All employees of Starbucks—from corporate staff to in-store baristas—are referred to as “partners.” This isn’t just a nickname—it’s a reflection of the company’s commitment to fostering a sense of ownership and belonging among its workforce.
Just as they carefully craft their external image, Starbucks puts significant effort into promoting its brand and values internally. This internal marketing approach includes seeking partner feedback, promoting inclusion and belonging, and hosting internal events to inspire managers.
These initiatives aim to align Starbucks’ internal culture with its external brand promise of nurturing human connection. But you don’t need to be a multibillion-dollar global coffee chain to implement internal marketing and find ways to engage employees to win their buy-in. Read on to see what makes internal marketing important to boosting employee satisfaction, fostering a strong company culture, and building a legion of brand advocates.
What is internal marketing?
Internal marketing is the practice of promoting a company’s values, goals, and brand identity to its employees. It’s an approach to treat staff members as internal customers, fostering a sense of belonging and alignment with the organization’s mission.
Unlike external marketing, which focuses on attracting and retaining customers, internal marketing aims to engage and motivate employees to deliver on the brand’s promises. An effective internal marketing strategy creates a workforce that not only understands the company’s objectives but also feels genuinely invested in achieving them.
Internal marketing efforts include activities designed to inform, inspire, and involve employees in the company’s journey. This might include regular communication from leadership, team-building exercises, training programs, and initiatives to reinforce company culture. Here are a few examples:
- All-hands meetings or town halls with updates from leadership.
- Demos and previews from the product development team.
- Corporate awards for employees who exemplify team values.
- Weekly Slack updates about happenings at the company.
- Internal emails sharing the company’s impact on customers’ lives through quotes and testimonials.
Benefits of internal marketing
Just as external marketing builds trust with customers through consistent messaging and engagement, internal marketing cultivates trust with another equally important audience: your employees. While leaders often focus their communication efforts on the marketplace, investing in internal marketing can turn employees into true believers in your mission.
Align employees with business goals
As organizations grow, teams often become disconnected, working in silos with their own separate priorities. Successful internal marketing tackles this challenge by sharing a unified message across all departments. Through clear internal communication, everyone from marketing to product development and customer service understands and works toward common objectives aligned with the company’s mission.
Boost employee engagement
Effective internal marketing helps employees feel like vital contributors to the company’s mission, not just cogs in a machine. Consistent communication of company goals, achievements, and vision, helps transform passive workers into engaged stakeholders who understand their role in the organization’s success.
This engagement comes with a host of other benefits. A 2024 report found that the most engaged business units see a 70% increase in employee well-being, an 18% rise in sales productivity, and a 23% boost in profitability.
Retain and attract top talent
When employees feel genuinely valued and part of a larger mission, they’re more likely to stay with the company. Happy employees also become natural brand ambassadors for your company, sharing job openings with qualified friends (and reducing recruitment costs) and promoting the services and products of the company within their social circles.
Beyond strengthening your referral pipeline, engaged employees often celebrate their workplace experiences on platforms like LinkedIn, helping attract candidates who align with your company culture while simultaneously reinforcing their own commitment to stay with the organization long-term.
How to build an internal marketing strategy
- Set specific goals
- Ask for employee input
- Ensure buy-in from leadership
- Align internal and external messaging
- Communicate across employee channels
- Develop social media guidelines
Building a successful internal marketing strategy requires the same rigor and thoughtfulness you’d apply to your external marketing efforts, yet some organizations overlook these fundamentals. Here are a few tips to help your internal marketing efforts succeed:
1. Set specific goals
Like any marketing strategy, internal marketing needs clear objectives to succeed. While fostering engagement and alignment with company values are worthy aims, your internal communications should work toward specific and measurable outcomes. Setting concrete goals helps you design focused internal marketing programs and measure their effectiveness over time.
Consider goals like these:
- Boost employee Net Promoter Scores (NPS) from 65 to 80 within six months
- Establish and achieve a 65% open rate for internal newsletters
- Boost employee referrals for open positions by 25%
2. Ask for employee input
You probably wouldn’t launch a product without customer feedback. Similarly, don’t create your internal marketing plan without input from your target audience: your employees. Your team likely already has specific information they want to hear from leadership, so start by understanding these existing needs.
Through surveys and conversations, explore whether employees feel recognized for their work, connected to the company’s mission, and equipped with enough transparency to perform their jobs effectively.
Do they want more updates about team achievements? Insights into upcoming product launches? More information about growth and development opportunities? Let employee feedback guide your strategy.
3. Ensure buy-in from leadership
Effective internal marketing isn’t just an HR exercise—it requires genuine commitment and active participation from top leadership. When company announcements and updates come directly from C-suite executives and senior leaders, they carry inherent weight and authenticity that resonates throughout the organization.
Messages about a company’s goals, strategic initiatives, or employee recognition programs land differently when delivered by those steering the ship, as it shows these initiatives truly matter to decision-makers. By demonstrating that encouraging employees and fostering open communication is a priority at the highest levels, leadership transforms internal marketing from a nice-to-have into a core business strategy.
4. Align internal and external messaging
Your internal messaging and external brand promises need to align to maintain credibility with employees. If your company’s vision emphasizes customer satisfaction and transparency, your marketing team can’t design landing pages with obscure pricing and your sales team can’t push aggressive upsells that compromise the customer experience.
Similarly, if you promote work-life balance in your recruitment materials, but your internal culture celebrates working late, this disconnect will quickly erode trust. When your actions, internal communications, and external messaging work in harmony, employees become genuine believers in your mission.
5. Communicate across employee channels
Your internal marketing team (whether that’s HR or another dedicated taskforce) should take advantage of every available channel to reach employees where they are. A multichannel approach ensures your message reaches different types of learners and accommodates various work styles and schedules.
Here are key examples of internal marketing channels and how to use them:
- Internal podcasts let employees absorb company updates on their own time: during commutes or while working on other tasks.
- Monthly newsletters provide a curated digest of company milestones, employee spotlights, and upcoming initiatives.
- Slack or other messaging platforms enable real-time updates and quick, informal communication between teams.
- Virtual all-hands meetings and town halls create space for leadership to share big-picture strategy and celebrate wins.
- Q&A sessions give employees direct access to leadership and encourage transparent dialogue.
- In-person events, like team off-sites, foster genuine connection and help remote teams build stronger relationships.
6. Develop social media guidelines
When internal marketing plays its role effectively, you’ll see improved employee retention, engagement, and brand advocacy. Enthusiastic employees often want to share their positive experiences on social media, creating a natural bridge between external and internal marketing efforts.
However, it’s important to establish clear social media guidelines that outline what can be shared publicly—keeping unreleased products and strategic plans confidential while encouraging authentic posts about company culture and approved initiatives. While these guidelines should protect sensitive information, they shouldn’t be overly restrictive or diminish the genuine voice of your employees.
Internal marketing FAQ
What is internal vs. external marketing?
Internal marketing focuses on engaging and motivating employees within a company, while external marketing targets customers and potential clients outside the organization.
Why is internal marketing good?
Internal marketing aligns staff with company goals, boosts employee morale, and helps attract and retain top talent, ultimately leading to improved business performance.
What is an example of internal marketing?
An example of internal marketing is a company-wide meeting where leadership shares the organization’s vision and celebrates employee achievements, fostering a sense of belonging and purpose among team members.
