Inside Voice

Feb 2012 - by Scott Holmes

I’ve heard a couple times now, “We’ve got this great employee newsletter that we want to share with our clients. What do you think?”

Well, I think it’s great that you have an employee newsletter you’re proud of. And I think it’s fantastic you want to engage your clients. And I think it’s a terrible idea. Correction, I think it’s a terrible idea unless your brand is one that has you treating your clients as employees. See the difference?

Internal communications and external communications are very different. The ideas, the tone, the look and most importantly the goals are completely different. Yes both internal and external stakeholders want to be engaged, they want to know what’s going on with your company but it’s how you engage and speak to them which is the point. External communications remind your client base of your brand and entice them to get involved. Internal communications work to keep your workforce involved and engaged. Your workforce IS your brand. Both on the frontlines and behind the scenes they represent your corporate ideas and you need to speak to those ideals to keep them caring about being that brand representation.

Think of it this way, if you’re a GM of a professional hockey or baseball team. The way you speak to your team/players is very different than how you speak to your fans. You need to motivate your players (and occasionally discipline) and you need to excite your fans. How you do that are two very different techniques.

Being open and honest with your clients is a great idea, but you need to recognize that their expectations are different. It’s a great idea to try to save money by using an internal communication piece as an external marketing piece. But think of the damage that it could be doing to your brand. Saving those funds short-term is going to hurt you in the end. Like accidentally divulging your wife’s real age, you’ll be saying to yourself “inside voice, inside voice”.

Scott Holmes is the Director of Marketing Operations at Synergist Communications (www.synergistcommunications.com). He has extensive experience developing travel and corporate brands in Canada and overseas,  through strategic, creative programs that resonate with their identified targets and goals.