Remember your neighbourhood grocer? Have you wondered how each employee in his store is aware of the products and their prices in exactly the same manner as the others? And how all of them talk the same way and are motivated enough to convert each prospect that walks in into a fulfilled customer?
This is internal marketing at play.
While it has been prevalent for ages through traditional channels, organisations are waking up to the way they communicate information to their employees in a more structured and formal manner. There are various types of information that need to be communicated in an organisational context — about the company’s products, their retail availability, geographical presence, and so on. It is believed and proven that the more knowledgeable the company’s employees are about their products, the easier it is to execute a sale. Hence, more and more organisations are taking to internal marketing.
Employees as brand ambassadors
Communication leads to higher involvement that, in turn, leads to higher morale. The central idea of internal marketing is to make your employees brand ambassadors for your products. If each employee understands the benefits and intricacies of the company’s offerings, they will be able to talk to prospective customers and explain the advantages clearly. Also, knowing the company’s mission and vision makes it easier for them to talk on the organisation’s behalf. The credibility and sense of ownership is higher, and this helpsthe company acquire more customers and notch up increased business.
In this regard, a company’s employees can be seen as its most important marketing tools. These employees are on the frontline, modifying the company’s marketing strategies to the requirements of each customer. Their attitude, appearance and methodology all convey something about the company that they represent.
It is all about service. In a scenario where providing exemplary service is a strong differentiator among companies (even for product organisations, this is becoming important), internal marketing is fast gaining ground.
If a company wants to provide an exemplary customer experience, they need to train their employees to provide that experience. But creating a workforce that is educated about the company’s goals and enthusiastic about meeting those goals is not as easy as some would expect. It is tough to train employees towards a common goal. Employees need to be sufficiently convinced and motivated to talk about the company’s beliefs. A disorganised workforce and an inconsistent marketing message are easy ways to lose business.
Who can use it?
While any company can implement an internal marketing campaign, it is difficult to do so in larger organisations, given the size of the workforce. They often work in disconnected departments and offices, making it challenging to enforce a company-wide culture.
Firms with thousands of employees working in R&D, sales, marketing, production and logistics must make a concerted effort to educate everyone about the company’s marketing objectives. Internal marketing should be a must for retailers, restaurant chains and companies that have an external customer interface.
And how?
Apart from simple training, a few other ways to do internal marketing include: encouraging employees to do better at work, recognising their contribution publicly, ensuring intranet or effective information flow among departments, and clarifying employee expectations.
The plan
Each internal marketing campaign is unique — it should have specific goals, which could range from increasing awareness to training for product sampling or even direct sale of the product. Whatever the goal, it is important that the company adopts measurement systems to track the performance of its internal marketing campaign.
In the long term, this will ensure that customers and employees strike deals more amicably and enjoy sustained relationships.