Marketing your brand internally is just as important as marketing it to external customers. After all, your employees are the face of the company. By engaging your employees, you’ll help them make a more powerful emotional connection to the products and services you sell.

By applying the basic principles of consumer marketing to internal communications, you can guide employees to a better understanding of, and passion for the brand vision. When people really understand the company brand, they’re motivated to work harder and their company loyalty increases.

Unify and inspire your employees with a sense of purpose & identity by linking your internal & external brands in the following ways:

  1. Visual Identity. Maintain brand consistency in all employee communications efforts to increase recognition and attention. This includes your logo, colors, font, taglines, graphic elements, etc.
  2. Weave the brand into daily touch-points. Executing a new initiative campaign? Introduce, explain and then reinforce by directly weaving the message into employees’ day-to-day interactions that influence their workplace experience. This will ensure that on-brand behavior becomes instinctive.
  3. Social Media. Enterprise Social Networks like Yammer are a great way for employees to not only collaborate and share, but also help each other. Strengthen your brand internally by using Yammer to make announcements and recognize a job well done.
  4. Video. Video can help communicate an important message in a more engaging way. A little creativity goes a long way internally as well as externally.
  5. Active Leadership. Make sure your high-level executives and leaders play an active role in communicating important messages. This will ensure there is a consistent and unified brand message in all activities.
  6. Culture. Focus on corporate culture to create a positive work experience for your employees. Happy workers = great brand ambassadors.
  7. Training. Every employee should continue to be educated on the brand’s history, mission, values, evolving key initiatives, etc.
  8. Events. Create opportunities for employees to connect and build relationships outside of the typical work environment. Company picnic, quarterly bowling trip, or even a happy hour are all great places to start.
  9. Gamification. Gamifying important initiatives is a great way to increase awareness & engagement as well as facilitate feedback.

Remember, your internal brand should be authentic, genuine and support the external brand. By transforming your internal communications, you’ll create a better experience for your employees, and mold better brand ambassadors.