Linking Internal Marketing to Your Bottom Line

This Take 10 highlights how important Internal Marketing is to your organization’s growth, and will demonstrate how your employee satisfaction is directly linked to customer or patient satisfaction. Finally, it will show that if you do invest in internal communication and marketing efforts, it will provide nice returns for you in the future.

1. Link Your Internal Marketing Efforts to Revenue Generation
   
   Internal marketing is a powerful force with a strong link to revenue generation. A recent Chartered Management Institute study found that 80% of an organization’s worth is directly tied to the value of its employees. Further, a Northwestern University study revealed that Internal Marketing is one of the top three indicators of an organization’s financial performance.
   
   An International research study on marketing found that 41% of customers cite employee knowledge and attitude of staff as the primary reason for repeat business.
   
   It is clear that your employees, internal marketing efforts and the amount of repeat business you receive will all impact your revenue in some way.
2. Employee Satisfaction has a direct relationship to Customer or Patient Satisfaction.
   
   The next time you decide to conduct a customer or patient satisfaction study you should insist on conducting an employee satisfaction study to compare the results. Our research indicates the two scores should be very similar and are inextricably linked.
   
   The Forum for People Performance Management at Northwestern University claims a direct link between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and an organization’s financial performance. Along similar lines, Watson Wyatt’s survey of 267 companies in the U.S. found that high employee satisfaction provided a 26% total return to shareholders over a four year period.
   
   Take an active role in disseminating customer or patient satisfaction information at all levels of your organization. Unfortunately, our findings suggest that only half of companies that conduct customer research share it with their employees.
3. Effective Communication Will Bring Rewards.
   
   Organizations that are effective with their internal marketing efforts, experience on average higher growth rates, better profitability, lower turnover rates and higher customer satisfaction results.
   
   Additionally, a Fortune Magazine study reports that the Top 200 Most Admired companies invest three times as much on internal communication as the bottom 200 companies.
   
   In our research of more than 200 Human Resource Executives, we found that almost all (99%) stated, “I realize that to get the results and growth my organization wants, our employees need to play an active role.” If you haven’t done so already, consider linking employee value and accomplishment to your strategic outcomes.