How healthcare marketers can implement internal marketing

For your healthcare organization to do its work, it's important that your employees feel valued and respected. This is why internal marketing is useful. Internal marketing promotes your healthcare company’s vision, mission, culture, and objectives to your employees with the goal of keeping them engaged. To implement successful internal marketing in your healthcare organization, it's a good idea to look at your employees as if they are a business and you’re trying to pick them up as a lead. This is effective because it helps you feel like their support needs to be earned rather than given to you. As a healthcare marketer, here are a few ways you can use internal marketing.

Schedule company workshops

Plan company-wide workshops to remind your fellow healthcare marketers about your healthcare company’s mission, values, culture, and objectives. You can plan annual workshops once every 3 to 6 months where everyone can come together to address important healthcare company matters. These matters include but are not limited to diversity and inclusion, lunch and learns, mindfulness, and workplace environment training. Having these workshops is beneficial for employee engagement and retention in your healthcare organization. Especially in a COVID-19 environment, it is tough to get together in close proximity, but if you are still remote, these workshops are just as effective virtually.

Encourage company ideas + commentary

Express to your healthcare marketing colleagues that you value their ideas and concerns. With various experience levels and expertise, some employees may feel like their input isn’t as valued as others. Make sure that everyone in your healthcare company feels comfortable sharing new ideas with the team. At meetings, open the floor for everyone to contribute. For those who aren’t as comfortable with speaking up, let everyone know that you are open to talking to them in private or create a box where they can drop their ideas for you to look over at a later time.

Highlight your employees

One of the best and most common ways to make your employees feel valued is to create a spotlight segment for them. This can be added to the company newsletter, bulletin, social media pages, or even your team group chat! Every month, highlight one of your employees and address how well they’ve been performing. You can also mention the work of different employees in company meetings. Highlight something they have done that makes them stand out. Not only will this make the featured employee feel good about themselves, but it will also inspire your other employees to work hard.

Another great way to acknowledge the work of your healthcare colleagues is by giving out kudos to each person on the team. Every Friday, sum up the week with a simple thank-you shout-out to a colleague who has helped you out with an assignment or project. It’s a great way to come together as a team and support one another’s work ethic.

Offer incentives

As a reward to your employees for their performance in your healthcare company, offer them different incentives. You could give free gift cards or discounts to select stores, discounts to gym memberships or fitness classes, free refreshments in the break room, flexible hours, more downtime and much more. Incentives are not only a great way to encourage your employees, they also show your organization that you value their mental health and leisure because the incentives maintain the healthiness of your employee.

Address important employee matters

Sometimes your employees may be facing personal issues. You should show your healthcare marketers that you are there for them and care about what they are going through. Be mindful of whether or not they are comfortable being put on the spot. As a company, everyone can sign a card that will be delivered to that employee. For more remote methods, hop on a Zoom call to show your solidarity with that specific employee and to come up with a strategy moving forward.

Have fun

Who said healthcare marketers can’t have fun? To keep the momentum going, continue to have happy hours, team meetings with fun introduction games, Wellness Wednesdays, kudos, and more. A great way to keep your colleagues on their toes is sending any form of direct mail with small giveaways like company swag, something that unifies the company as a whole -- a sense of belonging.

Using this guide to internal marketing for your healthcare organization is a great way to earn the support of your marketing team. With fun activities and engagement, your company is bound to grow a sense of community. In addition, you will see increases in employee satisfaction, motivation, customer service, brand reach, and much more. When you are all working towards a common goal, it boosts the drive of each employee to work hard and come together as a stronger team.