Early input from internal communicators adds value to marketing campaigns — and the employee experience.
Good external marketing campaigns include an internal component. Here’s how to make sure it’s being done effectively.
Sharing news and information about a marketing campaign shouldn’t be a transaction. As in, Our Great Company is launching a marketing campaign. We wanted you to be the first to know so here’s a sneak peek at the material!
Imagine how much more valuable it would be to employees — and the company — if instead, you showed employees what it means to them?
Start early
Don’t let the inclusion of the employee audience in a marketing campaign be an afterthought. Creating an experience for the employees instead of a transaction takes time. As soon as the marketing team starts planning tactics and timing, you want to start thinking about what aspects of the campaign are most relevant to the all employee audience and the best ways to convey that information and understanding.
A practical way to develop an appropriate communication stream for employees is to let the marketing team first sketch out the external components. After all, the external audiences (existing and potential customers) are what matter in marketing campaigns. Then, you can use that initial draft to sketch out the internal components.
Tip Think of the employee communication as a mini-campaign that is entirely dependent on the marketing campaign.
Build trust
If you don’t already have an active and positive working relationship with the marketing team, it can be difficult to get an early start on the internal components. It’s not uncommon for marketers to discount the time needed to plan for the employee audience or express concern about sharing the campaign plan in its early stages.
An effective way to overcome any obstacles like this and build trust is to speak directly with campaign lead. Ask him/her if you can attend planning meetings Reassure him/her that you won’t interfere with their process. You might not even say a word! Still, hearing what is being considered and planned will give you the input you need to effectively serve the all employee audience.
Once you’re able to draft a plan for the employee audience, walk the marketing lead through it. Demonstrate how you will:
- Help increase the value of the marketing campaign by using best B2E communication practices.
- Leverage what is being created for the external audiences so there’s little to no extra work for his/her team.
Give employees something they can use
A basic goal of the internal component of marketing campaigns is helping employees feel positive about how the campaign will benefit customers — and themselves as employees. The more ways you do that, the better.
Dinner conversations
Give employees 2 or 3 really short and interesting things to say about the campaign. Not tag lines or slogans. Factoids or insights that they’ll want to share with friends and family. Examples:
- “Our Great Company will be donating a dollar to ___________ for every tweet about the campaign. Last time they did that, we raised over $10,000!”
- “The idea for the new product started with a comment from someone in our accounting department!”
Numbers
Show all employees how marketing campaigns work — from the business perspective. Share the targets with them and then spell out the subsequent impact on the company if that target is reached. For example:
- Target: Have a net gain of 1,000 customers during the campaign.
- Impact: Increased annual revenue of $1,000,000 and creating at least 4 new positions in the customer service area.
Stuff
Sometimes people just like to get stuff, or as it’s often called, swag. You don’t want to overdo this tactic because it gets costly and also starts to lose it’s value. However, used strategically, it can be quite effective.
When deciding what swag to give to employees, ask yourself:
- Do you want employees to keep the item at work or at home?
- Do you want employees to wear the item?
- How long do you want the employee to use the item?
- What are the broader strategies you want to subtly reinforce? (For example, if you’re going to paperless reporting and customer statements, don’t give away pens and note pads.)
Tip Food may be an effective motivator but it’s a lousy marketing giveaway — unless it comes in a permanent container.
Get a conversation going within the company
Give employees reasons and ways to talk about marketing campaigns as they relate to their daily work and employee life.
Articles
A series of short and straightforward articles (no matter the distribution method by newsletter, intranet or other channel) throughout the campaign will help generate conversation. Especially if you take a “human interest” approach to each and include a soft call to action. An example:
- Each of five articles explores the campaign from a different employee perspective: sales, accounting, public relations, IT, legal. At the end, readers are encouraged to share how the campaign has impacted their work or conversations with friends and family.
All-employee meetings
If you have any town hall style meetings happening before or during the campaign, weave content about the campaign into the agenda. Try to avoid a “technical” explanation of the campaign and how it was created. Use it as an opportunity to showcase it as an example of how you do business. For example, if there were focus groups, that could show how you use data to make decisions. Or, it might be an example of collaboration across functional areas such as marketing, customer service, legal, finance and IT.
Posters
Something as simple as “Share your thoughts about Our Great Company’s latest campaign. Go to the intranet now!” posted in employee-only areas such as lunchrooms, printer stations and meeting rooms can be enough to get people talking.
Team meetings
Give supervisors and managers two or three conversation starters for their next team meeting. The goal is to help the team talk about the campaign in the context of their work. Examples:
- “Since the campaign started, have you noticed any changes in your work?” (Could apply to billing, customer service, IT support, marketing, sales, mail room)
- “Has the campaign changed the way you feel about Our Great Company?”
Tip These team conversations often bring to light workflow, workload or engagement issues that should be addressed. Encourage supervisors and managers to take action to resolve the issues.
Don’t forget to measure
Measuring customer or public response to a campaign is standard. Be sure to include a measure or two of employees’ experience as well, especially for large campaigns. Surveys, polls and comment boxes (electronic or physical) are some of the ways to gather that feedback.
