Episode Summary
Employee advocacy is a more recent marketing trend but its here to stay Increasingly companies are relying on employee advocacy to improve their brand awareness position their employees as industry experts and humanize their brand
But you cant have employee advocacy without internal marketing
In this episode of the Recorded Content podcast host Tristan Pelligrino welcomes Kerry-Ann Betton Stimpson the CMO of JMMB Group and a podcast host They chat about the importance of internal marketing why employee advocacy is the objective of internal marketing and how to help your employees build their personal brands
Guest Profile
Name: Kerry-Ann Betton Stimpson
What she does: Shes the CMO of JMMB Group
Company: JMMB Group
Noteworthy: Kerry-Ann is the host of The Internal Marketing Podcast where she talks about internal marketing and employee advocacy
Key Insights
- We dont talk enough about internal marketing Everybody talks about employee advocacy and using employees to promote the companys brand But we need to talk about internal marketing instead Kerry-Ann explains There are so many missed conversations I could have had Is there a thing that says Well do we market to our people inside the company and Google internal marketing Its a nomenclature that I think has been around since the 1970s but certainly a conversation thats not happening as often as it should And I said Hey this is it Is there a way that I can better leverage internal marketing in my own day-to-day job And also is there a way that I can support marketers in having a broader conversation
- Employee advocacy is the objective of internal marketing Theres no true and authentic employee advocacy without internal marketing You need to create a safe space for your employees make them feel valued and help them build their personal brands online Kerry-Ann explains Why we call it advocacy and why internal marketing is so important is that what youre trying to drive is not so much making them aware of the vision the mission and the purpose of products and the services but what youre also really trying to get to is onboarding them in what I call the emotional connection to the brand Have they really bought into the brand and what the brand says it does and what it provides Thats what it comes down to because a lot of companies just believe that employees are like Oh theyre robots we pay them to do it so theyve got to do it At the end of the day its about authenticity
- How to help your employees build their personal brands If you want to humanize your brand and improve employee engagement you need to invest in your employees Help them position themselves as industry experts Teach them how to promote their brands online Create a safe and productive environment for your employees Kerry-Ann says There are so many more benefits to employees building their personal brands than not but it has to start from that safe space Employees have to feel comfortable with being able to build those brands And we threw the net out there and we said Heres this opportunity Come on board We want to show you how we want to help you to do that
Episode Highlights
YOU CANT HAVE EMPLOYEE ADVOCACY WITHOUT INTERNAL MARKETING
How do we convert our employees into advocates of the companys brand So its internal marketing that spins out into employee advocacy You cant have employee advocacy without internal marketing And what that does for marketing is it really puts the marketing function in a very powerful position because when you talk about empowering your people youre really talking about empowering them to deliver on the brand promise that youre telling your customers that you can deliver on every day
A POSITIVE COMPANY CULTURE IS EVERYONES RESPONSIBILITY
Id like to think that my company actually does a very good job of that because the reality is that as a CMO or even as a marketing function you cant do that on your own If the CEO is not aligned if the leadership team if the people team or if the HR team is not aligned your efforts are going to be quite an uphill battle there Im not sure how successful youll be but the culture has to be something that the entire leadership team and indeed the wider organization is totally bought into to get that to work
TEST AND TWEAK YOUR PODCAST
If youre convinced that a podcast is a way to do it you have the nuts and bolts around getting it done Put it out there to a few folks first You want to test it you want to concept test it Have some employees listen to it employees who are not connected to the process at all or employees who fall in the band of who it is you want to reach So lets say you want to engage your sales team or you want to engage folks in IT or both have some folks listen to it and get their honest feedback
