When was the last time you used a story to get a point across?
Storytelling is a communication tool many of us use daily without being aware of it. We retell an experience we had the night before for the laughs or explain an interaction with a customer because it taught you something new.
Storytelling is a timeless form of communication, it grabs attention and illustrates ideas in a memorable way. We believe stories play an important role in the marketing of water damage restoration businesses. Specifically, we believe storytelling is an important part of an internal marketing campaign or marketing to your employees. Here’s how to use a story to encouraged your employees to connect with your company goals.
What is Internal Marketing?
When we talk about marketing, we typically think about any efforts to spread the word to potential customers. We think about print and online ads, social media, and referral programs. These things are all important but they shouldn’t overshadow your internal marketing efforts.
Internal marketing is part of a leadership approach that treats your employees like customers. When you’re spending money on external marketing, it is important to remember that when those leads call, it is their experience with your employees that will ultimately affect what they think about your business.
Internal marketing is the act of getting your employees on board with the company vision and the company goals so that each interaction they have with your customers are informed by what they believe about your company. It is an intentional and well thought out plan to communicate company goals to your employees so they’ll not only agree with you, they’ll believe in the goals, too.
Internal Marketing and Storytelling
How do I get my employees to believe in my vision?
This is a question that plagues so many business owners. We work hard to create a company culture that is enjoyable or incentivize our top performers, and those things are important. However, employee outings and bonuses actually won’t take you very far if your employees don’t understand and buy into your vision.
Here’s where we believe storytelling comes in.
With a story about your business, you can create a vision your employees don’t just understand, they’ll be able to see their role, too.
Creating Your Internal Marketing Story
A lot of great stories can be told off the cuff, but the story of your company’s goals for the future isn’t one you don’t want to improvise. A well thought out internal marketing story will include information about your goals, what steps need to be taken to get there, what they’ll be equipped with to reach those goals, and what reaching those goals will mean for your company and your employees.
- What is the main goal of your story? Your goal might be as simple as educating your employees on your external marketing efforts so that they’ll see what is being done to bring more leads to your company. Your story could be about communicating their role in the big picture of increasing company sales. Have an idea of what you want to accomplish before you take action.
- What steps should be taken to reach this goal? If your goals is to improve employee response to your leads by improving customer service skills, you’ll need a clear understanding of what kind of resources and training your employees will need. This is the part of the story where you illustrate to them what the next two, three, or 12 months look like as you work together to turn this story into reality.
- What happens when you reach your goal? When your employees buy into your vision and join you on your mission to realize your goals, what happens? What do more sales mean not just for your company, but for the employees listening?
Staying Connected to the Story
Telling a story once isn’t enough, both you and your employees will need to remain connected to the story to reach your goals. There are two ways we like to make that happen.
First, we create a means for measuring our growth and success. It’s impossible to measure success if you’re not paying attention and the right reports and logs can help you do just that. Next, we also find a way to publicly call attention to the story and the goals attached to the story. A tack-board with an illustrated graph of your progress and an outline of your goals is the perfect way to keep everyone thinking about and working together on company goals.
At More Floods, we help connect water damage restoration business owners with the resources they need to create a thriving company. To learn more about becoming a part of our network, click here or call 1-866-667-3356.