Your Most Important
Audience
Posted August 16, 2010
When I speak to marketing professionals, I ask them who their most important
audience is. Inevitably, most will say potential customers. When I shake my
head, they’ll offer up current customers. But it is a rare marketing person who
gets it right. It’s your employees.
If they don’t get it, don’t understand what your company is all about and
how you differentiate yourself in the marketplace, then it doesn’t matter what
kind of marketing materials you produce – you are going to disappoint.
Your employees are the ones who either keep your marketing promises or
don’t. It’s that simple. And they cannot keep a promise they don’t know about
or understand. But when budgets get tight, what’s often the first thing that
gets cut? Internal communications.
The other mistake we make is that we assume if we have told the employees
something once, we don’t need to repeat it. Imagine telling your child just
once “look before you cross the street” and then assuming they’ll be safe.
Ludicrous, right? The same principles apply to us as adults. If we really
want our employees to embrace our marketing efforts and the brand experience
we’re trying to create, we need to repeat and reinforce that message over and
over again. You should have an internal communications plan (or segment of your
overall marketing plan) that you follow and protect just as fiercely as you
would any other tactics.
Don’t just use formal vehicles like your intranet and employee newsletter.
Think beyond that to your employee recognition efforts, training opportunities
and informal staff meetings. How can you infuse your brand and marketing
messages into every day life at your company?
Bottom line, they can’t help you get there if they don’t know where you’re
headed.
