At our Orlando PR agency, we spend an enormous amount of time thinking about how to reach external audiences—all those groups you are hoping will buy your product or service or idea—and generating revenue or results on your behalf.

All too often, however, we find that people overlook the vital role internal communication plays in enabling your employees and staff to understand and value your marketing success and the positive results that means for their job security and satisfaction.

The fact is the better your staff understands what you are telling your important contacts, the better they can reflect and reinforce the kinds of values and messages you are seeking to project.

And, as all of us have experienced in 2020 and 2021, the impact of COVID-19 has underscored the importance of internal communications.

Internal communications is where PR begins

Your staff and employees are the first audience that needs to grasp what you are trying to accomplish. The better they understand what you are doing and how you plan to get there, the more they can assist you in reaching your goal.

Involving your staff in your communications plan signals that you value their ideas, their input and their direct involvement. Involving your personnel allows them to better understand what you are saying and enables them to clearly and consistently project the same messaging you are sending to your key audiences.

At our Orlando PR firm, when we develop PR plans, we always include our client’s staff and employees under “audiences we want to reach.”

The three key sources of internal communications

Precisely how you go about communicating with your personnel differs in every organization.

Large organizations with multiple locations, for example, have different internal communications challenges than smaller organizations based at one location.

There are, however, three key internal communications sources that are common to every organization. These include:

Management – top-down dispersal of information such as strategies, company results, internal and external information, and other important general information that will affect one’s organization.

Face-to-face – briefing individuals on tasks and situations.

Resources – the intranet, email, social media, messaging, video calls, telephone.

What management says – and how they say it – is important because it sets the tone for your overall forward direction. If staff understands what the organization is doing, where it is headed, and how it plans to get there, they can buy into the program. Further, management messaging is critical because employees look to management for motivation, direction and leadership.

Face-to-face communications provide the personal touch leadership and internal communications demand. Whether it is a “town hall” gathering, a staff meeting or a Zoom video, putting your face and voice in contact with staff is key to building a management-employee relationship that can succeed.

Finally, orchestrating the resources by which you reach employees is important because the resources serve as the bridge to your staff. No matter what the message, an internal communications plan must include the same basic elements of an external PR plan: who, what, where, why, when, and how.

We can help you strengthen your internal communications

The vast majority of our clients want us to reach outward to their key marketing targets and amplify sales results.

We wholeheartedly agree that sales and results must head in in a positive direction for an organization to succeed.

We also subscribe to the notion that involving your staff and employees through simple, direct communications that clarify your goals, hopes and expectations, adds strength, consistency and enthusiasm to whatever goal you are seeking to attain. The old adage “there is strength in numbers” comes to mind when you add the know-how and willingness of your staff and employees to your marketing mix.

Want to learn more about how you can amplify your internal communications program to get more out of your marketing mix? Give us a call at Wellons Communications and allow our Orlando marketing agency to get better acquainted with your organization and how you can actively involve them in getting more from your overall marketing program.