Internal communications: lessons from marketers

This article explains the philosophy that is at the heart of our approach to internal communications.

Our belief is that good marketing techniques work for internal communications too. To explain this, let’s look at four marketing tips, and how they can be applied to the internal communications function.

Clarify the ‘what’s in it for me?’ message

Marketers know this but internal communicators sometimes forget it. I have seen examples where all the message does is talk about more profits, higher sales and better share prices etc.

Sure, if a company improves its sales, profit or other indicators then staff will benefit. But sometimes this isn’t made clear, or is done in a very general way.

So why not spell out these ‘what’s in it for me’ points. Make them the main part of the message and make them specific. The chances are that this is what your audience is most interested in.

Focus on the problem, then the solution

In traditional marketing, this technique helps potential customers understand why they might need the product or service. Only then can you hope to interest them in your product.

In internal communications, explaining problems could mean . . .

. . . explaining that sales are down 10% and so there is a danger of redundancies. Then comes the key message: a temporary overtime freeze could save jobs.

 . . . explaining that orders are up 25%, but we are facing a big skills shortage in the job market, so we can’t recruit enough new people. Then the key message: we want everyone to work on Saturdays.

Help people to see why decisions have been made by management, or they might not buy into the solution. Some companies have even run economics classes so people really understand things like the effect of a strong pound on export orders.

So look for opportunities to explain the background and increase the chance that employees will accept change and get on with the task in hand.

Anticipate the objections

Even when good news is delivered, not all staff will welcome it.

Here are some examples:

A new shift pattern is presented as great news because people can earn more money . . .

 . . . but parents object because they would need to pay for extra child care.

A new computer system is introduced that will make everyone’s job a lot easier . . .

. . . but the last three system launches were all failures, so why should this be different?

So take the time to identify potential objections when writing your communications material. If possible, talk to some of your target audience beforehand to help understand things from their point of view.

How to get interactive

In all the years I worked in the internal communication function of a big company, one incident stands out.  It was the time when my colleagues and I received the most thanks for the way we communicated an important issue.

What was the issue we communicated so well? That there were major changes coming that could lead to heavy redundancies. Not a period when you’d expect much thanks to be in the air.

The reason people thanked us was that we did it through a line manager cascade system. People heard the news first hand from their boss. They all had a chance to voice individual concerns and ask questions.

It reminded me that that people usually want to receive important news from their own boss. (Ask people in your organisation about this in your next employee survey and see what they say.)

People like it when you communicate through line managers because they can interact. Good marketing campaigns often include elements of interactivity. They get people to give feedback, enter competitions or fill in surveys. The marketers do this so that they can gauge how a campaign is going and to gather data about people.

Ask line managers to deliver key messages to their teams in-person and you can get them to gather feedback. This can come straight back to you and you can then decide whether to issue more information, or clarify certain issues.

But be aware that line ‘cascade’ systems like this are only as good as the managers delivering the messages. The managers might need training and support. they will almost certainly need to see the senior team leading by example. Written briefs for managers are also essential to make sure that everyone is getting the same message.  So don’t cut corners. Take the necessary time to build an effective cascade system if it’s not already in place.

For more free advice and inspiration . . .

Use the form on our contact page to request your free information sheet with two more articles:

·         An easy-to-use seven stage communication process.

·         How to create effective feedback systems.

NOTE: I operate a careful privacy policy. I will never sell or rent your email address or other contact details to anyone else. You will never get mail from other organisations as a result of requesting free information sheets. You might receive additional information from us from time to time, but this won't happen often and you will be able to ask that we stop sending you emails at any time. In short, I hate spam and I will never send any.
Richard Groom, Owner & Senior Writer    

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Ó Sally Newman & Richard Groom 2003