Intranets are often thought of as a tool for the IT or HR departments. Very few organizations think “marketing” when they hear intranet,
A modern intranet is the first thing that comes to your mind whenever you think of empowering employees, streamlining communications, or making connections more efficient at your workplace. It helps in connecting your organization across time zones and locations and brings your work culture to life. It is undoubtedly the hidden superpower behind a successful workplace.
Sadly, people often imagine intranets just as a private network tool for the IT or HR departments. Very few organizations think of “marketing” when they hear intranet, and because of this, many marketing departments often overlook its features. Believe it or not, your internal communication platform can be an essential tool for marketing. Continue reading to find out how.
1. Share & Promote Company Blogs
Most organizations have a company blog, usually owned by marketing. While many of our customers have an internal blog on their intranet, a great way marketing can utilize the intranet is by feeding their company blog onto the intranet.
This is a great way to ensure all employees see what blog posts are being published without having to check the public website daily/weekly. Perhaps one of the topics covered in your company blog is something that a customer called support to ask about. Support will see the blog on the intranet and have a good resource to share with customers. Sharing these posts shows employees what is being shared with your customers and prospects, which is important for all staff to know.
2. Spread the Word About Marketing Initiatives
One way the Intranet Connections’ Marketing Team utilizes the intranet is by including an “Intranet Connections in the News” feed. Whenever Intranet Connections is featured outside our own communications, such as a published article, press release, or news article, we promote it internally to the team to share how our great work is being promoted in the community. We also directly feed this information onto our intranet home page to easily share and promote with the entire company. This has proven to be a great way to keep the organization informed on marketing initiatives, as well as communicate that the initiatives are effective.
3. Store Resourceful Marketing Materials
Similar to HR, marketing can use the intranet to better serve employees. A great way Marketing can do this is by having an area on the Marketing Site for marketing collateral, such as the corporate white paper, case studies, ebooks, newsletters, email templates, etc. This makes it easy for employees to quickly find specific marketing materials they seek.
Storing these types of documents on the intranet is especially useful for the sales department, who often need these types of resources to acquire leads, as well as the support department who can use the resources to answer customer inquiries. In addition to better serving employees, this is also better for the company as a whole. Having these marketing documents on the intranet ensures all employees are on the same page when it comes to the company messaging and how to communicate your product effectively.
4. Enjoy & Share Customer Appreciation
Employee recognition is a great tool that most of our customers use on the intranet to improve employee retention and boost morale. But another effective way to boost morale is hearing customer feedback, not just employee feedback.
Often, marketing puts together various customer testimonials for the public website. Another way marketing can utilize the intranet is by posting these testimonials internally for all employees to see. This shows that employees’ efforts are being recognized by both the organization and its happy customers.
5. Communal Marketing Editorial Calendar
Our Intranet Connections’ Marketing Team also manages our Editorial Marketing Calendar through the intranet. By sharing a content publishing Marketing Editorial Content Calendar on our intranet we can plan, track and execute on marketing initiatives as a team. We also can plan execution on future content where we see gaps in the editorial calendar, as well as what areas our content creation is light. Utilizing an Editorial Calendar on our intranet has been integral to keeping our Marketing team in sync and on time. We would highly recommend implementing this tool yourself.
Create a Desirable Intranet for your Marketing Department
There are numerous tools that can benefit your Marketing department on your intranet. The few mentioned above are just the beginning of the ways your intranet can be utilized, appreciated, and enjoyed by your Marketing department.
If you wish to determine the areas of your internal comms strength and weakness, take our complimentary internal communications assessment now! After that, you can also book yourself a 15-minute FREE DEMO call with us and discuss innovative methods to address your business’s internal communications challenges.
HR Intranet Guide
Discover how the HR Guide to an Employee-Based Intranet eBook can improve employee engagement and streamline HR processes.
