As we move through our Marketing 101 series, one critical element that most businesses forget is the importance of internal marketing. In this blog we’ll discuss what internal marketing is, why it’s important and provide some tips and tricks to ensure you reap the benefits of having an internal marketing plan.
WHAT is Internal Marketing?
Internal Marketing refers to the process of promoting your company’s goals and vision to your team. Marketing efforts are not limited to advertisements, websites, social media marketing, etc. Marketing includes the whole customer experience, and it’s incredibly important that your employees embody and advocate for your brand at all levels of the organization in each department. This includes administrative, finance, operations, project management, etc.
Does this apply to every employee?
Yes! It is very important that each employee has a marketing component written into their job description. By clearly stating each employee’s marketing responsibilities, it will help them tailor their day-to-day activities, ensuring your marketing efforts are being embodied throughout your organization on a daily basis.
REM’s Internal Marketing Strategy
I have to give credit where credit is due, REM has built an internal marketing plan that is not only highly effective, but truly captures the essence of our company. At REM Web Solutions we take pride in customer success. Every tool that we build, every design we complete and every phone call/email that we take from our existing clients or prospect clients is geared towards ensuring our customers know that they are our priority.
The 7 Guiding Principles at REM
Customer Success Comes First
A successful customer simultaneously demonstrates our worth in the market and our strength over our competitors.
Take Ownership
REM leaders own solutions. We demonstrate our solutions by owning the problem first.
Think More
There is always another option. Always. Find it.
Improve Everything
Good enough is only good enough for now. We improve on everything we know and do every chance we get.
Congratulate the Victory
Amplify our momentum with positive recognition.
Persevere
In the face of debate, challenge and confusion, we push forward. We make it through.
Customer Success Comes First
A successful customer simultaneously demonstrates our worth in the market and our strength over our competitors.
Our team at REM lives and breathes these guiding principles, if you’ve had the opportunity to come to our office, you’ll see them in large letters across our front wall. Every day that we go into the office we see them and it gives us a little pep in our step knowing that what we do is making a difference if we follow these principles.
Motivation is Key
It is a simple practice to market internally, however the most important part of internal marketing is having a plan to ensure that your marketing efforts are being heard and practiced. Yes, we have our guiding principles, but how do we ensure that they are continuously applied in our day-to-day activities? We motivate each other. Every quarter we nominate our peers when they embody the guiding principles. Based on the amount of nominations we get from our peers, we can “cash them out” for company perks such as extra time off, paid group lunches, etc.
Internal marketing is important, and we suggest that you implement tactics within your company to ensure your employees have a clear understanding of your mission and values. When your employees believe in your company, it will translate into their everyday dealings with your clients, and your clients will in turn see the benefits of working with your business.
Where to Start?
Now that you have a bit of knowledge on internal marketing, where do you start? Talk to your employees, whether it’s a meeting with your upper management for each department, or if you’re a smaller business with a close-knit team have a group meeting or one-on-one session and get their feedback. Ask them the questions… do they know what the company’s mission and values are? Do they feel like they embody your brand? Do they feel like they have the tools to ensure that your customers understand your mission? Once you have your feedback work on building out internal marketing practices!
Once you have built an internal marketing plan, share it with us! We would love to hear about how you went about creating yours, what worked and what didn’t work. If you’re looking for more ideas, feel free to reach out to us and maybe we can pass along some advice!
Remember, customer success comes first… we’ll do our best to help you where we can!
