Why Internal Marketing Could Be the Most Important Marketing

Internal Marketing

Disney is one of the most effective brands of all time. Through its parks, films, and stores, every brand touchpoint induces the same magical feeling and inspires loyal brand advocates.

In a program called the Disney Difference, the company offers employees and their families free admission to the parks and access to employee-only areas, on-site daycare facilities, special employee events and more. Disney invests in benefits like these to give employees incentives and invite them into the brand experience.

The company clearly understands that happy, engaged employees work more effectively.

Employees, whether happy or grumpy, manage every moment along a customer’s journey. Employees are the brand, and entrenching them in the brand experience is the most effective way to build an army of loyal advocates.

Disney goes above and beyond to train employees and create an enjoyable experience for them, but that doesn’t mean your internal marketing plan has to go to these same lengths to be effective. You can do several things to engage employees without the help of a Magic Kingdom.

1. Give employees an authentic brand experience: When I worked at DIRECTV, the company made sure I became a fan by offering its service for free. My job was customer retention, and being a customer allowed me to become fully engrossed in the ins and outs of the product and deliver the best customer experience. Give your staff the opportunity to engage with your product or service, and they’ll convey a more authentic experience outwardly.

2. Communicate their roles in the bigger picture: For employees to feel tethered to a brand, they need to know how crucial they are to its success. After conducting extensive customer and employee research, we decided to do a brand refresh and introduce a new tagline that better exemplified what we do and why. Our service depends on designers, multimedia experts, technologists, and engineers (just to name a few), and we’ve grown through multiple acquisitions. Although we always beat the one-team drum, our new tagline—“The Art and Science of Engagement”—is what helped employees from finance to creative understand the importance of every team member’s role in delivering our brand promise.

– See more at: TSNN-Internal Marketing