As marketers, we often get in the habit of patting ourselves on the back because no one else will do it for us. Other departments don’t understand what we do or how we rate success, so we often end up being our own cheerleaders.
The problem with this approach is that you’re missing opportunities to share the marketing department’s wins with your peers, and that limits your ability to identify problems within other teams that marketing can help solve.
So how do we change that? Internal marketing. Let’s talk about why marketing inside your company is important.
Internal Marketing Creates More Influence
I talk a lot about my Map Of Influence — a look at all the touchpoints within the organization that marketing can influence. This is not just what your team is building, it’s about finding more places marketing can join the conversation.
For me, it’s a physical map that looks at how marketing can help the different pieces of the customer journey become better and more strategic.
This is a key part of an internal marketing strategy, as it can help your team be more purposeful with the programs you implement. It also allows you to better understand how marketing can influence other departments.
Internal marketing can also help strengthen the connection between departments, so you can have a better feedback loop. Just like customer relations, marketing internally can help you build trust by listening, and being empathetic when working towards the same goal. This makes everyone’s lives easier.
Internal Marketing Showcases Your Team’s Wins
Like I said before, marketing tends to keep their results internal because no one else seems to understand the program and campaigns you’re running. However, the key to sharing marketing wins is to highlight what pertains to each department.
Sales cares about leads, so when you’re meeting with Sales, talk to them about the leads your team gained for them and how you got them. This creates more effective discourse because you’re starting at a place of interest. Because let’s be honest: Sales isn’t interested in your beautiful marketing funnel. They really only care about how your efforts benefit them.
Understanding what each team needs from the marketing department helps you present wins in a way that’s more exciting for each audience. That’s the key to internal marketing.
Internal Marketing Helps Your Get Resources You Need
Let’s face it, marketing’s budget is often the first one cut, even though we all know the company cannot function without marketing.
That is why internal marketing is so important.
If each team within your organization cannot point to exactly how marketing has helped them in the past, why should the company keep funneling money into the department? Being a voice of influence can mean the difference between budget cuts and getting funding for a new project.
It’s important to understand that your internal audience is just as important as your external. The sooner you start internal marketing, the easier your job will be.
If you’re ready to learn to build your own map of influence, consider The Indispensable Marketer Workshop.
