Marketing the brand inside. A marketing background and employee communications, how do they work together?

December 30th 2020 Employee Communications

In the spotlight with Sarah, one of our Employee Communication Specialists

When I started my first role in marketing in 2017, it felt like a light had suddenly been switched on. With my experience up until then being in account management and business development, I had been floating around the periphery of marketing for a while, dipping my toe in here and there, drawn to this exciting world of creativity, engaging imagery and inspiring language, but remaining firmly on the outside looking in. I finally took the plunge and landed my first job in Marketing at Virgin Atlantic in early 2017 – and I haven’t looked back since. 

I’ve always thought of myself as being quite creative. I’ve dabbled in painting, jewellery-making, book and song writing (I was even in a dodgy indie band in my teens), and I was excited to join such an iconic brand, where I could really put my creativity to the test. But one thing I quickly realised was that making things look and sound great was just one part of it, and that the strategy and detail behind it was just as important. I found that I loved the process of understanding what it was we needed to communicate and then solving the problem of how to do it in the best and most meaningful way possible. 

My first taster of employee communications, was writing internal newsletters, managing our intranet and writing content for departmental conferences. I realised, that learning and understanding how to create memorable and rewarding experiences for people is just as important throughout the employee journey as it is in attracting customers to your brand. It’s why so many of us Caburn Hopers started out in Marketing, because the principles are so very similar, merely communicating to a different audience. However, as much as I love browsing through beautiful images, or coming up with that attention-grabbing headline, employee communication requires specialist attention. When you turn over the page, it’s the detail behind the branding that also needs to have an impact.

When communicating reward for example, of course we want the person reading it to be inspired, but we also need them to stay engaged while ensuring that they understand their pension options, or how to make the decisions that will determine how they invest in their future. It isn’t just about making things look and sound brilliant (which of course we do!), we genuinely make the lives of the employees from the company’s we work with better and in return they are motivated to perform to the best of their ability.

Since joining Caburn Hope, I’ve heard my colleagues speak so passionately about the world of employee communication and the vital importance it plays not just in attracting and keeping talent, but also in driving forward companies’ commercial objectives. And, like great marketing, employee engagement also focuses on how businesses make people feel, their people – whether that is inspiring them to reach their targets or encouraging them to foster a more diverse and inclusive culture. 

It’s so important. And even just a few weeks in, I already feel passionately about the impact I can have being a part of this team.