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Before we begin; what is the meaning of internal branding exactly? You may have come across the term before, but we'll explain it in detail below.
Internal branding whether internal communication is an important tool for improving your company image. The goal is to turn your employees into ambassadors who boost your company's reliability.
The intention is that the behavior of your employees is entirely in line with what you want to convey as a brand. And not only that. Your employees its the brand. They “live” the brand. They deliver on all the promises you make to your customers as a brand. It therefore contributes to your authenticity and transparency. In 2022, these are concepts that consumers attach great importance to. Keeping it real.
Perhaps useful to get an idea of what we really mean, using a internal branding example. Take, for example Coolblue. They do everything there for a smile, both outside and inside the organisation. This way, not only utensils, but also employees receive an appropriate job name that matches their branding. It is logical that the smile of the “package hugger” and the “chatter” works far beyond the company walls, right?! ;-)
Not only Coolblue takes good care of their employees, but also bol.com can do some of it. Curious? Then read this blog with a concrete onboarding program example.
Actually, the internal branding strategy are deployed from the very first moment that new employees come into contact with you. So with the vacancy texts and onboarding. Only select people who match the brand and who immediately feel natural before the current branding.
Do you want to start internal branding later? Then keep it close to the existing organisation. Focus mainly on what's already there about branding and use that as a basis. After all, your starting point is that your brand promises come across as believable. You can only achieve this if your team is motivated from the core to deliver on the promises.
So it takes some thinking.
Also interesting: How to work on the onboarding new employees.
However, internal branding is more than just internal communications. In this blog, we'll give you tips on how to really take your internal communication to the next level.
As you probably already knew, your employees are a crucial part. But make no mistake. You are perhaps even more important yourself! Your employees must have the corporate identity, tone of voice and get to know the brand promise first before they can express it themselves. This is where you come into the picture.
Provide your employees with a good explanation, a festive moment and a bit of guidance. You can do the latter with a brand guide.
A brand guide is a (digital) guide that explains the brand. You can post these on the intranet or hand them out in the form of a physical book. It contains the important information about internal branding, namely how the brand promise is applied. This way, everyone knows how to use the brand. The first step to employee advocacy has been set. More about that later...
Did you know that corporate culture can make or break an organisation? Read more about a winning company culture.
We said earlier that internal branding goes beyond internal communications. However, that does not mean that you no longer have to look at internal communication. In fact, it can make employees emotionally connect to your brand. And that's what you want!
A good example of strong internal communication is e-learning that contributes to the personal development of your employees.
First, in terms of brand experience, you can match the training with the design and tone of voice of your internal branding. In addition, in terms of content, it can also be about (applying) the brand experience, of course. Remind your employees why you do what you do. Inform them about the organisation's products and services. All of this is very valuable for the ambassadorship.
You can easily achieve this with an online learning environment. Here, as an organisation, you can launch internal (or external) training courses yourself. Pluvo is an ideal learning platform for promoting your internal branding or improving your internal branding strategy. Here, you can not only develop training courses, but you can also put them in your own corporate identity and fully match the brand experience.
Don't leave any space. Our golden tip is to literally provide everything outside and inside your organisation with internal branding. You want to keep the distance between the internal and external brand experience as small as possible. Even the intranet and internal memos are entirely in line with what you want to express as a brand. Don't forget the microcopy either. Consistency is the way to go.
Microcopy is the small amount of text that you find everywhere and nowhere. On websites, forms, internal flyers and so on.
Keep the soap alive. The new internal branding is a fact and this' soul 'needs to be fed. After the launch, it's smart to invest energy in keeping the brand alive. This way, you ensure that the brand is anchored in all fibers of the company.
This is where that consistency comes in again. Implement the brand experience and brand promise into daily operations. A great tip is to interview your employees about how they implement internal branding. Share the recordings on the company magazine or on the intranet so that employees inspire each other!
You certainly understand that the motivation of employees also plays a role in this. When they start to see that the practical translation of internal branding pays off, that motivation goes up even further. To achieve this, it is advisable to share the results on customer satisfaction or the number of followers on social media internally. Celebrate your successes together!
Let your employees feel that they are part of a group. Of the whole thing. They need to feel that their contribution matters. Also, don't forget that employees and consumers are sharpened by the same cloth and that they both respond better to stories than to numbers. Use internal storytelling and do it the same way you would do to customers.
Actual dissemination of the brand to the outside world should be encouraged. So make sure everyone knows how they can contribute to increasing reach via social media. That's what we call employee advocacy.
Your employees may not initially participate in caring country sharing. They are sometimes afraid of doing something wrong. Give them the right tools to tackle this. Of course, you can do that again in a fun training or e-learning. Once again, this contributes to awareness that employees are a crucial tool when it comes to internal branding.
Name examples of other organisations that were able to expand their reach. These numbers often don't lie! That lowers the threshold for a nice selfie with drinks. Everything for the company's success.
Speaking of that. Of course, there must be something fun to share. People don't just share good business results or customer satisfaction surveys. They prefer to share how much fun they have with colleagues during company outings or during breaks.
And we don't mean that you should bribe them with a material price. It was just about the authentic translation of the company story, wasn't it? So maybe reward isn't the right word here. Recognition is better. This is the most important motivator for ambassadors to get involved.
Acknowledge successful internal branding!
So it works much better in the long run than handing out a new laptop. If someone in the organisation emerges as corporate influencer you can also give recognition by giving that person a (branded) stage.
Let your employees have their say in internal communication. Here are a few ideas:
Of course, everything is completely coated internal branding.
As we've discussed, it's important that everything that belongs to your company matches what you want to convey. Here we discussed a good internal branding strategy, and what internal branding examples given. Logically, this also means that you should transform your online learning environment into an environment that is immediately recognisable to your employees and customers. Pluvo offers many options for this, including adding your own logo, photography, fonts and corporate colors. You can take this as far as you want!
Feel free to contact us to further discuss the options.
As an educational expert specialising in online learning, I have been writing blogs for Pluvo for 5 years. My focus is on powerful learning solutions for organisations. Universal Design for Learning and inclusive learning are my passion; I believe that education should be accessible and fun for everyone.
I've been combining my 35 years of HR experience with copywriting for over 15 years. And even then, I learn new things over and over again. That's what makes writing blogs for Pluvo so incredibly interesting!
