Internal Marketing: Importance, Strategy, Examples

These days, internal marketing is a crucial part of an effective marketing strategy, and it’s something businesses should prioritize. In its simplest terms, internal marketing is when an organization promotes its mission, objectives, culture, products and services, and brand to its employees.

When companies market internally, they typically have different goals and intentions than when they market externally. With external marketing, a company is seeking to promote its brand outside of its company’s physical confines in order to make connections with customers and stakeholders.

The goal of internal marketing is to keep employees engaged, share information about the company’s activities, and help ensure employees possess a positive view of their organization's culture and brand.

Additionally, internal marketing efforts can support employees in becoming brand ambassadors and advocates. In fact, brand messages reach 561% further when shared by employees vs the same messages shared via official brand social channels. In this way, a company’s employees can be seen as their most important marketing tools

Importance of internal marketing

Employee engagement

There are many benefits associated with having engaged employees including helping build a better work culture, reducing staff turnover, and increasing productivity. Internal marketing can help workers understand their place within the organization leading them to become more engaged, motivated, and productive in their roles.

Company culture

According to Inc., 73% of employees are more engaged when they believe they work for a purpose-driven company. When a company clearly communicates its mission and goals through internal marketing strategies, it will create an organizational culture that staff members are excited to participate in while also making the company a more positive place to work.

Employee retention

By 2030, the US is going to lose $430 billion annually due to low talent retention. Employees often choose to leave their company when they don’t feel valued or believe their organization is not a good culture fit for them.

Internal marketing is the perfect opportunity for leaders to remind their staff why their company is a great place to work and to highlight all the positive aspects of being an employee there.

Employee recruitment

Along with retaining employees, internal marketing is useful when it comes to recruiting new hires as it makes it easier to market job openings and attract talented employees. Effective internal marketing will show potential hires a culture of collaboration, communication, and positivity, making them much more eager to become a member of staff at the organization.

Internal marketing strategies

Cultivate a good marketing team

To ensure effective internal marketing, businesses must start by cultivating a great marketing team. A capable marketing team understands that internal marketing is just as important to a company’s success as external marketing and for this reason must be able to build up a business and its culture both inside and outside the organization.

Educate employees

Helping employees understand the history and mission of their company is an essential component of an organization's internal marketing strategy. Onboarding is the perfect time to introduce new employees to their new company and its corporate culture.

This might include presentations, videos, or graphics explaining how the company has grown and evolved since its inception. By helping employees to feel like they are part of something bigger, they may be more likely to participate in brand advocacy.

Create interactive content

Studies have found that interactive web technologies have been key to creating engaging platforms for employee communication, learning, and development. This will help build a strong internal brand identity that can power employee advocacy to your target audience of potential customers. Interactive content should be accessible to everyone on every device and easy to use, while also being creative and innovative to keep employees engaged.

Use intranet software

An organization's intranet facilitates communication, collaboration, and information sharing. An efficient intranet works as a marketing target as it will also drive and grow company culture and educate employees on new initiatives.

Depending on the organization, intranets can manifest as a website, internal communications platform, collection of collaboration tools, knowledge-sharing platform, or even a social network.

Employee recognition programs

An effective employee recognition program can be the central pillar of an internal marketing campaign. Employee recognition programs deliver vital data, nurture trust, reinforce company values, drive engagement, and promote excellence. Not only this but recognising employees lets them know their hard work is seen and appreciated by their employers.

Using the right HR software platform, you can design and manage suitable employee recognition programs.

Implement effective communication

A large part of internal marketing is good communication systems. Regularly sharing important information and updates across all levels of staff contributes towards encouraging employees to share the overall vision, goals, and values of the company.

Additional strategies to consider:

• Allow top performers to provide feedback on internal marketing and HR issues
• Use newsletters or in-house radio programs to spread information and reinforce organizational culture
• Create performance-based incentives
• Position the brand as part of a narrative that employees can relate to and participate in
• Use technological tools like blogs, message boards, and wikis to spread information
• Tailor internal marketing messages to each department
• Highlight success like new contracts awarded or sales targets met
• Encourage collaboration between departments

Examples of internal marketing

When it comes to implementing internal marketing into an organization, there are a number of simple but effective examples to try. Common avenues and channels for internal marketing include:

• Social media profiles
• Company websites
• Job listings and promotion opportunities
• Company benefits and perks
• Work-life balance initiatives
• Training and development opportunities
• Internal communications, including emails, instant messages, and phone calls
• Workshops
• Employee brainstorming sessions
• Company meetings
• Employee performance reviews
• Feedback opportunities
• Company news, updates, milestones, and achievements
  

Key Takeaway

Internal marketing is how a business communicates information including product updates, personnel changes, its mission and values, and more, with its employees. Just like external marketing, internal marketing needs to be professional and engaging.

When carried out effectively, internal marketing strategies will improve the employee experience, boost company loyalty and increase employee engagement, ultimately leading to a better-performing business. Employees that believe in the brand are more likely to be more motivated to communicate their enthusiasm to the clients and to become brand ambassadors on social media.