In Wendy’s article this month, she focuses on the importance of having a marketing strategy that portrays your company’s inner identity through external initiatives. Giving the public a glimpse into your business’s inner workings establishes a deeper connection. It gives your business a personality and causes your audience to think about your company in a more personal way. This strategy breaks the ice so that you are not seen as a cold corporation by the public, but rather a business made up of real people just like them.

Establishing this relationship requires having company values and beliefs that align with your target market. Once you have a strong company identity, the key is to promote it consistently throughout all of your marketing materials and platforms. Here are five effective tools a company can use to share the inner workings of their business with the public:

  1. Public Relations – One great way to market your inner company identity is through news and media outlets. Public relations efforts are affordable. They reach a broad audience, and they are more credible to the viewers than advertisements. Taking part in charity efforts that are relevant to your brand and giving back to the community are great ways to demonstrate your company values. By writing news releases about your charitable efforts and sending them to media outlets, you have a good chance of getting coverage which will go a long way in helping the public become familiar with your company’s atmosphere and values.
  1. Social Media – The advent of social media had an enormous effect on the relationship between brands and consumers. For the first time the public could follow the brands that they like and voice their support, as well as confront brands that made them angry or treated them poorly and make their frustrations known. This is why today, a company’s social media presence is incredibly important. By posting internal information like company updates, new hires, upcoming events, office holiday parties and industry-related content, a brand can give its followers a sneak peek into their inner workings and culture. Having an interactive social media presence causes your followers to develop a stronger attachment to your company, increasing brand loyalty.
  1. Blog Posts – Creating a company blog can benefit your business in multiple ways, the most obvious being SEO. Each blog post gets crawled and archived by search engines, making it more likely that your company will show up on searches. Beyond making your business easier to find, blogs give you a chance to tell your story. You can blog about anything from the services you offer, information about the industry you’re in, company updates, new employees, promotions, office parties and gatherings, etc. Blogging frequently is a great way to give the general public an inside look at your business.
  1. Company Newsletter – Similar to blogging, a company newsletter is an excellent tool for marketing from the inside out. Sending out a regular newsletter, whether by email or physical mail puts your company in your audience’s mind every time you send it. The first step is creating a subscriber list of current customers/clients as well as prospects. From there you can develop a newsletter, made up of articles and graphics that portray the inner nature of your business. You can even use your blog posts as content for this and have the newsletter link back to your blog and website. A consistent newsletter gives your audience something to look forward to and puts your inner company culture in front of their eyes on a regular basis.
  1. About Page – Perhaps the most obvious tool for communicating your company’s inner workings and culture with the public is with an about page on your website. The about page should tell visitors everything they need to know about who your business is, what you do and why you’re unique. It should cover your company history, your values and beliefs as well as your mission. A well-written about page creates a personal connection and sense of familiarity and understanding with the reader.

Do you need help sharing who your company is internally with the public? Give us a call at 701-478-1111 or contact us at absolutemg.com/contact. We would be glad to assist you.