The Value of Establishing a Strong Internal Branding Strategy for Companies

When you have a team of people working for your brand, it’s important that those people have a real relationship with the brand. This is what internal branding strives for – developing a bond between your company’s employees and the brand you all work for.  

Done well, your teammates will not only be able to “get” what the brand is all about, but also be on board emotionally as well as professionally. Ideally, this can help your employees or colleagues to become brand ambassadors who don’t just work for you, but rather, represent the company and all that it stands for.  

So, let’s find out more about internal branding, its benefits, and how you can go about building yours. 
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What is internal branding?

Internal branding is the process of aligning employees with the brand's values, mission, and vision, and engaging them with those. This type of branding involves developing a strong internal culture that reflects the brand's identity. This ensures that your colleagues understand and embody the brand in their day-to-day work. 

Internal branding can include training programs, internal communications, and various initiatives that promote the brand's values among staff members. The aim of this is to enhance employee motivation and commitment, which will hopefully lead to improved and unified customer experiences and the overall success of your brand.

Examples of internal branding methods

Here are some examples of internal branding practices that you can use with your team:

• Employee training programs: You can conduct training sessions that emphasize the brand's values and culture, to help employees understand how to embody these principles in their daily work.
• Brand ambassadors: You could also opt to designate specific team members as brand ambassadors who promote the brand both internally and externally, fostering a deeper connection with the brand.
• External Brand Promotion: Employing affiliate software can streamline the management and collaboration with external partners and influencers. This tool helps in tracking their contributions and the effectiveness of outreach programs, ensuring alignment with brand values and goals.
• Internal communication: As part of a content marketing proposal, you can use regular newsletters, intranet updates, and meetings to highlight your brand’s initiatives as well as any success stories. This approach helps keep colleagues informed and engaged with the brand, and invested in its success.
• Visual branding at work: You can also decorate your office in brand colors, logos, and mission statements to create an environment that reflects your brand identity. If you’ve got a remote team, you can create laptop background pictures to that effect, and send everyone branded pens and notepads. 
• Employee recognition programs: Going out of your way to recognize those employees who particularly exemplify brand values can reinforce the importance of these values and motivate other team members to follow suit.
• Feedback: You can also encourage your employees to give feedback on brand initiatives, which helps them feel involved and invested in the brand's success. Plus, they probably have some great insights as employees who understand the internal workings of your company!
• Cultural events: Organizing team-building events or cultural celebrations that are in alignment with the brand's values can strengthen employee bonds and commitment to the brand.

Benefits of internal branding

Internal branding is important for a number of reasons – let’s discover them below.

Greater employee engagement

First and foremost, a solid internal branding strategy will help to align your employees with the company's values and mission. This can foster a sense of belonging and purpose, a feeling of “We’re all in this together”. A strong internal brand helps employees understand the company's identity and what it stands for. 

This clarity can lead to a deeper connection and pride in the organization, so that employees feel like they are part of something meaningful. It can foster a cohesive company culture where employees share common values and goals. This sense of belonging can enhance engagement as employees feel they are part of a unified team working towards shared objectives.

It also empowers employees by giving them the knowledge and resources to represent the brand to the best of their abilities. A well-defined internal brand means employees can convey consistent messages to customers and boost their confidence when purchasing from the brand. 

And when employees see how their roles contribute to the overall mission, they can be more motivated to perform at their best.

Finally, when employees feel heard and see how their input is reflected in brand strategies, it can enhance their engagement even more. Highlighting how employees contribute to brand success reinforces their sense of belonging within the company.

Increased consistency

Internal branding can help create consistency throughout the company, so that your colleagues can understand the brand's message and convey it to customers in a consistent way. This enhances your overall brand image.

This unified messaging helps to remove any confusion and creates a clear narrative about what the brand stands for, both internally and externally. It’s also a way to reinforce core values so employees can adopt and embody these values in their daily work. This reinforcement can take place through training, internal communications, and company culture initiatives.

Regular training sessions on the brand’s values, mission, and messaging can ensure everyone is on the same page. You also want consistency in visual branding – e.g. logos, colors, and design templates – across all internal communications and materials. This makes the brand more recognizable to both employees and customers.

Better customer experience

When it comes to customer experience, it’s invaluable for your colleagues to be well-informed and on the same wavelength as the brand. Employees who live and breathe the brand's mission and values are more likely to embody those values in their interactions with customers. This alignment helps create a consistent and authentic customer experience.

When employees understand the products and services on offer, they can provide better support and answer customer inquiries with greater ease. And of course, a strong internal brand helps maintain consistency in messaging across all platforms and touchpoints. This can enhance customer trust and reinforce the brand's identity.

Internal branding can also foster a sense of teamwork and collaboration among employees. When teams work together well, they can offer a more efficient and consistent service to customers.

Finally, employees who are more connected to the brand via strong internal branding can become brand advocates, and their enthusiasm can have a positive impact on customer perceptions and experiences.

Higher recruitment potential

Candidates generally look for workplaces where they feel they will fit in and thrive, so a clear internal brand can help to communicate the culture, and companies with strong internal branding can increase talent acquisition rates. 

When potential candidates have insight into what an organization stands for, they can better assess whether they align with those values, which can increase the chances that they’ll apply. Furthermore, implementing internal branding can also generate a positive reputation in the job market for the brand. Positive word-of-mouth from current and former employees can attract candidates.

And for candidates who are more ambitious, a strong internal brand can showcase opportunities for development and advancement within the organization. Finally, a strong internal brand can emphasize diversity and inclusion and attract a broader range of talent.

Combined with other tools such as an applicant tracking system and other data driven recruiting methods, a strong internal branding can boost a company’s recruitment process.

Enhanced employee retention

Team members who feel connected to your brand are probably more likely to stick with the company than those who don’t, which also reduces turnover and the costs associated with having to hire someone new. 

When employees feel aligned with company values, they’re more likely to feel engaged with and committed to the organization. This can also boost morale and motivation. Strong internal branding can also be a way to ensure clear communication within the organization, which also helps with engagement. 

Additionally, internal branding can foster a sense of belonging among employees – when they identify with the brand, they feel part of something larger. And since, as we mentioned, a solid internal brand can attract like-minded individuals who resonate with the company’s values, this is likely to lead to a more cohesive workforce that resonates deeply with the company’s values.

Strategies for a strong internal branding strategy

With the importance of internal branding now established for the success of your company, let’s delve into some strategies you can implement to get you on your way!

1.   Clarify your company values

Before you do anything else, you want to make sure that your company values are super clear. Is your brand all about sustainability? Is emotionally intelligent AI the cornerstone of your work? Is the fair treatment of employees and customers a defining aspect of your business?  

Have a brainstorm about what your company and brand represent. Think about what you want people to associate with your name. Once you have this step complete, it’s time for…

2.   Tell your story 

Your product is only a tiny fraction of what you do. It’s often just the physical embodiment of a whole host of values and ideas. If you offer a service, the story and values that surround that service are vitally important. 

Your story is your why. Let’s imagine that you sell cosmetics: why? What inspired you to do that? Why should people care? Why should your employees care?  

A strong raison d’etre is key to strong internal branding. Lush Cosmetics, for example, states “We believe in happy people making happy soap, putting our faces on our products and making our mums proud.” This is a little snippet of their why: their passion and desire to have a positive impact on the world.  

With good internal communication, you can involve your employees in the story, allowing it to become their story as well. When they believe in what they’re selling, their enthusiasm will show. 

3.   Incorporate it into your day-to-day

Emails, websites, stationary, ethos, treatment of colleagues and customers, and even your applicant tracking system – they should all be seeped into your branding.  

It’s not a one-time overhaul or makeover. Like any good diet, it’s a lifestyle change. It’s around for the long-haul. 

4.   Align internal and external branding

Your internal branding will reflect outwardly towards your customers, so integrating consistent marketing strategiesensures that the internal and external branding are cohesive.  You shouldn’t have one tone for your employees and another for your customers. This will come across as disjointed and unreliable, either to your colleagues, your customers, or both. 

To accomplish this, you should make sure you use the same branding material regardless of marketing objectives for both internal and external purposes. 

This includes maintaining consistency across brand logos, fonts, ethics, voice, email templates, and anything else.Your external facing website and the internal aspects of the work (e.g. intranet, internal emails) should all be cohesive. 

5.   Pick the right timing

While you don’t need a special occasion to launch your new internal branding efforts, you can choose to have it coincide with one, if you wish (e.g. your ten-year brand anniversary, a new decade beginning, or a new product being released). It’s not a requirement, however.

There are certain times, though, that you should avoid making any big changes or large-scale rebranding – particularly, times of high stress, such as during layoffs, when the company is losing money, or if there is a global event negatively affecting a lot of the people who work for you. 

If you decide to launch your internal branding efforts during a time when 25% of people are losing their jobs, you might be met with some resistance. 

Final thoughts

Developing and implementing a solid internal branding strategy is a great way to get your team on the same page, rowing the proverbial canoe in the same direction. It helps get people to live the brand, and not just promote it, offering a more authentic and real experience for customers and employees alike. 

With our easy-to-implement tips, you’ll be able to craft your own internal branding strategy and reap the benefits that we discussed. Get started today!