5 things you need to include in your internal content marketing strategy
Being an internal communications manager is a responsible job. However, sometimes it can be difficult to get the attention of every employee. I am sure, you often wonder what you can do to make your internal communications more effective. Maybe it’s all about your approach? Try implementing a new way of thinking about your role. Put yourself in the role of a marketer and treat your employees the same way marketers treat their customers. Developing an internal content marketing strategy will help you do this. Expect spectacular benefits!
What is internal content marketing?
Internal Content Marketing is nothing more than applying a content marketing approach and tools to internal communications. What does it mean? A content marketer’s job is to distribute valuable content that will interest the audience, build a relationship with them, and gain loyal customers. Every publication should meet the real needs of the audience. The content must bring a tangible benefit to the recipient to be effective.
Internal content marketing is not very different from regular content marketing. However, in the case of internal communication content strategy, the audience is not customers but employees of the organization.
Why is it worth treating internal communications content strategy like content marketing?
According to the newest Gallagher’s “State of The Sector”1 study, 37% of all employees are disengaged. The effect of lack of engagement is not only a decrease in productivity and attachment to the organization and its values. Unengaged employees leave for another company, and that’s a serious situation. Of course, the employee experience doesn’t just depend on internal communication, but your content can be effective in boosting their engagement.
You just need to be on the right path with your strategy.
By developing the right content marketing strategy, you can keep your communications organized and provide your employees with valuable content. You’ll prevent the annoying chaos of messages going out to employees. The right content marketing strategy will help you reach the right people with the right content, and make sure it gets to employees and that they use it!
Internal content marketing – what to consider in the strategy?
Your internal content marketing strategy should state what means, tools, and forms of content to use to reach employees and gain their attention, interaction, and interest. The goal of your chosen strategy is to build a culture of information and knowledge within your organization.
How to develop a valuable internal content marketing strategy?
Above all, remember that your strategy should be a written document! What should it contain?
1️⃣ Create personas
You need to know your audience thoroughly. Focus on your employees to better understand their needs and preferences. It will help you to create personas – typical recipients of the content you will create. Answer the questions about who your employees are, what duties they perform, and what interests them. Build a story around each of them; this will allow you to better understand their behavior, how they view the company and what they need. You can survey your employees to know what mode of communication would be suitable for your employees.
By creating personas, you can more easily assess what kind of content they need and expect in the future. Which ones are likely to interest them, and which subjects and forms? Segment your audience – this will help you adjust appropriate tools and content for specific groups.
2️⃣ Set your goals
Think about what the strategy is supposed to help you with, in the first place. Why do you want to create content, and what do you want to achieve with it?
Think also about measurable objectives that will help you track the progress of the implementation’s strategy. Clarify the context for your communication – what will be significant – which events, parts of the organization’s activities. What expectations do your employees have on every level of their journey? What should be the frequency of your messages?
3️⃣ Implement dedicated tools
To communicate effectively with your employees, you need the right environment. Most often this is an intranet. Unfortunately, sometimes old-school internally built intranets make it impossible to publish content quickly and require you to cooperate with IT. If this is the case for you, try to implement newer technological tools.
Digital employee experience platforms such as Workai will allow you to publish multimedia content, interact with employees and create your internal social media. Employees may also prefer other information channels. While some will read newsletters with bated breath, others will skip them and focus on videos. You need to take this into account and provide a tool for multi-channel communication. Think about additional equipment – a camera, microphones for recording podcasts, and other accessories that will help you create professional content. Take also into consideration mobile apps to communicate.
4️⃣ Create engaging content
Remember, you’re supposed to create content that your employees like, not just you, so don’t be afraid to reach for different forms of expression. Don’t be afraid of the camera, nowadays it is the audiovisual forms that attract the most attention. You can also create ebooks, useful guides, or conduct interviews. Podcasts are becoming extremely popular lately, maybe try them. Don’t limit yourself to one type of content. Look for multiple opportunities to connect with your employees.
Use multimedia, podcasts, graphics, banners, and personalized newsletters. However, always keep in mind the coherent design of all pages and the intranet homepage. The content also should match the phone screen, so take care of that.
Publish only quality materials, it’s not worth bothering employees with junk content. Take care of the grammatical correctness, good editing, and sound quality. Simply create materials attractive for the recipient.
It is a good practice to create a content publishing schedule. It will help you ensure a variety of content but also the regularity of publishing.
5️⃣ Analytics
Your role doesn’t end once your content is published. You should take an active part in discussions, moderating comments, and analyzing the reach. Monitor which content type increases the engagement rate. This will help you build even better content for the future and match your employees’ needs. Measure the effectiveness of your strategy. Implement the changes if not everything performs well.
How to conduct analysis? Take advantage of the analytics tools of your employee experience platform. You don’t have them? Workai has them available.
To sum up
A new approach toward content creation in internal communications will not only help you organize your work. It will also increase the content reach. Creating content that brings tangible benefits to employees will improve their engagement, give them opportunities to grow, and give them a sense of belonging to the organization. Take care of well-organized internal content marketing and get satisfaction from the results. See for yourself that being a content marketer is a lot of fun!
How can Workai support you in creating an effective internal content marketing strategy?
Workai is a multi-channel employee experience platform. It provides multiple ways to reach your employees with information. It allows you to quickly create both text and multimedia content. With Workai, you can easily publish infographics, photos, podcasts, and videos. It also provides you with interaction and allows your employees to leave feedback, which will help you improve your internal content marketing strategy. You have full control over the reach of your content, you can track employees’ behavior and study their preferences with advanced analytics tools. Workai allows you to implement content marketing principles in your internal communications.