Companies that aim to provide a high-quality customer experience need to have an internal marketing strategy. Without internal marketing, no company can expect to create a consistent brand image and identity that will effectively contribute to future growth.
What Is Internal Marketing?
Internal marketing involves treating employees as internal customers; more specifically, as individuals who must be convinced of a company’s mission to the same extent as external customers. Internal marketing is based on the concept that the view that a customer has of a brand is formed from the whole interaction they have with the brand. More specifically, it is not just the quality of the product that matters but the entire customer journey. Every time a customer interacts with an employee, whether they are a salesperson or a manager, their opinion of the brand will be impacted.
The goal of internal marketing is to create a cohesive company identity, to ensure that employees share in the goals and ideals of the organization, so they can provide a consistently high customer experience. Internal marketing also helps you to ensure that your employees are as connected and aligned as possible with the goals and values of your organization.
How Internal Marketing Is Developed and Implemented
Developing a mindset for internal marketing presents a formidable challenge. To ensure the implementation of a highly effective marketing strategy, it’s essential to craft a well-structured plan.
Research
Before a business can start planning an internal marketing strategy, it will need to conduct internal research. Your research should consider the current mindsets of your employees and their levels of engagement.
Inpulse.com offers a range of surveys and analytics that can inform your marketing strategy. It can also be useful to spend a little time researching your competitors’ internal marketing strategies so you understand more about what is effective in your industry.
Set Clear Goals
The next step is to identify clear goals for your strategy. The specific goals you set will depend upon the findings of your research and your business aims. Goals might include increasing internal awareness of your brand identity or marketing aims.
Create a Plan
Once you have identified the aims of your internal marketing strategy, the next step is to create an action plan. This plan can be as complicated or as simple as your goals require it to be.
Educate Employees
Before you can expect to see the effects of your internal marketing plan you will first need to educate your employees. For the plan to be effective, every employee must be aware of the goal of the strategy and how these goals are expected to be achieved. It is also important that you make this plan easily accessible, so employees can reference it when needed.
Track, Evaluate, and Reward
Once the plan has been put into action, organizations must track the progress that is being made. It is also useful to incentivize employees by offering rewards and commendations to individuals or departments that are achieving their internal marketing targets.
