The Benefits of Showcasing Company Culture in Digital Marketing
Having a strong sense of company culture in the workplace is more important than ever before — especially when your business is trying to stake a claim in today’s competitive and overcrowded marketplace. When everything a consumer could ever want or need is an Amazon Prime order away, how can you prove to would-be customers that you’re different and worth choosing over the competition?
The difference increasingly comes down to the quality of your company culture. Thanks to digital marketing and the power of the internet, it’s easier to showcase that culture than ever before. Here’s why it’s so important — and how your own company can get it done.
It’s Important in the Quest for Talent
Source: https://business.twitter.com/en/blog/agencies-showcase-culture-on-Twitter.html
Despite – or perhaps due to – relatively low unemployment, research indicates multiple industries should expect talent shortages by 2030. Industries like finance, manufacturing, skilled labor and cybersecurity may find themselves up against a collective deficit of some 85 million workers.
As a result, it’s wise to stop thinking of your digital marketing efforts as merely a means to find paying customers. It’s also a way to engage in talent management. Your content is not only about how and why you do what you do. Even if you’re not actively hiring today, you can populate your digital channels with content that tells the world — including future applicants — all about your company.
Poor matches between company cultures and job applicants often result in a higher-than-necessary turnover. However, too many employers treat daily life at their companies like a black box. They keep it a mystery until they’ve already made an offer and on-boarded a new hire. Culture shock is real — but you can avoid it by using your digital marketing campaigns to highlight the humanity of your organization. You can demonstrate what life is really like under your roof before ramping up your search for talent.
It Makes Your Brand More Personable
What exactly does it mean to humanize a brand through digital marketing?
At its most basic, it means putting a human face on an otherwise faceless product. We know what Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates look like because they’re two of the richest people on Earth. However, small businesses make up 99.7 percent of employer firms in the U.S. How well do we really know the folks who keep the wheels of our economy turning? Do we know what they look like? Do we know their stories?
Culture-focused marketing allows you to do so. The general public reached the peak of their advertising appetite years, if not decades, ago. Consumers want something more genuine and compelling than bullet-point breakdowns of why your product is superior.
There may be a reason for the enduring popularity of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe: These platforms are eminently human. Inventors and innovators get to appeal directly to the consumer using a mixture of personality-filled videos and direct communication. We get to see and hear from the people designing and building these things, and we can follow them home to their garages and basement workshops. If that’s not a model for direct capitalism that’s got more humanity and fewer intermediaries, then it at least gets us closer to that ideal.
You don’t even have to engage in crowdfunding, though. Social media, including video channels, are equally powerful platforms for giving your customers a look at the real you.
Source: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/hootsuitelife/
It Helps You Lead by Example
Finding an appealing match between our personal values and the brands we favor while shopping is now a top concern among modern consumers. Around the world, 66 percent of shoppers indicate they’re willing to spend more on certain products if it means supporting a sustainable brand. For millennials, the statistic rises to 73 percent.
Of course, sustainability is just one of the culture match data points you should be interested in cultivating through culture-based digital marketing. Here are some of the other characteristics worth driving home, especially where younger consumers are concerned:
- Support for pro-social politics and civic movements
- Participation in the community and charitable causes
- Ethical consumption and production
- Honest, open and genuine communication
- Fair treatment of employees
There are many ways to tastefully advertise your commitment to these values. As an example, consider the fair treatment and compensation of your employees. Your prospective customers and future employees want to see how committed your company is to making sure your workforce is provided for and recognized. If your employee handbook has provisions for things like flexible start times, telecommuting, paid parental and sick leave there’s no reason you can’t make mention of this on your social channels and even in your marketing campaigns.
It Lets Your Employees Show Off
One of the best ways to show off your company culture is to get your employees involved in your messaging.
Brands around the world have discovered the value of user-generated content. From photo submissions to limerick-writing contests, companies everywhere are infusing their brands with the colorful and diverse personalities of their users.
What about employee-generated content? You probably have more than one employee with some well-framed photographs from your latest company picnic or the last time you donated your time as a group to a local cause. These can be a digital marketing goldmine.
Your company blog is another hotspot. Not every post has to be product-centric, after all. Consider giving your employees a soapbox here where they can be themselves by contributing writing and other content. There may not be a better way to demonstrate your company’s personality, diversity, and culture than to hand over your digital channels to your employees on a regular basis. You can institute some basic guidelines for what’s permitted, but you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised by the variety and quantity of submissions you’ll receive. This is your chance to demonstrate how much of a community your company really is.
In Closing
Some employees may write about how well they can balance their professional and personal lives since taking a position with your company. Others may:
- Write about their hobbies
- Show off photos from their travels
- Explain their creative process
- Dive into what their job is like from day to day
- Talk about how they solve problems
- Brag about a favorite client
- Recommend a relevant book
Or they might do something else entirely.
These and other culture-centric messaging techniques may be just what your company needs to break through the online noise and clutter. It’s a different kind of advertising than what you may be used to. But as we’ve seen here, people are looking for something beyond the familiar.
Featured image: Copyright: ‘https://www.123rf.com/profile_deskcube‘ / 123RF Stock Photo
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