An Inside Job: The Importance of Internal Marketing

A friend of mine recently spent a lot of time and money developing a very good marketing campaign. He was very excited about the project and had seemingly done everything by the numbers.  He even tested the campaign before launching it, scoring very well with the test audience.

A few weeks after the launch he was dismayed.  The beautiful (and expensive) campaign had not yielded the results he had hoped.  Sales hadn't really increased.  Testing showed that even his reputation and similar scores weren't changing.

It wasn't until a customer cornered him and told him about the negative things that she had heard an employee saying about the company that my friend realized that he HAD NOT done everything by the numbers.  He had forgotten to market to his internal customers.  While he was sending out positive, marketing-focused messages out the front door, his staff (or at least some of them) were sending out negative complaint-focused messages out the back.  Any marketing who has been working in this field for 30 minutes can tell you that negative word-of-mouth trumps positive word-of-mouth almost every time.

My friend tinkered with his campaign to make it appropriate for his internal audience and shared it with his staff.  Slowly but surely, as his staff understood and bought into his campaign, sales started to improve.

In my blog It's All About Relationships, I talk about the value of developing good relationships with your customers.  The same holds true with your employees.  You not only have to treat them well as a "boss," but you need to keep them informed and up-to-date as potential spokespeople.  An informed employee is an extension of your marketing efforts.  A misinformed or uninformed employee is the worst enemy to your marketing efforts, often unintentionally.

Readers, please share any stories or tips you have on marketing to the internal audience!  Thanks!