Introspection

Your most important audience is also the most overlooked: your own staff.

This is an extract from IMTW No 89.

Read on to learn why:

① Communicating a strong employer brand turns staff into your ambassadors.

② Any audience in your marketing plan should be analysed.

③ The UK wants a slice of the crypto pie but only for institutional investors.

④ Leaders in financial services continue to prioritise blockchain projects.

⑤ Naming should be entrusted to your Marketing team, not your Product team.

⑥ Flexibility may come at the price of being able to concentrate.

⑦ Good marketers don’t sell, they build trust and loyalty.

Whats new

Raconteur published a piece this week on the importance of internal branding.

① In short:

• “According to Gallup’s most recent State of the Global Workplace report, only 10% of the UK’s employees are engaged. The workplace consultancy found that, across Europe in 2023, 72% of the workforce was quiet quitting, 15% were loud quitting and 56% felt it was a good time to find a new job. There is work to be done in changing how employees feel about their workplaces, and it might well be the CMO’s job to do?this.”
• “Companies with powerful external brands – think Google, Lego, Netflix, or Nike – all benefit from having innovative and interesting products. But a lot of their success also comes from having huge workforce buy-in.?These companies have clear vision and mission statements, which are often summarised in quotable slogans or mottos. Netflix’s tagline ‘Watch what you want, when you want’, for example, echoes its commitment to flexibility and choice. For workers, this means flexible working policies and unlimited employee holiday allowance. Nike, meanwhile, is very particular about the language it uses to describe its staff. The sportswear giant says it employs ‘team-mates’ and talks about the entire organisation as if it were always working towards one collective goal.”
• “Creating and communicating a strong employer brand can not only boost engagement among your staff, but also turn them into brand ambassadors. If workers feel truly inspired by the company mission and vision, this can even continue once they leave the business and do wonders for future recruitment.”

Why it matters

This story matters because it highlights two blind spots in modern marketing. The first is that it is too often assumed that if marketing focuses on external audiences - primarily your prospective customers and partners - then internal audiences, your staff, will ‘get the message’; there is no need to cater specifically to them. Reader, there is.

The second is that - certainly in most companies I’ve worked - the responsibility for ‘internal’ comms is ill-defined. Often being left to an ad hoc arrangement between the senior leadership team, the communications people, and the head of HR. Rarely does anyone feel real ownership for it. As Gallup’s research makes clear, that’s a dangerous ambiguity.

Your staff should actually be your first and most important audience. Quite apart for the enormous benefits in terms of staff retention and attraction, the real prize here is that your staff are your best ambassadors, they’re the ones who are going to go out into the world - in person or online - and engage with your customers, your prospects, your partners, and other prospective hires. They are your brand. It’s critical that they feel proud to be part of that brand, that they can articulate it, and are motivated to do so.

What to do about it

Take action

The first market your marketing teams needs to conquer is your own team. On Monday, ask your head of marking to show you their strategy and messaging house. Are your staff - past, present and future - identified as a distinct target audience?

② This is critical because any audience or persona in your marketing plan should not just be identified but analysed. There are four key questions to answer:

1. What do you want to achieve with them? Likely attract and retain the best of them, then inspire them to be your loudest advocates.
2. Who are they? Would-class specialists in your business sector who could be prospective employees, current employees, or ex-exployees.
3. What do they want? In simple terms: be proud of their employer and share its vision and mission; feel valued and be able to explain your business easily.
4. What can you offer them? Attractive employer branding; regular and transparent communications; and an intranet that offers ‘a single source of truth’ to help bolster culture and consistency.

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For the rest of this issue, including points ③, ④, ⑤, ⑥ and ⑦, visit my Substack >

About

Written for leaders in finance and tech,?InMarketing This Week?is a showcase for news likely to impact them - delivered with insight on why it matters and ideas on what to do about it. It’s published every Sunday to give you a head start on the week. Read an extract?here, or subscribe to?have the full issue delivered straight to your inbox at six, before it's available anywhere else.