Marketing: The Red-Headed Stepchild

Internal marketing is often seen as an afterthought, or as something altogether separate when internal communicators are only in line with HR responsibilities. Incorporating internal marketing into my team and insisting on more discussions when it comes to ensuring that there is an internal component to campaigns is essential for success. 

Often times I've seen companies send out the "current marketing offers" as a short bullet list to sales teams and senior management. Instead, sales and everyone involved in the sales funnel process should be trained and up-to-date on what programs are running, how to comment on them and answer questions, who to contact with questions, how to up-sell, cross sell, or assist in pipeline progression. What about those who are the front line for customer service issues? Those team members should understand the company's value propositions and goals as well, and be able to execute the service and knowledge to support them. 

Marketing teams aren't truly holistic without the internal marketing piece. Their channel is the business, and the business influences brand and perception. Allowing internal marketing team members to compile feedback can also help to refine market research data. They might even take a step further by being the face of the efforts other members of the marketing team are taking to change brand perception or achieve a goal.