It’s easy for marketing teams to focus on external communications. That’s where their audience is! But let’s back up.
Before communicating with customers, it’s important to consider how your team communicates with one another. This is where your internal emails come into play, laying the groundwork for all of your external content marketing efforts.
For content marketing teams in fast-paced industries, internal emails are the hidden backbone that influences your team’s alignment, brand voice consistency, and content quality. If you’re not leveraging your internal communication as the first step in your content marketing strategy, you’re missing a key piece of the puzzle.
And let’s just be honest: If we have to deal with email, we might as well have some fun with it.
Here are 10 quick tips for making the most of your internal emails and setting the stage for compelling content marketing efforts beyond the inbox.
1. Define Your Brand Voice Internally
The most successful content marketing strategies hinge on a clear and consistent brand voice. Internal emails are an excellent way to start building and practicing this voice.
Every internal message sets the tone for how your team will write, speak, and engage with your audience. If your team communicates consistently within the company, it becomes much easier to carry that voice through to external communications, creating a seamless experience for your audience. You don’t need to sound alike (how boring!), but wouldn’t it be nice if your team communicated in the same register?
When your internal emails mirror the language, tone, and style your customers will eventually see, your team is primed to write engaging, audience-focused content without missing a beat.
2. Align Teams Around Content Goals
Business-savvy marketers know that an aligned team is a productive one.
Internal emails are the perfect platform to communicate the broader vision and content marketing goals for your business. Sharing the ‘why’ behind your campaigns ensures that everyone—from copywriters to salespeople—understands the purpose of their content contributions and how they fit into the company’s overall marketing strategy.
This is where operational efficiency comes into play. By keeping your teams aligned from the outset, you avoid fragmented content efforts and ensure that every piece of content produced serves a clear business objective.
3. Encourage Storytelling Within the Team
Your employees and team members are often the best source of authentic, relatable stories that can serve as powerful content. Storytelling is at the heart of effective content marketing, and internal emails provide the perfect opportunity to solicit stories from within the company.
Encourage your team to share client success stories, behind-the-scenes moments, or insights from the field. This informal process generates fresh content ideas and keeps your employees engaged and invested in the marketing process. Sharing these stories internally also helps refine the narrative before it gets presented to your external audience.
4. Highlight and Celebrate Content Wins
Here’s an easy one.
It’s easy to get caught up in deadlines and quotas, but celebrating success is essential for maintaining momentum in any marketing strategy. Internal emails serve as an ideal platform for highlighting and celebrating when content performs well.
Did a recent blog post drive more traffic than expected? Did a social media campaign generate more leads than initially forecasted?
Share these wins!
Celebrating these victories boosts morale and helps your team understand what’s working, which leads to more refined and effective content in the future.
5. Create a Feedback Loop for Content
No one should operate in a vacuum, least of all marketing teams. Internal emails should be used to create an open feedback loop where team members can offer insights and suggestions for ongoing content projects. A fresh set of eyes on a draft or a quick round of feedback can significantly enhance the quality of your content before it reaches your audience.
This iterative approach enhances collaboration and drives continuous improvement across your content marketing efforts. When everyone is encouraged to provide input, the end result is a more polished and effective content marketing strategy.
6. Reinforce Core Brand Messaging
A consistent message is a powerful message, and this consistency starts internally. Your internal emails should regularly reinforce your brand’s core messaging pillars. Whether you’re discussing a new marketing campaign or just organizing the week’s workload, reminding the team of these foundational messages ensures that everyone is on the same page.
This creates cohesion across all content pieces, ensuring that your external messaging always reflects your brand’s unique voice and value proposition.
7. Promote Cross-Departmental Collaboration
Successful content marketing often depends on input from a variety of departments—not just marketing.
Internal emails are a practical tool for facilitating collaboration between departments such as sales, customer service, and product development. These teams have valuable insights into customer pain points and desires, which can shape highly relevant and effective content.
Cross-departmental collaboration ensures your content strategy is comprehensive, addressing every aspect of your business that might resonate with your audience.
8. Model Clear and Concise Communication
Every email sent within your company is an opportunity to model the kind of clear, concise communication that will ultimately benefit your external content marketing. Good writing habits, like avoiding jargon, keeping sentences concise, and using active voice, start internally.
By treating internal communication with the same level of care you would for external messaging, you’ll naturally develop a stronger, clearer approach to content creation.
It’s easy to wave off the incessant tide of internal emails or, dare we say, even texts; you know all those people already, and they’ll know what you mean, right? Wrong! Take care to communicate clearly with the people closest to you. This will lead to a happier and more fulfilling life.
9. Share Content Resources Regularly
Internal emails can also be a great platform for knowledge-sharing. Whether it’s distributing an article on the latest SEO trends, sending out updates on new tools your team should be using, or sharing the latest content audit results, these communications ensure that your team is equipped to stay on top of their game.
By fostering a culture of continuous learning, your team stays current with industry changes and content marketing best practices.
10. Celebrate Contributions and Participation
The best content marketing strategies are team efforts. Use internal emails to celebrate individual contributions and team efforts that contribute to the overall content marketing success. Acknowledging people who come up with fresh ideas, refine drafts, or make significant improvements encourages participation and creates a positive, collaborative work environment.
Strong Internal Emails Lead to Stronger Marketing Campaigns
Your internal emails are the overlooked foundation of your content marketing success.
By aligning your team, fostering collaboration, and reinforcing your brand’s messaging internally, you’ll naturally enhance the quality of your external content. In the competitive world of content marketing, the best strategies begin at home. Make sure your internal communication is up to the task.
