Archive for the ‘Employee Communication’ Category

Without a Plan Your Internal Communication Efforts May Be Falling Flat

Tuesday, July 19th, 2022

I gave a presentation on employee communications recently to a group of about 80 HR people representing about 60 different organizations. I asked the group, through a show of hands, to indicate how many had an internal communication plan. None. Wow. Conversely, a majority of the group had (more…)

Creating a Plan to Improve Corporate Communications

Tuesday, October 5th, 2021
Effective corporate communication has always been important. Now, though, in a hybrid and continuing uncertain corporate environment, it’s more important than ever for organizations to determine how effective their corporate communications efforts are, and what adjustments or improvements need to be made to keep employees engaged, productive, and employed!
What worked pre-pandemic almost certainly doesn’t work anymore. It’s critical that corporate communications and HR staff work together to create a strategy and plan for moving forward.

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What Your Employees Don’t Know Could Hurt You: How Effective Communication Builds Strong Brand Ambassadors

Thursday, September 16th, 2021

I’m often surprised that the most overlooked audience, when it comes to communicating with key constituents, is the internal or employee audience. Companies are generally pretty good about recognizing that they need to communicate with customers and prospects, but employees tend to be an afterthought. This may be because of the assumption that since employees are part of the organization they somehow “know” what’s going on. After all, it was in the newsletter or on Slack, wasn’t it? The fact of the matter, though, is that companies can’t leave it to chance that employees are paying attention to the messages they’re sending, or that they understand which are the key messages that they should be paying attention to. (more…)

Best Practice Communication Takes Many Forms

Thursday, June 10th, 2021
There is no such thing as “the best” communication channel whether considering internal channels for employee communications or external channels to connect with customers and potential customers. All organizations can benefit from having a wide variety of communication channels (both synchronous and asynchronous) to ensure that employees throughout the organization, regardless of role or communication channel preference, are receiving key messages.

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This is Not the Time for Blatant Sales Pitches, But Don’t Lose Touch!

Tuesday, April 14th, 2020
With millions of people out of work and countless businesses shutting their doors temporarily, or even permanently, many businesses are wondering whether they should maintain their marketing communication activities.

Our Advice: Yes, But…

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Daimler Learns About Viral Customer Service Stories the Hard Way

Thursday, May 30th, 2019

There’s an old saying in customer service that a customer who has a good experience with your business might tell a single friend while a customer who has a bad experience will tell ten. Unfortunately, those numbers might be drastically out of date in the age of social media. In an era where any individual has the chance to communicate with millions of people around the world, even a single incidence of poor customer service can have significant impacts for businesses of any kind. (more…)

Are Podcasts Poised to Replace the Employee Newsletter?

Saturday, March 31st, 2018

You may have recently noticed a podcast renaissance of sorts. The success of Serial woke many brands, marketers, journalists, and more up to the power of the podcast. As a result, podcasts are popping up in almost every facet of business with renewed purpose, and targeting new audiences. (more…)

Engaging Employees Productively in Social Media Marketing Efforts

Tuesday, February 7th, 2017

It’s not always easy to tie marketing spend to an increase in revenue — even defining a standard way to measure return on marketing investment (ROMI or MROI) can be difficult — which can often mean that marketing managers struggle to increase their budgets. While we wholeheartedly stand by the fact that a well-crafted and well-implemented marketing strategy will bring in far more revenue than it costs to put in place, there’s always room for low-cost or no-cost strategies. And, as we’ve stressed before, employees can be great brand ambassadors. (more…)

5 Steps to a Strong Employer Brand

Thursday, November 3rd, 2016

executing your strategic plan, strategic planning, strategic communicationWe’ve written previously about the importance of employer branding and why consistency and coordination between the marketing arm and the HR arm are crucial to ensure alignment. In this post, we’re going to look at a practical, step-by-step approach to building that brand by applying some fundamental branding tips in the context of employer branding.

Generally, in working with organizations on these types of projects, the steps are: (more…)

Should Rank-and-File Employees Be Speaking on Behalf of Brands?

Thursday, October 29th, 2015

The question of whether front-line, everyday employees should be speaking on behalf of a company and its brand has been in the minds of business owners and executives for years. On the one hand, harnessing the full weight of a company’s workforce can put a lot of bodies into the marketing effort. At the same time, companies often fear the potential negative, counter-productive impact of “rogue” or un-coached employees. Think of the employee complaining about her job on her Facebook page, or the insider who gives friends and neighbors the “real story” about his company at a backyard BBQ. (more…)