training, collaborating across teams, or simply achieving a healthier work-life balance.

From Support Role to Strategic Driver

A truth that’s becoming harder to ignore: if you want leadership buy-in, it’s not enough to share anecdotes. You need to connect internal comms to business outcomes: cost savings, productivity gains, employee engagement, etc.

This study gives you a framework to do just that. But even more than that, it helps shift the perception of comms. It’s not a background function anymore. With the right tools and the right data, internal communications becomes a strategic driver of culture, performance, and change.

For teams looking to build their own case, Poppulo offers tools like an ROI calculator and tailored customer advisory to help translate these insights into action, whether you’re pitching for investment or fine-tuning what you already have.

One story from the webinar brought that to life: WPP, a global communications powerhouse, rolled out Poppulo in 2022. They were dealing with scattered tools and low engagement.

After adopting the platform, they doubled open rates, saw a spike in survey responses, and cut content creation time by 15 hours per communicator per week. The success didn’t stay siloed, it expanded to HR and change management, proving the platform’s broader value.

If you’d like to hear more about how Poppulo can help you drive a significant economic impact for your organization, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out here.