Have you forgotten your internal customers?

So much press (online and offline) has been given to marketing to customers, that businesses tend to forget one of the most important customer segments – their employees. While traditional marketing focused on the “Customer is king” agenda and trained employees to serve customers, today’s marketing has to focus on “Customer, Vendor, Employee, Stakeholder, Partner, and Colleague is king.”

The reason for this change is simple. Websites, blogs, social networks, online videos and whole host of other channels offer unprecedented exposure of a company, and its people to the customer. She can dig deep online and learn about what they think, do, or stand for. This helps her judge a company, its products and services.

So if your employee writes a blog, has an account on Facebook, or is active on LinkedIn, he is the perfect ambassador for your company. Hence internal marketing….

Internal marketing is all about the relationship an employer forms with its employees. Businesses should understand their employees are the ones who connect with the customer and build its reputation. Internal Marketing is all about communication and transparency and making sure employees are aware of the overall vision and goals of the company.

So when you plan your marketing strategies, and budgets(!) for the year, don’t forget your internal customers. Invite their views and blogs, create a private group on Facebook for them to post shared moments and personal glories, and talk about them on your newsletters and emails. Let your internal customers take care of the external ones….