Latest / The Marketing Career Podcast with Fexingo: Marketing Jobs, Skills, and Career Growth / Why Marketers Fail At Internal Storytelling
Transcript
- Lucas: We spend millions optimizing the customer journey, yet we routinely ignore the employee journey. It is a blind spot that costs companies billions in churn and disengagement. I want to talk about why marketers need to treat their own colleagues as their first audience. Luna: That feels counterintuitive when budgets are tight. But if employees don't believe the brand, they can't sell it or support it effectively. Lucas: Exactly. The problem is that most internal communications are treated as administrative updates rather than strategic narrative building. They are dry, compliance-heavy, and completely devoid of the emotional resonance that drives external conversion. We know how to write a compelling ad copy, but we struggle to write an email that makes people care about the company mission. Luna: It is almost like we think internal audiences are too smart to be marketed to, so we strip away all the persuasion elements. Lucas: Precisely. And that assumption is dangerous because employees are consumers too. They consume content every day. If the internal content is boring, they tune out. When they tune out, they lose connection to the product vision. That disconnect shows up in customer service interactions, in sales calls, and in the quality of the work itself. We see this pattern everywhere, but let us look at one specific example where a company got it right. Salesforce under Marc Benioff is the textbook case here. Luna: Right, the Ohana culture. How did they actually operationalize that without it becoming just another buzzword? Lucas: They made internal storytelling a core part of the business rhythm, not an afterthought. Every quarter, Benioff does not just share financial numbers. He shares stories of customers whose lives were improved by their software. He frames those stories around the company values of trust and customer success. It is not about the code; it is about the impact. He treats the internal team with the same respect he gives the external market. They use dedicated internal platforms to highlight these stories, making sure every employee sees how their specific role contributes to that larger narrative. It creates a feedback loop where employees feel seen and understood. Luna: So it is less about broadcasting from the top down and more about connecting individual work to the broader purpose. Lucas: Yes. And that requires a different skill set for marketers. Most of us are trained to analyze external data: click-through rates, conversion metrics, customer acquisition costs. But internal engagement requires qualitative analysis. You have to understand the sentiment of your own workforce. You need to know what keeps them up at night, what frustrates them about their tools, and what motivates them beyond a paycheck. If you cannot empathize with your colleagues, you will never be able to persuade them to adopt a new strategy or embrace a cultural shift. Luna: That empathy gap is huge. Many marketers come from agencies where the client is the enemy or the obstacle. Here, the client is sitting next to you. Lucas: That is a great point. Agency marketers often learn to be persuasive quickly because they are fighting for attention against competitors. In-house, you have captive audiences, which can lead to complacency. We assume people will read the memo because they have to. But attention is still scarce. Even in a meeting room, if the presentation is poorly structured, people disengage. The principle of scarcity applies internally just as much as externally. You have to earn the attention of your peers. Luna: So how do we start measuring this? It feels harder to track than a campaign ROI. Lucas: It is harder, but not impossible. You can track participation rates in town halls, but that is vanity metrics. You need to track sentiment. Use pulse surveys that ask specific questions about clarity of mission. Are you clear on how your daily tasks contribute to the company goals? Can you articulate the brand promise to a friend? If the answers are negative, your internal narrative has failed. You also look at retention rates among high performers. If your best talent is leaving, it is often because they no longer believe in the story you are telling. Luna: Retention as a metric for internal marketing effectiveness. That is a sharp way to frame it. Lucas: It is the ultimate test. External marketing brings people in; internal marketing keeps them there. If you are good at both, you build a sustainable competitive advantage. Competitors can copy your ad campaigns. They can copy your pricing strategies. But they cannot easily copy a culture where every employee feels connected to the mission. That is a moat. And building that moat requires marketers to step out of their silos and into the heart of the organization. Luna: Which means we need to build relationships with HR and operations, not just sit in our creative corners. Lucas: Absolutely. Cross-functional collaboration is non-negotiable. You need to understand the operational constraints your colleagues face. If you propose a new brand initiative that requires five extra hours of manual data entry for the sales team, it will fail. No amount of beautiful design will overcome that friction. You have to design internal experiences that make people's jobs easier, not harder. That is true service design. And when you solve real problems for your internal stakeholders, you build trust. Trust is the currency of internal influence. Luna: I love that. Trust over tactics. Because if they don't trust the messenger, they won't listen to the message. Lucas: Correct. So, what is one concrete thing a marketer can do today to improve their internal storytelling? Stop writing emails. Start writing stories. Instead of announcing a new policy, tell the story of why the policy exists. Who does it help? What problem does it solve? Use the same narrative structures you use for customer campaigns. Hook, conflict, resolution. Make your colleagues the heroes of that story, not the side characters. When people see themselves as the hero, they engage. When they are just the audience, they scroll past. Luna: Make the employee the hero. That shifts the power dynamic entirely. It is empowering rather than directive. Lucas: It is. And it aligns with modern leadership principles. We are moving away from command and control structures toward empowerment and autonomy. Your internal communications should reflect that. Give people context, not just instructions. Context empowers decision-making. Instructions create dependency. If you want a agile organization, you need agile information flow. That means transparent, engaging, and human-centric communication. Luna: Transparency is key. People can smell spin from a mile away. If the internal story doesn't match the external reality, credibility is destroyed instantly. Lucas: Credibility is fragile. Once it is gone, it takes years to rebuild. And in the age of Glassdoor and LinkedIn, internal dissatisfaction leaks out publicly. Your employer brand is only as strong as your employee experience. If your employees are unhappy, they will say so. And potential hires will hear it. So internal marketing is not just about morale; it is about reputation management. It is about ensuring that the outside world sees what you want them to see, because the inside world believes it too. Luna: So the marketer becomes the guardian of truth within the company. Ensuring consistency between what is said and what is done. Lucas: Guardian of truth is a strong phrase. But yes, integrity is central. If the company claims to value sustainability but cuts funding for environmental initiatives, the internal narrative collapses. Marketers must call that out. We have a duty to align actions with words. It is uncomfortable, but it is necessary for long-term health. Silence is complicity. If you see a disconnect, you have to speak up. That is part of the job now. Luna: That raises the bar significantly. It is not just about creating content; it is about ethical stewardship of the company voice. Lucas: It is. And it opens up new career paths. Chief Internal Communications Officer is becoming a C-suite role in many large organizations. There is a premium on leaders who can bridge the gap between corporate strategy and human experience. If you are a marketer, this is your opportunity to expand your influence. Do not limit yourself to the customer-facing side. Take ownership of the entire ecosystem. Luna: It sounds like a holistic approach to marketing that finally includes the most important variable: the people doing the work. Lucas: People are the variable. Everything else is just noise. If you get the people right, the rest follows. Technology changes. Markets shift. Trends fade. But a motivated, aligned team is resilient. They adapt. They innovate. They win. So let us stop treating internal comms as an overhead cost. Treat it as an investment. An investment in your most valuable asset: your team. Luna: An investment that pays dividends in retention, innovation, and brand loyalty. It is hard to argue with that return. Lucas: Hard to argue with indeed. And it starts with a simple shift in mindset. From broadcaster to connector. From announcer to storyteller. From manager to partner. When you make that shift, you change the culture. And when you change the culture, you change the outcome. Luna: So the next time you draft that company-wide update, ask yourself who the hero is and whether they feel valued in the story. Lucas: Exactly. Make them the hero. Tell the truth. Connect the dots. And watch how quickly your internal world transforms. Luna: If these conversations about internal strategy and career growth have helped clarify your path, consider supporting the show directly. Lucas: We keep this network independent and ad-free so we can focus on deep, substantive analysis without sponsor interference. If you find value in our work, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Your support allows us to continue exploring these nuanced topics with the depth they deserve. Lucas: And it ensures we can keep asking the tough questions about business and marketing without compromise. Luna: Back to the topic, though, how do you handle pushback when leadership resists this kind of transparent storytelling? Lucas: You lead with data and small wins. Show them how transparency reduces turnover costs. Pilot a new narrative approach in one department and measure the results. Use the evidence to build the case for broader adoption. Change is incremental, but it is powerful.