How to Market your Department’s Story to Co-Workers
As a marketing expert, I know the importance of effectively communicating each department’s value to a company. It is crucial to demonstrate to the C Suite, department leaders, and stakeholders how your department contributes to the company’s success.
This should be fun and creative because entertaining what you want people to learn is the best way to educate them.
Your team may be doing remarkable things for the business, but no one knows because you aren’t telling your stories.
During my career, I always saw marketing in-service to the business.
We supported the business objectives, and a big part of our mission was to help our company succeed.
Our success was just for customers but in service to our internal stakeholders – our employees and colleagues we worked side-by-side.
How To Effectively Market Your Departments Work Inside the Business
Adapt a Servant Leadership Mindset. When you see yourself and the department you work for as in service to the business, it shifts your mindset. When you suddenly ask, “how can I help you” short, ” others see you as available to support their needs. You don’t have to wait to offer to help. How can departments such as finance, HR, operations, sales, marketing, and others showcase their value and communicate it effectively?
Suggestion: Be proactive as a team, and don’t wait for someone to come to you in need of help. Reach out to the department leaders and ask – how our team can support the efforts and projects you are working on this coming quarter. In marketing language, we call this positioning. Position yourself as someone ready to roll up her sleeves and help others become successful.
Share Success Stories: Each department has a unique story about how they have contributed to the company’s success. Sharing success stories with other departments can help them understand your department’s value to the company. For example, suppose the finance department could save the company significant money through cost-cutting measures. In that case, they can share how they achieved that with other departments.
Use Metrics and Data: Metrics and data can be used to measure the impact of each department on the company’s bottom line. Departments can share data on improved efficiency, reduced costs, or increased revenue. For example, the HR department can share data on how they have reduced employee turnover rates, resulting in cost savings for the company.
Suggestion: Have one person on the team as the lead to share a well-written list of successes of the month. Make it concise – give it a fun title like the FINANCE FIVE – Successes of the Month.
Whether you do it via email, Slack, or another platform, put your wins in front of your colleagues. Keep it short and make it snackable content. Be consistent when it goes out, like the last workday of each month. Maybe ask Marketing to help create a fun logo to brand the messaging.
Highlight Industry Trends: Each department can showcase its expertise by sharing insights on industry trends and best practices. This can help other departments understand the value of the specialized knowledge that each department brings to the table. For example, the operations department can share insights on the latest supply chain trends and best practices to improve efficiency.
Suggestion: Once or twice a year, hold an internal webinar or workshop for colleagues to learn about the latest shifts and challenges in logistics and distribution. Make it relevant to your category and industry so that your department is seen as an educator, helping your colleagues be better prepared. Bring in a guest speaker who is an expert from your industry or a supplier who can help educate your co-workers on upcoming challenges. Make it fun- if held in person, bring food. If held online, send snacks ahead of time to participants.
Collaborate with Other Departments: Collaborating with other departments can help showcase each department’s value to the company. For example, the finance department can collaborate with the marketing department to analyze the ROI of a recent marketing campaign. This will help the marketing department understand how their efforts contribute to the company’s bottom line. And it will help finance understand some of the nuisances and difficulties of measuring marketing ROI.
Even if a small group of marketers collaborates with a few finance folks – you are setting an example of what cooperation and collaboration look like in the business. Be seen as a leader willing to ask for help from others versus someone who knows it all.
Celebrate Achievements: Celebrating achievements can help build morale and motivate employees to continue contributing to the company’s success. Departments can celebrate achievements by recognizing individual contributions or team successes.
Suggestions: The operations department can recognize a team with significant efficiency improvements. Explore creative ways to tell this story throughout the organization. Make a crazy dance video you share throughout the company to communicate the big success. Don’t overthink it, and don’t be afraid to be a little vulnerable. Your colleagues will remember the funny video – and your message will break through that you achieved a big win in improving efficiency.
Host Department Showcases: Hosting department showcases can help other departments and stakeholders understand the value that each department brings to the company. This can be done through presentations, demonstrations, or interactive activities.
Suggestion: Invite one of the leaders from another department to speak to your team. For example, the VP or Director of HR can host and talk to your marketing team to showcase and demonstrate how their employee training programs have contributed to the company’s success. And it provides you with an opportunity for your colleagues to ask them questions. Don’t wait for others to organize these occasions – be proactive. Consider this an invitation to have other departments share with you what they do. What often happens is they will ask you to reciprocate and you’ll get an opportunity to tell your story about your team to their department.
Use Innovative Communication Channels: Innovative communication channels can help departments reach their target audience more effectively.
Suggestion: The finance department can create a financial dashboard for other departments to see real-time economic data. This will help other departments understand the financial impact of their decisions. Even if some information is confidential, a dashboard gives visibility to how you are tracking goals and success. This can be done on a billboard in the break room or virtually on a shared intranet. Creating a dashboard that tracks essential metrics for each team can help give visibility to your great work.
Whatever ideas you take away from this blog, remember to ask your colleagues – how can I be helpful? And don’t be so serious that you can have fun or make a game from the activities.
There are many ways departments can effectively communicate the value they bring to the company.
By sharing success stories, using metrics and data, highlighting industry trends, collaborating with other departments, celebrating achievements, hosting department showcases, and using innovative communication channels, departments can showcase their value and contribute to the company’s success.
If you don’t tell your story, the company may create a different narrative that inaccurately portrays your great work.
Own your department’s narrative.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Photo by Vlad Hilitanu on Unsplash
