In recent years, the world of marketing has been (and continues to be) completely redone and focused on digital technology and the Internet. This does not mean that its traditional type no longer matters, but the development of new technologies, combined with the adoption of new strategies, continues to accelerate.
You are probably familiar with many new trends, conditions and strategies in the current rotation, including knowing what:
- Inbound marketing: it is about attracting customers through relevant and useful content and adding useful information at every stage of the purchase for your client. Thanks to inbound marketing, potential customers find you through blogs, search engines and social networks.
- Outbound marketing: a more traditional form (or at least a variation of it with a longer story) where the company pushes its message to the audience. Outbound marketing is more focused on traditional forms of marketing and advertising, such as commercials, radio ads, print ads, trade shows, outgoing (cold) calls, etc.
- Accounting-based marketing: a new strategy and trend in the marketing world, which is gaining popularity and attracting a lot of attention. It is associated with the marketing of a certain company (account) or sometimes with an individual (usually depends on the complexity of the strategy) with a personalized message or content. The idea is that the more targeted efforts, the better the results.
These are just a few examples of the best strategies that can play a big role in the success of your advertising. However, one of the most important and growing forms of promotion is the internal and external marketing environment. It is he who is especially important for companies that seek to increase the flow of their customers and reach a wider audience.
Why is this so important?
One of the oldest and most common problems in business is the lack of consistency between sales and marketing. As a result, internal marketers often face a similar problem - the non-correlation of the internal marketing environment with the external.
Why is this a problem? According to experts, this can be very difficult to understand, but in the end it threatens the perception of the integrity of the company by employees. If your organization says one thing to employees, and the outside world tells another, staff confidence in the brand may be affected. Consequently, their participation and quality of work may also be affected. This can be felt in practice, because it can lead to the fact that employees will not be able to fully satisfy customer requests.
Encourage your in-house marketing target group to conduct relevant research and meet with relevant colleagues to coordinate messaging. This does not have to be the same — internal messages require a different language than the external, but the general information must be consistent. Make sure that the interaction exists before the team begins to create materials for the campaign, which is the next step in the promotion process.
What is internal marketing?
This type of marketing is the promotion of the goals, missions, products and services of the company to its own employees.
In fact, your company sells its products, services and brand to its own employees. In this case, instead of “selling” to the public or potential consumers, your organization sells to its employees.
The goal is to improve employee engagement, increase overall brand reach, and also understand that now employees can benefit potential customers because they believe and understand the goals and vision of the company themselves.
Internal marketing is based on the idea that the attitude of customers to the organization is based not only on the product or services, but also on their general experience with it. This may mean the interaction of customers with various employees in different departments (and not just with customer service groups) or the prospects of interaction with employees through social networks, email, forums, etc.
Traditionally, HR managers make external and internal marketing of staff, but in order to take it one step further, leadership initiatives will be needed first of all. This is important for success and, of course, for brand growth.
Providing exceptional customer service is just as important as providing exceptional products.
According to a survey conducted by specialists, 78% of consumers refuse further sales transactions because they received poor service. Even if they wanted to buy a product or needed it, they were so disappointed with working with a particular company that they postponed the purchase.
In this context, the actions of company employees can be considered as the most important elements of the internal marketing environment. They are in the first place, adapting the organization’s marketing strategies to the needs of each client with whom they work. Their attitude, appearance and approach communicate all the information about the company that they represent.
If an organization wants to provide an excellent customer service model, it needs to train its employees to ensure this. But the selection of a workforce that fully fulfills the goals of the company and enthusiastically perceives them is not as simple as some expect. Enterprises must make serious efforts to disseminate timely and relevant information so that each employee works to achieve common goals. Unorganized labor and the inconsistent relationship between them are simple ways to lose business. That is why the internal and external marketing environment are equivalent.
What is this marketing?
From the point of view of internal marketing strategy, employees are considered as “internal customers”, who must be convinced of the company's vision and configured in the same way as “external customers”. The goal of internal marketing is to coordinate every aspect of the internal operations of an enterprise in order to ensure the provision of quality customer service. If a company can operate in a consistent and standardized manner, it can provide the best service to its customers.
Internal marketing of staff is based on the idea that the attitude of customers to the enterprise is based on their experience of interacting with him, and not only on impressions of the products or services provided. Each time someone interacts with an employee, this affects their overall satisfaction. Everyone who works from the seller (up to the telephone technical support specialist) helps to shape the experience of a particular client. Therefore, customer satisfaction largely depends on the performance of the company’s personnel.
For example, Apple has a unique organizational culture that emphasizes innovation, creativity and experience. To promote it, management is very selective when it recruits employees, and works extremely carefully in the process of their training. Apple understands that the best way to promote the image of your brand is a positive image of every employee, especially those who work with clients. Anyone who was in the store of this company knows that employees are experts in the products they sell and are ready to answer an infinite number of questions. They are smart, open to dialogue and knowledgeable, which positively affects the reputation of the company as a whole.
Who controls this?
Workforce specialists typically lead internal marketing campaigns. And this is the right approach. Since internal marketing of staff is aimed at increasing the value of employees, the established communication between the organization and employees is important. Their main responsibility will be to disseminate information about the goals and strategies of the company, as well as training and support to help employees achieve these goals.
Strictly speaking, any organization can implement an internal marketing campaign. Even the smallest enterprises can train employees to design the vision and goals of the business. So, you can imagine a small bakery that trains its staff so that it is ready to welcome customers with a smile and a positive attitude when providing services. Aligning employee relationships with a business mission is crucial for any company that wants to interact with their customers.
However, usually these are large firms that invest most in the analysis of the internal marketing environment and develop appropriate strategies. Since their staff consists of a huge number of employees, who often work in separate departments and offices, the application of corporate culture is more difficult. Firms with thousands of R&D, sales, marketing, manufacturing and logistics employees must make a concerted effort to educate everyone on the company's marketing goals. Retailers, restaurant chains and other companies that interact with a large number of customers will be especially interested in internal marketing. They need to create an organizational culture that spreads throughout the organization and develops their own projects for customers.
The tactics and analysis of internal marketing should be in the following basic tenets:
- identify each area in which the organization comes into contact with the market;
- allow executives to provide feedback on internal marketing and personnel management;
- Use newsletters or your own video courses to disseminate information and strengthen organizational culture;
- make marketing strategy a feature of employee training programs;
- provide access to information as often as possible;
- create incentives for employees based on their productivity;
- strive to provide comprehensive and ongoing training programs for employees at all levels;
- put the brand as the basis of your arguments so that employees can connect it with their personal success;
- Use technology tools such as blogs, message boards, and Wikipedia to disseminate information about their activities;
- create individual marketing programs for each department, so messages for sellers will differ from information intended for IT personnel;
- Separate separately the success of employees when new beginnings or sales goals are achieved;
- encourage collaboration between departments.
Internal Marketing Environment Factors
Of course, with any good strategy that needs to be effective, you need to develop an action plan. This guarantees not only that you will not enter this process blindly, but also that you can find areas that may need to be improved or changed.
The tactics and system of internal marketing should be carefully laid out, and following the steps below, you will feel confident on the way to maximizing a reliable internal mechanism in your company.
It is important to form your team correctly
The initial involvement of HR department managers is important for the proper establishment of processes and communication with employees. However, in the first place, it is important that business leaders or executives better understand the essence and strategy of the brand. They will help to create a work culture, report on the mission of the company and it is best to hire employees specializing in certain products or services. Before you can start anything else, it is important that your team work together.
Rate your actions
As a rule, regardless of whether you have a formalized system, your company probably already has some form and system of internal marketing. Unfortunately, things may not be so good. This is the right time to identify and evaluate aspects that are considered internal marketing tactics.
From there, you can begin to understand whether the movement started, what should change and how to make it more correct, or you need to start from scratch. A good way to evaluate this is to interview all employees to find out what they know or don’t know, what are their views on the company, etc. This is very important in the aggregate, as it helps to start fixing any problems.
Aligning marketing messages and providing open training
After collecting the information, you can better coordinate the organization’s internal marketing and get everything centrally. Of course, it is desirable that employees have their own personal opinions when it comes to how they talk about the company, but they should all have a similar perspective regarding the product or services.
There should also be training sessions and open forums where employees can openly propose ideas, ask questions, and provide safe criticism. Having received this interaction, you will have confidence and create a dialogue between you and the staff. In addition, it allows your company leaders to share materials and encourage everyone to take action on behalf of the brand online and offline.
Make sure everyone is involved.
Again, a significant part of the new marketing allows employees to actively participate in online exchanges and interact through social networks, email, chat rooms, forums, etc. This is usually a huge part of internal marketing. Many companies simply try to send their staff a newsletter consisting of the latest content or news.
To facilitate the participation of all employees in this interaction (especially for companies of 200 employees or more), a program to protect their interests will be crucial for the effective work of internal marketing. It will be effective to create your own resource on the Web dedicated to this aspect. These platforms are used as a centralized location for posting useful materials, new information about the company, personal content from third-party sources and advertisements that employees can directly use in their social networks directly from a working platform.
When everything is up and running, keep working.
Even after you have a working formal internal marketing strategy, an excellent work culture, communication staff and online participation on behalf of the brand, you still need to be open to feedback and work on improving tactics.
Continue to conduct trainings or meetings for open discussions, adjust processes if something is broken, keep employees up to date and take their thoughts seriously. Understand that your work will never be too comfortable if mistakes or obvious improvements are missed. External and internal marketing of staff should work continuously and in a constant bundle.
How should the plan work
Marketing in the domestic market is one of its most complex forms. This is due to the creation of compelling and meaningful messages that are transmitted between each department and employees within the company. The best way to effective internal marketing is to create a comprehensive plan.
An example is Wachovia, one of the five largest banks in America. It was formed in 2001, after the merger of two smaller banks, forming a large financial organization, which suddenly had to create a corporate identity for itself and instill its workforce. To help them strengthen the image of the whole company, they developed a plan and their own internal marketing environment of the organization, which had positive results.
The first step of any plan is to set clear goals for your internal marketing strategy. It can be anything, starting from increasing brand awareness among employees. In the case of Wachovia, their goal was to provide excellent and uninterrupted customer service as they went through the merger of several banks.
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Before the plan is put into effect, employees need to obtain comprehensive data on its goals and objectives. Everyone in the company should know what the goals of a given plan are and how they will be achieved. Organizations can use departmental meetings, newsletters, corporate retreats, and blogs to help disseminate this information.
The plan should be available to any employee at any time. This step is important because internal marketing is aimed at raising awareness and focusing efforts. Employees should feel that they are participants in the plan, and their feedback and ideas should be respected.
Many companies also offer incentives, such as bonuses or extra vacation days, to help motivate employees to achieve goals. Wachovia appealed to its staff, offering extended maternity leave and benefits for families with children. They also concentrated their efforts on recognizing their employees as one of the reasons for their own success.
Once the plan has been put in place, professionals should carefully monitor and evaluate the results to determine if the event was successful. Many enterprise internal marketing efforts use surveys and employee feedback cards to understand how employees relate to the companies in which they work. Wachovia has developed its own research to track employee attitudes toward loyalty, job satisfaction and company policies. This helped them align their brand messages with their organization culture. Today, Wachovia has consistently received the highest customer satisfaction ratings compared to any other major banks.
Marketing communications experts are experts in developing messages that are informative and attractive. Their task is to find words, images and ideas that will best connect the company's marketing goals with the public. Usually these are customers, but in the case of internal marketing they are employees.
Education and experience
All professionals must have at least a bachelor's degree in marketing. Many of them also have degrees, supplemented by many years of experience in this industry. Additional training in public relations will help them in developing more effective marketing solutions.
HR managers serve as a link between the company and its employees. They will attract and train new employees, develop a corporate culture and respond to any problems that arise in the workplace. The dissemination of information about the policies, initiatives and goals of the company is another important feature of their work. Most internal marketing management methods use these departments to distribute their messages.
Any manager will require a minimum bachelor's degree in personnel management. A marketing degree is not needed, but it will be extremely useful. HR managers must communicate with employees in the same way that salespeople must convince customers. Further education in business administration or public relations can also be important.
Brand managers will oversee the marketing efforts for one brand. Their responsibility is to create identity for the brand and then communicate this to customers through advertising. They will consider everything from the way the product is packaged to its price and how it is presented in television ads. The brand manager will train other company employees in brand identity and marketing strategies.
Such employees must have an appropriate education. As a rule, this is a senior marketing position, and many brand managers provide training in advanced marketing strategies. The experience of managing a team and delegating responsibility will be crucial for any effective manager.
Internal marketing is one of its most difficult types, because employees have more information about companies and their products than any client. Insiders will always be particularly perceptive when complaints relate to products or services. Convincing a population of something requires a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to marketing. A diploma in advertising is vital for implementing effective internal marketing functions.
Final word
When employees believe in the brand and participate in the initiatives of your company, they will usually be motivated by their work and most likely will become influential marketers and sellers (supporters of the brand), disseminating information about your products.
That is why internal and external marketing and the presence of a competent strategy are crucial in the success of your company's brand. If employees are ignorant or unaware of the goals, products and services of the organization in which they work, there is a huge gap in efficiency with customers and prospects.
An important aspect that should be remembered when studying the internal marketing environment of an enterprise is that it goes far beyond initiatives in the field of human resources and communication. Thanks to the growth and importance of social networks and potential customers who can more closely study information online, your marketing managers can help other employees participate in various discussions.
The above should help you understand why internal marketing factors should be a top priority in your company. In addition, the above can help you adjust the current internal strategy (if it is already installed).