Marketing is the art and science of attracting customers to a product or service. It’s an essential function of every company, and it’s not always easy. However, marketing isn’t only about looking outward to your leads and customers. Your marketing team is also in the service of supporting the entire company.
Without marketing, you have difficulty acquiring new customers and hiring and retaining talent. For instance, your branding may be off, or your social media strategy doesn’t make sense. Marketing matters and having the right team is something that often gets missed by company leaders seeking to hire the best talent. In fact, for company leaders who understand that we have to support teams’ well-being, many also know marketing can play a role.
What Does Marketing Have to do with Hiring and Retention?
Keeping your team engaged in today’s competitive environment can be challenging. Employees often look at their LinkedIn profiles, update their resumes, and search for other job opportunities. We know there was a lot of talk in 2021 and into 2022 about the Great Resignation and top talent is in demand.
However, most people want to do well in their jobs. They want to feel like they bring value to the company. For instance, marketing should be in the business of celebrating successes (e.g., increased revenue/sales, improved customer satisfaction). If you show that marketing can make a difference in the company’s internal success, you’ll find it much more likely to retain talent.
ROI in Hiring and Retention
There are three ways that marketing can be your company’s cheerleader. First, marketing can use content marketing to share stories about what makes your company special. Also, the marketing team can use social media to highlight how passionate the team is about their jobs. Further, you can showcase awards and recognition your team receives.
These things build pride for people who work at your company. They help connect candidates with careers that match their goals. But more importantly, these things introduce potential candidates with a great story about your company. So, having a vibrant marketing team allows you to demonstrate a thriving company. And that ultimately positively impacts your hiring ROI.
Why You Should Care About Marketing as in Sales and HR
We know sales is an essential team for your company. One of the biggest challenges for sales teams is to find motivated and talented people to join their ranks. You might have a successful marketing team skilled at getting new leads, but if you can’t convince people to talk with your sales reps, you’re not going to make any conversions.
To do this, your marketing department needs to be more than just a cheerleader at work. They need always to be your company’s cheerleaders because they need to learn how to motivate your team members, so they’re always trying their best. Marketing can help in this regard by providing specific motivational content and resources for different departments in the company.
As we know, the human resources team’s also vital for any company. Marketing can generate interest in your company, and if you seek people with a specific skill set, it can tell them who you are as an employer. Marketing also keeps you top-of-mind as an attractive place to work by showcasing what your company offers to prospective employees. This will help you fill vacancies quickly and retain employees who are happy in their positions.
It’s easier for marketers to communicate what the company is about because they have experience with its day-to-day operations. They know what it takes to promote the high-quality and valuable content that clients love. That doesn’t mean they’re more qualified than HR professionals, but because marketers think about problems from a different perspective, they have a fresh take on how to solve those problems.
How Marketing Can Help with Hiring and Retention
Marketing is responsible for attracting prospective employees to your company. After all, if you can’t market your company, how will you get people to want to work there? But marketing doesn’t stop at attracting new talent. Once a new hire signs on the dotted line and makes it past orientation, marketing needs to be part of the equation in retaining that person.
Employees who feel like they’re a part of something meaningful and have a stake in the company’s success are more likely to stick around when things don’t go so well. High levels of engagement lead to higher productivity and lower rates of turnover. The marketing department should play an active role in creating an environment where employees can thrive to retain staff effectively.
Impact Your Business Culture
Companies need to have a strong company culture, and marketing can help make that happen. Marketing is often the first line of communication with prospects, so it makes sense to make sure your company gets represented in the best way possible. This includes both how you communicate to prospects and internally within the company.
You want your culture to be inviting, accepting, and innovative when communicating externally with potential customers. However, you also need an environment that encourages creativity and innovation when communicating internally with employees. The good news is that both are necessary. The bad news is that they’re hard to achieve.
That’s where marketing comes in. Using strategic marketing campaigns, you can promote an inviting culture that attracts talent while supporting other efforts like employee onboarding or training programs. This keeps existing talent happy and makes it easier for your company to recruit new talent as well!
Making Your Team the Cheerleader of Your Company
Your marketing team is uniquely positioned to step up and be a leader in both sales and retention. If you want marketing to work for your team, then it needs to be the cheerleader of your company. Your marketing team needs to advocate for everyone else and should show that they care about the success of your team’s goals.
Embrace this opportunity and make sure your marketing department isn’t just talking about how great it is to be part of the company—but also show them how marketing can help them get ahead.
Here are some specific tips for making sure that your marketers are always on their toes:
1) Track successes with metrics: Including metrics in reports gives data-driven insights into past achievements and provides insight into what’s working so you can replicate these efforts in the future.
2) Make meetings inclusive: The goal of meetings should be to learn from others in the room, not just talk at them. This means including new hires or junior employees as active participants in discussions to ensure they feel like they have a voice.
3) Create a culture of collaboration: Collaboration is vital for a healthy workplace environment and better marketing results. You can foster collaboration by giving everyone access to information, creative freedom, and opportunities for growth by continuing education.
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