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Welcome to the The Marketing Source e-newsletter! Our goal is to provide
you with real-world marketing tips.If you have any ideas for articles,
please send them along.
Heat Up Your Brand by Firing Up Your Employees Fire
You've created your brochures, put your company on line, and launched
a public relations campaign. It worked: leads are pouring through the
door. But many of those leads just aren't converting into sales. What's
up?
The answer may be in your own backyard. Whether you are a multi-national
conglomerate, small business or a non-profit, motivating your employees
to embrace your cause and your company is good business.
A Gallup poll shows that if all of your employees were "fully engaged" your
customers would be 70 percent more loyal, your turnover would drop by
70 percent and your profits would jump by 40 percent. Who wouldn't like
those kind of results?
Burning Passion for Your Brand Doesn't Just Happen
It's a common misperception that anyone getting a paycheck automatically
knows about - and jumps on board with - your corporate and marketing
philosophies. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most companies
and organizations do a horrendous job of inspiring and training employees.
Face it - an orientation that consists of a visit to HR, some policy
manuals and a couple of days with a veteran staff member doesn't do your
brand justice. And in most workplaces, internal marketing aimed at existing
employees is non-existent.
The Container Store is a Dallas-based privately-held company specializing
in selling boxes, bins, and everything in between to help consumers organize
their stuff. A relatively small company, with just 37 locations in 12
states, new Container Store employees are given more than 240 hours of
training in their first year compared with the industry standard of 7
hours of training per new employee. Employees are paid two to three times
more than the industry average. And they receive a generous 40% discount
for anything purchased at the Container Store.
Do you think employees are talking up The Container Store and helping
customers any way they can?
Part of your job as a marketer is to make employees ambassadors for
your brand. Shower them with the recognition, opportunities, rewards
and inspiration of a well-conceived internal marketing campaign and you
can develop a team of shout-it-from-the-rooftops employees who are on
fire for what they do.
Spark the Fire
- From the moment they walk in the door, new employees should "feel" the
brand. Welcome them with goodies (hats, t-shirts, whatever), but
go beyond that. Immerse them in activities that show how your organization
helps customers - let them see firsthand why what you do is important.
- Jump start a campaign for existing employees. Hold a meeting, give
out company stuff, set out some goals. Make it a big deal.
Jaguar created a program called "Jaguar
Brandmaster" where
employees can work through six levels of accreditation. A series of training
programs and tests, allows sales people to achieve higher levels of pay
or other rewards in accordance with their Brandmaster status. This creative
program plays off the human desire for status, as well as the desire
to be the best at what they do.
Keep the Fire Burning
- Involve all departments in branding through orientation and
ongoing meetings (or at least updates) about the company and marketing
activities. Every single employee - from HR to customer support to IT to finance
- should understand what your company does, how it helps customers
and what makes it great.
- Reward employees for promoting the brand. Pay them
for customers they refer, offer points or rewards for volunteer
activities (like working at trade shows or special events) and recognize
outstanding performers publicly.
Workforce
Week reports that 65 percent of employees say they receive
no job recognition. The simplest kinds of recognition - a banner, employee
of the month, a handshake (or even better, a lunch) with the CEO - can
have a tremendous impact.
- Harness employee creativity. Ask your employees - especially those
on the front lines - how to do things better, faster, cheaper and how
to make customers happier. Sound basic? Most companies don't do it, and
employees are sometimes hesitant to do it on their own. Workforce Week
reports 88 percent of workers say they have ideas to improve their work,
yet only 15 percent offer those ideas.
In a recent entry on our blog we shared a situation where a client was
not seeing the sales conversions they needed. While management believed
the incentive plan needed to be revised, we were surprised by what we
heard from employees in two focus groups. As it turns out, technology
glitches and some operations processes were much bigger obstacles to
motivation than incentives. We came away with a long list of fixes the
management team wouldn't have thought of - many that could be implemented
for no or little cost.
- Provide employees with logo wear or high quality promotional
items. It gives employees another avenue to spread the word about your brand.
And while it's astounding that people can be motivated by shirts
and hats, it works.
- Support involvement in industry and professional groups. You can
have your employees talking about your brand among influencers and
even potential clients.
- Sponsor events or booths at community events where your enthusiastic
brand ambassadors can reach the public. And don't limit involvement
to marketing or communications staff.
- Measure. Track referrals from employees, new ideas, efficiency measures,
conversion rates - and share the results with employees. Don't get
bogged down in complicated tracking systems, but do get the data you
need to report results to employees and to evaluate how your employee
strategies are working.
More sources to fuel your employee motivation efforts:
- David Zinger's
web site is devoted to the topic of employee engagement; you can find
more food for thought and some very practical tips. Find his take on
the book Made to Stick (one of our favorites).
- Mantra
Brand Consulting has a wonderful blog that frequently tackles
employee engagement (check out the "Customer Experience" section).
Your marketing reaches out to touch your target audiences wherever they
are. Just remember that some of the most important marketing you can
do is right at home.
Looking for ideas on internal marketing? Trying to light a fire? The
Marketing Source can help.
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