Ever thought of tapping into your very own workforce to build marketing campaigns? Well, employees are the 1st set of brand champions you could turn to for building and implementing great marketing campaigns.
Subtle Message
As an employee, one spends a majority chunk of their day at the office space. It’s not only about the hours, but the fact that most part of an individual’s day is spent not at home, but at your premise. Imagine an upset employee at the end of the day, would that really send out a great signal to the folks they spend their non-worktime with? Irrespective of the marketing campaigns one is exposed to through various online and offline channels, a happy employee is one your first and best brand advocate.
Internal Policies
According to Google’s Consumer Barometer, the internet use is pervasive across all age groups, in almost all countries. Which essentially means, that most of your workforce would post about their work-life on social media too. While you may have policies about the use of social media during office hours, or about maybe clicking or not clicking pictures in office, you cannot have complete control over the content that goes online. An employee’s social media profile ultimately depicts whether he or she is satisfied or unhappy with being a part of your organisation.
Social Bookmarking
Very early on in my career, one of my induction trainers said something, which has stuck to me and made a lasting impact; “You either work for a company or with a company.” Difference of just one word, but a profound meaning. Are your employees proud to be associated with you? Are they proud enough to mention their employer’s name on their social profiles? Is it only the title and designation, or is it genuine happiness of association with the brand. What would you rather build on? Employees working with the company, while working for their resume or employees working for the company, just to take home their compensation?
Very recently, Google extended a certain line of benefits to their contract employees as well (which is almost 50% of the entire workforce). The numerous and supremely generous perks offered by Google Inc. across all their offices around the world, is well known. However, with this one change, what the tech giant has addressed is massive and commendable.
Influencer Marketing
This is an extremely successful channel for most brands, B2B and B2C. However, for one of my clients we adopted a different approach; leveraged the employees as sales champions via video marketing and social media. And the results were astounding. Firstly, the employees were ecstatic, they got to be the face of the brand. Secondly, they were proud of their roles and the campaign gave them a chance to showcase their strengths. The existing customers were proud to be associated with the company and the potential customers knew they had contacted the right specialists. So, you can imagine the impact on the transactions for the company, not to forget, the massive inflow of traffic from various online channels. Also, potential employees could see how the company was vested into their workforce.
To wrap up, marketing campaigns on TV, radio, YouTube, social media, and other channels may give you the sales, the GMV, the ROI, the LTV or all the other metrics you’re working towards. However, how about spreading some brand love, awareness, brand stickiness and loyalty via your workforce that puts in most part of their days, time, hard work and dedication, building the credibility of your brand. Maybe an effective employee strategy, inclusive of the overall company strategy could help tap into the potential of your employees. As they rightly say, happy employees equal happy customers!
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