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6 | Minute Read
Internal communications ideas and best practices often come in all shapes and sizes and there is no one-size-fits-all.
Some organisations are delivering their internal communications in the same way they have been for the last 10 years! Whether it is sending the same company newsletter that hasn’t had a re-design, (and still looks straight out of the 90s) or writing company updates on the same office whiteboard that nobody looks at, chances are your internal communications are due for a makeover.
Time to Re-think Your Internal Communications?
We have put together our top 7 internal communications ideas that won’t just increase your engagement but will have your teammates looking forward to hearing from you again.
Swift Digital works with a number of public and private sector companies – including Government organisations and universities – who use our tools for their internal communications. We have been working with these companies to help them improve their internal communications with internal communications ideas and strategy building, at a time when internal communication is more important than ever before.
Our priority is to provide a service and assistance that ensures employees get all the information they need, including safety guidelines and updated information, in a timely manner.
Internal Comms Strategy Template
When it comes to executing your internal communications campaign, an Internal Communications Strategy brief is a must-have.
Download your free template today!
What is Internal Communication?
Internal communication is what companies and organisations use to stay connected with their employees. It’s a way for departments to keep their teams up to date with the objectives and goals of the department and company.
Internal communication is in place to ensure employees are informed of company news, company announcements, as well as to understand and communicate the organisation’s overall company objectives.
7 Internal Communications Ideas That Leave You Wanting More
1. Less Is More
Try and communicate with your employees less. Yes, this may sound strange and at first be a hard habit to break but try sending out your organisation’s internal newsletter once a month or quarter ). This will leave your audience waiting for the next installment and be much more inclined to tune in.
2. Use Polls
A great internal communications idea for your email newsletters is to add a poll. Nice, simple and quick, perfect for your recipients’ busy schedules. Ask your audience questions and encourage them to participate.
Polls have a unique advantage when it comes to increasing your engagement and learning about your audience. Truth is, people love participating. You can even show them the poll results once they have answered. This will help increase overall engagement. Swift Digital’s email Composer module comes with a drag and drop poll widget for your emails, newsletters and Landing Pages.
3. Keep Secrets (Which you eventually reveal)
Being transparent with your colleagues and peers is an important part of your internal communications. However, this doesn’t mean you have to blurt everything out at once in one video, email or message. Try staggering information or messages, or creating partly revealing videos showcasing new company products, plans or projects coming up.
4. Get to Know Your People Series
A good internal communications idea is a ‘People Series’. This is a specific internal campaign using the people who are the reason you have internal communications in place: your colleagues!
Try a monthly interview with somebody from each department. Create questions that are interesting and will provoke interesting responses. Try and steer away from the usual “why do you like working here?” as these can be quite laborious and are often answered out of obligation
5. Introduce Competitions
Unfortunately, all answers can be Googled these days so a quiz via email won’t cut it. Try and create a game within your internal communications. For example, a treasure hunt where your audience has to locate something within your email, video, newsletter or intranet, or you could go further and create an actual treasure hunt outside of the office (make sure it is permitted).
This is great not only for upping your internal communication engagement but also for getting your colleagues to work together and solve problems.
6. Make Your Communications Visual
Imagery and graphics can make or break your internal communications. Align graphics and photos with your strategy and messaging. Work with your design team, if you have one, otherwise work with an agency to create something aesthetically pleasing that your audience will look forward to seeing again.
7. Use Video Snippets
Another one of our internal communications ideas is to use video to communicate to your audience. Companies often come up with this idea but don’t follow through and if they do, the results can often be less than optimal. Speak with a video agency, or if you have one, your in-house video team to see if you can arrange short 10-15 second videos that can be inserted into your newsletters or hosted on your intranet.
Video email marketing gives you the opportunity to share information with your audience that is usually hard to share. Try inserting a video into your newsletter and see your opens and click throughs increase. Another tip is to add the word ‘video’ or ‘watch video’ to the subject line or title. Emails with such phrases usually get higher open rates.
Why Boring Internal Communications are a Waste of Time
Over the last 10 years Internal communication has continued to grow across organisations. But with 60% of companies being without a long-term strategy for their internal communications, we are still seeing ineffective strategy with a shocking 74% of employees feeling out of the loop.
With stats like this, it is easy to see that what used to work is no longer working. Manylarger organisations have realised this and have developed dedicated internal communication teams, so what’s going on?
Let’s look into 5 internal communications tactics that are a big waste of time.
1. Creating video for video sake
Video is an easier way to consume content. However, if your video is lacking you may feel it was a waste of time and effort if it garners similarly lacking results. Make sure you have quality cameras, precision audio and the scene is well lit. If you cannot achieve a high quality clip or video, you may want to consider other content tricks before spending time and resource on filming.
2. Long ‘informative’ content
Less is more. You may feel like you want to tell everybody everything that happened in every department in the last month, but don’t. Scale back your copy, read it again and remove some more. Nobody has time to read it all.
3. Making your content ‘professional’
Yes, you want to make sure your content sounds professional and you may think using big words will make you sound more like you know what you’re talking about. Truth is, people tune off to buzzwords, they don’t always want to hear corporate-speak, and if they have the choice they may choose not to listen or read it. Establish a tone that works with your organisation, do some research, run a survey or a poll and find out more about your audience.
4. Using graphics and imagery from yesteryear
Ok, so you added some imagery to break up the text. But it is an image of Sue, who worked for the company back in 1995? Is it an outdated, lo-res image of your office from 10 years ago? If people can’t resonate with the company they will just switch off. Make sure you update your imagery and get some fresh new graphics.
5. Staying consistent
Sending one newsletter once a week on a Friday at 12pm will work in some organisations but not others. The repetition of work is already enough for some, they will eventually learn to ignore the same old email that regularly lands in their inbox. Shake it up and be agile. Use your internal communication tools and be flexible depending on what’s going on that day, week or year.
Use Powerful Marketing Automation Software For Your Internal Communications
Do you need help with the creation and automation of your internal communications?
Here at Swift Digital, we can help get you started with our useful internal communications template.
We also have tips on internal communications best practices and a bunch of internal communication examples to help make your internal communication campaign a success.
To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.
Internal Communications Ideas FAQ
What is an example of internal communication?
An example of internal communication is a monthly newsletter that goes out to all employees informing them of what has been happening in the organisation, any events that are coming up, employee recognitions and more.
How do you communicate effectively internally?
Plan your communications, research what works in your organisation, use interactive elements in your emails such as polls, quizzes, videos, surveys and be visual.
What is internal communication?
Internal communication is what companies and organisations use to stay in contact with their employees and the wider business.
How do employees communicate internally?
Employees use internal communications systems and email automation software to communicate internally along with intranets, social media, messaging apps and more.
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You can raise engagement with embedded images, videos, polls, article feedback, and emojis and schedule messages to send at the right time.
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Swift Digital is Australia’s leader in marketing automation software and event management working with organisations like the NSW Government, ATO, and companies like Westpac Bank and Qantas.
Find out why we’re the Australian government department’s number one choice for their professional communications and events.
To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.
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