What kind of culture do you foster at your company? If you’re not sure, you might be missing out on a critical marketing tool that can build your brand and improve your customer experience.
Culture is one of the most important assets that a company possesses. As companies work to build the perfect marketing campaigns to attract new customers, many forget this critical part of building a brand. Focus on engagement and company culture first. Then your strategic marketing campaigns will follow naturally.
Why your culture should be your first step in marketing and branding
Many new companies think about how they are going to market themselves to new customers. This is obviously an important step in any new business. After all, you need to have a solid marketing strategy to bring in sales and earn money. But even the best marketing strategies can fail if you don’t have the right company culture to back it up.
You need a plan for how you will build your internal culture. This should come before planning marketing campaigns. After all, the culture you create internally becomes the foundation of who you are as a brand. The right one can help your brand grow and thrive, but the wrong one can do just the opposite — kill any momentum you gain with other marketing campaigns.
Gallup surveys show that engaged employees are part of successful companies. And there’s a good reason for it. The people who work within your organization interact with your customers every day. They also have lives outside of work. Their enthusiasm for your brand — and how well you live your values — will show up in all those interactions.
Right now, unfortunately, most businesses aren’t getting this right:
- Only 41% of employees say they know what their company stands for.
- Only 4 out of 10 employees agree that the mission and purpose of their company make them feel important.
- 26% of U.S. workers say their organization always delivers on its promises to customers.
- 39% of U.S. employees are “engaged” at work.
But when companies do get it right, it makes a big difference. In fact, engaged employees are 23 times more likely than disengaged employees to say their company is a great place to work.
Engaged employees improve customer experience
Your employees are the main link to your current and prospective customers. The things they do and say each day reflect on your business — their general attitude and perspective on the workplace will influence how your customers see you as well. In a Gallup survey that asked employees to describe their workplace culture, engaged employees were more likely to use words like:
- Friendly
- Collaborative
- Caring
- Efficient
- Supportive
Actively disengaged employees were more likely to use words like:
- Lazy
- Reactive
- Disorganized
- Gossip
Some companies might think that they don’t need to worry too much about the disengaged group. After all, they are also more likely to be looking for a new job, so if they leave, it’s not a big deal, right? Wrong.
Companies with high levels of disengaged employees and toxic work cultures are also less profitable. Gallup’s analysis found that organizations with highly engaged employees were 21% more profitable and have 59% less turnover (in high-turnover organizations) than those with high levels of disengagement.
So, what can you do to promote a positive workplace culture? Make sure your company’s mission, vision, and values are all aligned. Next, make sure everyone in your organization understands and lives those values each day. That’s how companies like SHV Holdings get through even the toughest market downturns. The company is a large conglomerate of businesses, with tens of thousands of employees in 58 countries. Yet they manage to remain aligned in their core values.
The company emphasizes professionalism, trust, integrity and its people. They make those values clear to everyone and model them at the highest level. They also focus on simplicity and common sense, and these values shine through at all levels.
Help employees succeed in your organization
The best way to build a strong culture is to:
- Have a clear mission, a distinct vision, and strong values.
- Make sure everyone knows, understands. and lives those things every day.
- Help employees find their own strengths.
- Give employees opportunities for personal growth.
- Build a culture of trust where everyone can contribute.
When employees feel valued and supported, they are more likely to put in 100% effort to grow with you. That will show in your marketing and branding efforts.
Start building your company culture today
EXTEND GROUP can help you build a better culture from the start or help you repair a damaged culture in an existing organization. We listen, educate, and deliver on our promises so your organization can grow and thrive in any industry. Reach out today to learn more.
