Trappe Digital LLC may earn commissions from sponsored links and content. When you click and buy you also support us.
With increasing focus on company culture from both employees and consumers, it has become a critical component of an organization’s brand and talent strategy. To effectively market corporate culture can help attract top talent, engage and retain employees, boost recruitment efforts, and shape positive public perception.
However, culture lives within a company’s walls, making it challenging to authentically convey it externally. It requires deliberate planning and participation across the organization to share stories that bring your culture to life. When done right, to market corporate culture – when it’s positive – externally has tremendous benefits. This article covers best practices any company can use to spotlight their culture in an impactful way.
First things first: To market corporate culture well, it needs to be worth sharing. I’m not talking about making up a feel-good story here when the culture is horrible. So, assuming you have a great culture in place – or are working on it – here are some tips to market corporate culture.
Spotting and Sharing Internal Culture Stories
A storytelling culture breaks down departmental silos. Marketing, HR, corporate communications, and other teams should collaborate to identify great stories from within the company, obtain permission, and plan to share those externally. However, getting employees to share positive stories openly can be a hurdle for some.
Some people refrain from sharing achievements or positive company stories to avoid seeming like they are bragging. Others may be embarrassed to share vulnerable stories that did not have perfect outcomes. These are valid concerns, but avoiding stories altogether is detrimental for companies aiming to market their vibrant cultures.
The key is to reframe the ask: Encourage employees to recognize colleagues and their success stories instead of their own. Then, invite them to either submit these stories to be shared or give permission for others to share them.
When approached this way, many employees will allow stories they feel good about to be shared by someone else. This still brings recognition to their efforts or achievements, but without seeming self-promotional. Some companies also consider small rewards for participation.
Most importantly, spotlight stories that demonstrate why the recognition is deserved – avoid vague accounts that leave people wondering what was so remarkable. Craft stories with vivid details that make the culture come to life.
For example, describe how an employee created a new efficiency that saved substantial money or time. Paint the picture of them discovering the breakthrough and sharing it with leadership. Quote their reaction to the recognition if possible. These vivid, emotional details breathe life into the story.
Read next: How to achieve work-life balance
Feature Culture Stories on Your Website
Your career site offers the perfect platform to feature employee culture spotlights. Share employee profiles that provide a window into their experience, what they find meaningful about their work, and what collaborating with their team is like.
Quote them on how leadership supports their growth or how they are empowered to bring new thinking to the table. Use pictures and videos to make it even more personal. Feature new employees describing what appealed to them about your culture or tenured staff on why they stay.
Record a video interview with them and then use Opus Clips to easily create shorter soundbites.
Incorporate similar culture stories and employee perspectives into job postings. Quotes and pictures sharing why current staff love working there provide powerful social proof.
Discuss Culture Authentically on Social Channels
Social media presents a prime channel for displaying real culture. Encourage employees to share culture stories as much as possible:
Companies should actively encourage employees to share positive culture stories across their personal social media channels. However, it is important not to position this as an added burden.
First, hold virtual training sessions focused specifically on equipping staff with tips and best practices for sharing meaningful perspectives from their experience in compelling ways. Tell participants that you appreciate their consideration of sharing stories.
Also, proactively ask staff if they have any great cultural stories to share publicly. Provide clear guidance that positive commentary on sites ranging from Glassdoor reviews to Facebook posts and more are all welcome. Remind them that location tags and commentary on Google Maps/Places also often show up when people are researching companies, influencing perceptions.
To incentivize sharing impactful stories, consider assigning public recognition when employees post something that especially brings your culture to life.
Finally, amplify great authentic stories employees share by reposting them through your main branded social media channels. Doing so conveys that leadership stands behind the experiences and perspectives being highlighted. This gives employees confidence their voice matters.
Do not simply push canned corporate messages for staff to share verbatim. People should share what actually resonates with their own networks. Support authentic perspectives.
Read next: 16 strategies to improve team communication
Share Stories Internally Too
Mark great culture moments regularly in internal channels as well. For example, send a “FriYays” type of email each Friday highlighting employee wins from that week. Invite others to share shout-outs, too, that you can then spotlight externally (with permission).
Incorporating Customer Care
Customer care agents often have the closest connection to the customer and likely hear regularly what matters to them, their pain points, and what delights them. Work closely with customer care leadership to identify trends in questions or feedback that shed light on your culture and values in action.
For example, customers may praise certain services or products far exceeding expectations. Use their voice through quotes to demonstrate what sets your culture apart. Let their words breathe life into your cultural values of care, creativity, accountability, etc. Customer perspective offers fresh authenticity. Incorporate these insights across culture spotlights.
Continually Evaluate Culture Marketing Impact
Track how culture storytelling impacts recruitment goals, retention, Glassdoor ratings, brand sentiment in media, and customer feedback over time. Culture messaging should tie directly to strategic pillars and goals. If aiming to be an employer of choice, measure applications and acceptance rates.
As culture storytelling matures, expect brand health and recruitment gains to follow. Maintain focus on long-term brand building that serves business growth, not reacting to short-term vanity metrics.
Think progress on annual or multi-year increments, not each individual piece of content. Regularly gather cross-department input in an overarching business context. Doing so will amplify culture storytelling that drives real impact.
Don’t know where to start? Talk to your content consultant today!
Conclusion
Marketing corporate culture requires deliberate, consistent effort across teams and participation from staff and customers. Their authentic voices breathe credibility into messaging. Paint vivid pictures showcasing values and character in action. By doing so strategically over time, culture storytelling fuels recruiting, retention, and brand health gains that empower business growth.