CMOs have long understood the need for developing and delivering a clear, compelling and consistent corporate message that crystalizes the position the business desires to own in the minds of their target audience. But do you know who doesn’t know this? The rest of your company.

According to a recent Gallup Poll, 91 percent of front line workers are unable to articulate what their company stands for and what differentiates it from the competition. So while the CMO and his or her C-suite peers may be able to articulate what the organization does, the value it delivers and what differentiates the company in the marketplace — all those employees who are engaging online and in selling conversations with prospects and customers — can’t. As a result, your customer is experiencing a disconnected story and less than stellar customer experience.

Here are five ways marketing can drive consistent messaging throughout the customer journey.

  1. Develop a Corporate Messaging Platform. This process must involve key internal stakeholders, including C-suite and senior leadership. The messaging platform becomes the foundation for effectively infusing your corporate story into the hearts and minds of employees.
  2. Launch an organizational change initiative that includes disciplined internal communication training and education programs that make an emotional and cognitive connection between employees and your corporate message.
  3. Make the message easy to access and activate. Create the content and tools that will meet the needs of all internal stakeholders. The sales team will have different requirements than the customer care department or the IT organization. Ensure these communication resources are available whenever and however employees need to access them.
  4. Make training engaging and entertaining. Whether Web-based, in-person, or online — develop and deploy formal training programs that introduce your employees to the new corporate story, and enables them to internalize and personalize the messaging so they can bring it to life in daily work activities.
  5. Reinforce, measure and optimize. Changing employee mindsets and behaviors is not a one-time event. It takes repetition to fully infuse messaging into the hearts and minds of your organization. Give managers toolkits so they can help their teams understand how the message impacts business performance and activates key messages in specific internal and external communications.

Organizational change initiatives require commitment from the entire leadership team. Executives must understand that “messaging infusion” is a journey … not a destination. To cultivate lasting change, CMOs must work in collaboration with leaders across all functional areas of the business to ensure the company delivers a clear, compelling and consistent message throughout the customer experience.

Download this white paper to discover why marketing must infuse corporate messaging into the hearts and minds of employees.