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By Christina Crawley.

More than ever, teams need to be able to rely on digital tools and strategies to work together. As remote and geographically dispersed teams increase, the benefits of in-person collaboration need to find their place within the digital realm. Various combinations of tools support this approach; however, smart use of internal email marketing is key to keeping employees focused and informed so that they can do their jobs effectively.

Email marketing generally focuses on external audiences. It aims to encourage individuals to click, engage or buy. Its approaches are, however, still very much relevant for internal teams, both large and small.

As you look to either strengthen or launch your internal email outreach to your digital teams, here are a number of trusted approaches that you’ll want to be sure to include.

1. Create (and stick to) a schedule.

Employees can more easily retain info that they both recognize and expect in their inboxes. A companywide or teamwide update email that comes in unexpectedly may leave individuals confused as to how they are supposed to respond or move forward. Consistent, expected email updates provide structure and a sense of routine that they can quickly apply to their work.

Some updates may be more relevant, appreciated or acted upon than others, but their consistent frequency will make them far more likely to be applied to teams’ everyday work. Consistency creates habit, which then becomes part of your employees’ working routines.

2. Apply formatting and branding.

While it may seem like internal audiences don’t need branding and formatting, a visually clear structure goes a long way in getting employees’ attention and engagement. Your staff’s inboxes are just as packed with incoming mail as your external audiences’ are. Visual cues and flags allow your internal teams to effectively understand and scan what you are sending their way.

Deliberate formatting, from familiar subject lines to consistent body topic blocks, allows staff to quickly scan what they’ve received and pick out what applies to them. For teams that are waiting for a certain piece of information, or are focused on other emergencies, this formatting allows them to quickly grab what they need and move on.

Branding allows your staff to immediately recognize and differentiate email communications, such as a new staff announcement versus a product launch. It makes it easier to know what attention is expected of them, and how it affects what they are doing.

Email templates that incorporate branding and formatting for different types of messages can help your messages stand out from regular, nonformatted internal emails.

3. Personalize your content.

Whether you are communicating to thousands of employees worldwide or a small team locally, being aware of your audience segments and what you need from them helps to avoid your emails being ignored. Create content that is relevant to those who receive it. Otherwise, it risks being seen as unimportant and ignored.

Personalization ranges from individual departments to specific roles. For example, the length and detail of your content may be short when providing a brief companywide update on an issue, compared to a small team update on the same issue that dives deeper and includes tasks and action items. Calls to action (CTAs) that you lay out may also differ from one group to another — for example, including buttons and/or links to take action outside of email versus requesting a direct reply or follow-up discussion.

4. Create engagement and interaction.

Generally speaking, we know that if people engage directly with something (in this case, email content), they are more likely to remember it over time. Creating an intriguing or playful interaction opportunity within an internal email is an easy way to achieve this. Examples include launching a feedback poll, asking a trivia question connected to the issue you’re communicating, encouraging engagement with the company’s social media or sharing a relevant video to break up the act of simply reading.

Interaction with your internal emails not only helps employees to better retain the information you’re sending, but it also brings them closer to one another and creates opportunities for further collaboration and support. This is especially valuable when they don’t have the opportunity to connect in person.

5. Don’t spam your internal teams.

When developing an email strategy that engages teams and encourages employees to pay attention and take action, there is a real concern that too many internal emails can have a negative effect on productivity. The general rule of thumb is to focus on content that pertains directly to employees’ roles. If your emails are relevant to their working day, then they will be received as valuable and worth the time to read or scan.

Emails unrelated to employees’ work run the risk of being nothing more than distractions, which may negatively affect employees’ output. This is not to say that you shouldn’t be sending emails about upcoming social events and personal news, but be aware that those should be done at a minimum and/or in a way that avoids distracting or pulling them away from their work.

Looking Ahead

Email is an asynchronous form of communication, so your teams are able to engage with your email outreach when it makes the most sense for their workloads and schedules. As you launch and update your internal email strategy, pay close attention to the engagement data, and make tweaks and changes as necessary. What works today may not next year. The key is to provide consistent content that is essential in supporting your team’s success and productivity.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Christina Crawley

Director of Marketing at Forum One, leading global marketing and outreach to the world’s most influential nonprofits and foundations.

Sourced from Forbes Billionaire

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