The forgotten audience—marketing to your own team
The forgotten audience—marketing to your own team

By on in Strategy

The forgotten audience—marketing to your own team

In an age when every marketing dollar is expected to show a quantifiable return, promotions aimed at your own employees can feel a little spongy. Or even wasteful. But we have two good reasons we’d urge you to shelve that perception and give it a try.

 

True story #1: All aboard a new campaign

Consider the case of a small technology reseller we know who set very high sales goals for themselves. Like many, they went big on multichannel lead-generation campaigns—but they did it with a few important twists.


Did it pay off? The 29% response suggests the campaign was on point, thanks to marketing and sales working together. But even more astonishing, a full 12% (of the list—not just the responses) converted.

First, because everyone knows that sales and marketing don’t get along, step one was to bring the teams together. Marketing asked what solutions sales wanted to promote, how they wanted to sell them and to whom. That’s right—they actually asked for dream accounts to add to the prospect list.

The shocking decisions didn’t stop there. Certainly, most marketers would say, “I have $X to spend, so I will maximize my response by spending every cent of it on my prospect campaign.” This unconventional team, however, decided to hold some of the budget back. Knowing that in technology consulting the business is the brand, they wanted to get everyone in the company excited. So they created a parallel campaign for everyone from the receptionist and accounting to sales and account managers.

Fun, branded premiums appeared on every desk. Posters conveyed campaign and brand themes. Lunchtime competitions and breakroom snacks got everyone playing together beautifully.

Did it pay off? The 29% response suggests the campaign was on point, thanks to marketing and sales working together. But even more astonishing, a full 12% (of the list—not just the responses) converted. We don’t know how much of that was due to the internal campaign, but we know that anyone who came through the switchboard was greeted by an employee who felt like part of the team, sales reps were proud of what the company was presenting, and everyone who worked on proposals, presentations, and delivery were on board.

 

True story #2: Healthy competition embeds a new brand

Any idea what percentage of your employees has actually read your brand book (not including the people who put it together)? Another company we know recently adopted a fresh brand—not just a unique look and feel, but a whole new way of approaching their business, based on deep prospect and customer research.

To launch the new brand, they sent every employee a link to their slick, detailed, 30-page guidelines. Very few even clicked. Those who clicked skipped the research recap and scrolled to the pictures. Then they got back to their own to-do lists.

Of course they did. It’s human nature.

But you know what else is human nature? Wanting to win even the silliest prize. So for a recent virtual all-hands meeting, the company created a quiz. Kind of like trivia night, but with much higher stakes. Suddenly, everyone cared about why a brand is important, how to use the tagline and what attributes their clients valued most. The winners got branded coffee mugs—minor yet coveted evidence of their mastery.

 

Maximizing your budget on faith

As margins and budgets shrink and higher-ups continue to demand proof that tactics work, a strong, unified brand and a strong, unified workforce are more valuable than ever. Clarity and consistency amplify your messages in a way that you may not be able to easily measure, but your audiences inside and outside the company can feel.