“We want everyone drinking from the same hose.”

How often have you heard someone within your company say that to rally their team?

And while the phrase may seem trite, the idea of an entire team working cohesively and around the same beliefs is something that rings true. Now, that’s a sentiment that every business can raise a glass to.

But every once in a while, businesses need to bring in a water boy. That’s where Switch comes into play. We work with clients to help them speak to their individual members of the organization in order to motivate and build a stronger team. The same way companies hire agencies to reach their customers with a meaningful, targeted message should be applied to reaching their employees and delivering meaningful messages internally.

Take some advice from someone who has been in the internal communications game for over 40 years.

Delivering Targeted Messaging That’s Impactful

Your message and delivery needs to be approachable, refreshing, and something that your employees can easily digest. Just like feeling refueled from a tall glass of water, you want employees to turn to this campaign when they are looking to replenish their morale and beliefs in the company. You want your message to be impactful – that doesn’t mean deliver with an overwhelming impact or force. Hence, embrace the garden hose and not the fire hose approach. Sometimes the most impactful, motivating message can be delivered from the heart, not the strength of your voice. And now more than ever, it’s important to foster advocacy for your brands. Your employees should champion your brand just as much as your most trusted clients.

Earn High Scores with Your Team

There are variety of digital opportunities to bring your message to life in unique ways. A recent example of how we took an internal marketing campaign in an unexpected direction is building a custom digital game. The medium opens itself up to be interpreted in so many different ways – whether it’s a simple guessing game or a multi-level story, you want to encourage employees to return again and again. On the surface, this idea may seem insincere or incongruent when you’re trying to convey important information. But in the case of our client, it actually helped hammer home the message with employees and helped them retain facts for their industry. Ultimately, it comes down to how you communicate and integrate your message into the game. In our case, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive from employees, proving that sometimes work can be all fun and games.

Walk Off with a Virtual Mic Drop

During a pandemic, it might seem harder to reach your team in meaningful ways. Seminars, in-person meetings and retreats aren’t really a safe option at the moment. However, that doesn’t mean you have to settle on a boring virtual call or just sit on the sidelines. A virtual meeting or event is always at its most successful when it’s an extension of your brand. But beyond that, it also has to look and sound good. Just like any in-person meeting or event, production quality matters. From teleprompters to coordinating multiple screens to integrating live feeds, there are many moving parts to a virtual or hybrid production. Between our in-house video team and state-of-the-art soundstage, we can safely film live and streaming broadcasts, commercials, presentations and more to communicate important messages and create moments that reinforce your goals.

Decide Your Plan of Attack by Listening

So many businesses know what they’re trying to say but don’t know how to say it. It’s amazing what you will discover just by listening. That isn’t to say that you have to directly ask your team what strategy to take, but you might be surprised to learn what you should do just by reading between the lines. When Switch was recently working with a client, we conducted interviews with a variety of our client’s team members throughout the company. Whether they were sharing frustrations or singing the praises of the company, everyone had similar things to say. This was a great thing, as it allowed the campaign to naturally develop. And it was through these insights that the strategy and campaign came to us, not the other way around. For those who think research is overrated, we find that direction is always found through the act of discovery.

Are you looking to explore ideas on how to bring to life internal campaigns with your team?

Contact Chris Jobst

314.206.7804 or ChrisJ@switch.us