Encourage your employees to take photos of projects and the project sites they work at. Each individual has a different point of view, and you’ll obtain a diverse collection of pictures you can use on marketing collateral. While amateur photography won’t ever replace the viewpoint or capability a professional will have, it can be a great way to grow your photo inventory of projects and engage your workforce. Every month we host a project photography contest. Throughout the month, photos are submitted from various project sites around the region, and employees vote on their favorites. The winner and runner up are awarded a gift card. The popularity of this program has increased substantially over the past 12 months, and we’ve been able to accumulate photos that we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to acquire. Many of the photos end up being used on printed and digital marketing collateral, social media sites and in artwork within our offices.
2) Utilizing low cost/free software for internal communications
There are several benefits to utilizing free email marketing and events software programs, and you may be surprised to hear that they can be powerful tools for internal communications efforts.
Email marketing software allows you to easily create templates that display your brand, keeping your internal communications consistent with the imagery and messaging your clients receive. The branding element is also achieved in event management software, which gives you the ability to create branded event notices.
The second and most important benefit is demonstrating a return on investment for your internal communications efforts. In the past, it has been difficult to measure the effectiveness of traditional marketing techniques. As communicators, we often wonder: are employees reading newsletters and email updates? Which emails result in the most interaction or open rates? Are event invitations getting opened and responded to? Tools like MailChimp and Eventbrite allow us to change and adapt to employee preferences in real time.
When it comes to ROI, reports are easy to run out of both programs and reveal valuable results. We can see what the best times are to send communications, view who opened emails, and what divisions in a company are engaging with the content. These tools give your company a unique opportunity to utilize reporting and tracking that will help you identify areas that can be improved.
3) Collaborating with cloud-based software
Imagine reducing your marketing team’s time spent on collaborative efforts by accessing and updating spreadsheet documents in real time. Having the ability to work together on a document saves time and hassle.
Often, my team works together on promotional campaigns, event planning and content management. We are able to maintain documents that are up to date, accessible by those involved, and can have multiple people working on them at the same time.
It’s also convenient for travelers, who may need access to information on the fly. Hosting the document on the cloud means they will have the most recent version available to them.
One document we’ve found to be extremely helpful on the cloud is our department’s budget breakdown. As the year progresses, each team member is able to update and track expenses. The transparency of the budget gives us the opportunity to evaluate initiatives in each stage of their progress, and we’re able to re-allocate resources if needed.
What are some ways you’ve gotten creative to save money and have a wide reaching impact on your organization? I’d love to hear about them. You can reach me at 360-695-3411 or by email at jstrom@mackaysposito.com.
Jessica Strom is the communications coordinator at MacKay Sposito.
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