Internal marketing is a process that focuses on promoting a business's organizational culture to its employees within the organization. Internal marketing is an essential part of an organization's overall marketing efforts. Ensuring employees' alignment with the business's values, culture, objectives, goals, and visions is vital to pave the way to success. Generating positive brand advocacy is critical to influencing brand awareness, brand reputation and driving sales. An employee or customer who continuously promotes the business through their network using tools such as content, social media, email, word-of-mouth, and other forms of communication without an incentive demonstrates support and even influences others to purchase the business's products or services. Internal marketing is essential to establish as it creates a positive work culture and environment and motivates the workforce to achieve set initiatives.
Internal marketing is centred around employee engagement. A company's employees should be at the heart of its operations so that workers feel connected to each other and form a stronger connection to the organization. When employees come to work, they want to feel heard, seen, and valued and work cohesively with other team members to accomplish big goals. For employees, achieving the business's goals is also a significant achievement for them.
According to Gallup's State of Employee Engagement, only 21 percent of employees are engaged in the workplace, and 19 percent are actively disengaged in the workplace. This means around 60 percent of employees are neither engaged nor disengaged. This means that employees are not fully involved or lack enthusiasm for their work and workplace. To have better internal marketing and increased employee engagement, the business could supply employees with better tools, give more individual attention, provide development sessions, listen to employees, encourage social activities, engage in projects to help others and more!
Did you know?
77 percent of executives say that their companies don't focus on aligning employees' goals with a corporate purpose.
We will explore the concept of internal marketing in more depth below and include the benefits, best practices and how it can be implemented effectively.
There are a variety of benefits that internal marketing provides a business. Successful internal marketing has wielded the following benefits:
Higher Job Satisfaction
When a business's employees feel respected, appreciated and valued, you are more likely to see their work improved. Employees that feel valued give you more in return as they are motivated and engaged in their work. When promoting a business's organizational culture, internal marketing from employees can help to form a positive work environment, boost morale and even wield higher job satisfaction. Globally, having a meaningful job or employment is the most significant source of happiness from 43 percent of respondents in a worldwide happiness survey.
Increased Retention & Engagement
Employee turnover can be a significant challenge for businesses, especially in today's market. In order to promote internal marketing and reduce the risk of losing talented employees, businesses need to create a positive work environment and a success-driven team. According to Gallup, companies with high employee engagement outperform their peers by 147 percent in earnings per share. With better employee engagement and retention, employees are more likely to stay with a company if they feel connected to the organization and its values. Engaged and motivated employees are more productive, have better performance, enjoy their work and can contribute more solutions to increase a business's revenue.
Higher Customer Experience & Satisfaction
Internal marketing can help departments and team members communicate more consistently and collaboratively. By improving communication within a business, customers can better understand the products and services of the company. Employees with a clear understanding of internal operations can handle customer touchpoints more efficiently and effectively. By aligning employees with the business, they can deliver upon customers' needs, requirements, and expectations, thus setting high standards for customer service. Gallup reports that companies with highly engaged employees see a 10 percent increase in customer ratings.
Higher Recruitment Outcomes
Strong internal branding can attract top talent to a business, as potential employees are drawn to businesses with a strong reputation, culture, positive environment and even more additional benefits/perks! Businesses with strong cultures saw a four times increase in revenue growth.
Positive Brand Reputation
A positive workforce can help create a positive brand image and environment. Highly engaged and happy employees are more likely to speak positively about the business to others, including potential customers and candidates. This can attract top talent long-term and improve the business's current reputation. It has been proven a strong brand reputation yields 2.5 times better stock performance when compared to the overall market. And a 1-point increase in reputation yields a 2.6% increase in market cap, translating into an average of $1 billion.
Increased Productivity & Profitability
Internal marketing can develop an employee's sense of purpose, vision, and belonging, leading to greater productivity and improved ROIs. On average, a happy, engaged workforce will increase your sales by 37 percent, improve productivity by 31 percent, improve accuracy on specific tasks by 19, and increase the health and longevity of your employees.
Outlined below are the following best practices for promoting better internal marketing:
Clear & Consistent Messaging
According to research from Lucidpress in partnership with Demand Metric, the average revenue increase attributed to brand consistency is 23%. According to McKinsey, companies with strong brands consistently outperform the market average. The company's messaging should be communicated and reinforced to all employees over time. This ensures everyone is on the same page about values, culture, goals and objectives to achieve the overall shared vision.
Fostering Transparency
Developing a culture of transparency and open communication can motivate and encourage employees. A business that has a clear organizational culture makes it easier for employees to understand and communicate with others. Businesses with the most robust ethical cultures outperform their peers by 40 percent across metrics like customer satisfaction, employee loyalty, innovation, adaptability and growth.
Encourage Employee Participation
Highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability. Employee participation is essential for effective internal marketing. With involvement from employees, a business can promote its marketing effectively. A key element of ensuring everyone is on the same page is engaging employees in the business's decisions. Employees should be encouraged to have their voices heard since this gives others valuable insight into their perspectives on the direction of the business. Employees that participate in helping input them to create a sense of ownership and commitment to the business's organizational culture.
Celebrating Achievements
Recognizing employees and celebrating business contributions can help to reinforce your business's organizational culture and help to build strong morale within the organization. Organizations with recognition programs had 31 percent lower voluntary turnover than those without.
Employee Training & Development
Over 94 percent of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development. It is critical to recognize the importance of investing in employee development and training sessions as it is essential to successful internal marketing. Employees who feel that their employer values their personal and professional development become more confident in the business. An employee who feels valued contributes to the enhancement of productivity, improves morale, experiences higher levels of job satisfaction and develops a more profound sense of belonging to the business.
Create A Positive Environment
Around 94 percent of entrepreneurs and 88 percent of job seekers say that a healthy culture at work is vital for success. An environment that promotes work-life balance, health, wellness, and employee satisfaction creates a positive environment that supports its employees. Everyone in a business should contribute to creating a positive and safe work environment, as it can help foster a sense of belonging and loyalty among employees.
Several steps are outlined below on how to implement internal marketing effectively.
Defining Organizational Culture
Company culture is an essential factor for 46 percent of job seekers. Before marketing a business, it is crucial to define your business's culture. This is the first step to doing internal marketing successfully. Identifying what the business is, what it stands for, what it hopes to accomplish and the process it is going to use to get there is essential to clarify. Clarifying the organizational culture makes it easier to communicate to current or new employees that can buy into and promote the business.
Effective Communication
Over 86 percent of employees and executives cite ineffective collaboration and communication as the leading cause of workplace failures. Many businesses fail to recognize the importance of effective internal communication before they attempt to do their marketing. It is essential to use clear, simple and concise communication that is easy for employees to understand. Several communication channels can be utilized, such as social media, email, newsletters, the internet, and more, to keep employees informed of the latest news, updates and events.
Internal Leadership
Hiring leaders internally boosts the success rate by 25 percent. A critical business position and internal marketing strategy rely upon its leadership. Leaders are examples of a business's organizational culture. Leaders are in a position to influence, motivate and lead others to achieve the commitment made by the business's defined culture. When leaders are committed to a business's cause, employees are likelier to follow in toe, as they are inspired to achieve the shared vision.
Employee Recognition
Only 36 percent of employees report their organization having some recognition system in place. Another vital aspect of internal marketing is rewarding and recognizing employees for their efforts. By acknowledging and rewarding employee achievements, businesses can foster higher employee motivation and engagement and create a more positive work environment. An employee of the month programs, performance bonuses, team outings and trips can all be a part of rewarding employee performance.
Encouraging Employee Engagement
Encouraging employees to engage with their work and each other is critical to the success of internal marketing efforts. Businesses need to provide opportunities for employees to share their ideas, thoughts, feelings, and feedback and participate in team collaboration and decision-making processes. Over 89 percent of HR leaders agree that ongoing peer feedback and check-ins are the keys to successful outcomes. Furthermore, training and developing employees can make them more capable of learning, supporting, and contributing, which is essential for the effective implementation of internal marketing.
How Kreatipedia Helps
Kreatipedia can create a unique internal marketing strategy for your business! We will dramatically change your work-life culture to be more positive, build a more robust internal brand and lead your business to increase its ROIs, bringing you closer to achieving your organizational goals.
Reimagine Your Internal Marketing!
Our marketing services provide your business with the ability to create a positive environment and foster a customer-focused, innovative and educational culture where employees feel supported, respected and valued.
Contact one of our marketing experts Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm EST at 905-901-0377 or by email at info@kreatipedia.com and see how Kreatipedia can help your business stand out today!