5 Steps to Bring Marketing-Level Engagement to Internal Communications

I’ve always said internal communications needs to think more like marketing. Marketers have been mastering engagement for decades by creating emotional connections, building loyalty and inspiring action. Internal communications has the same goals, but still leans on long emails and one-way updates.

It’s time to change that.

Here are five ways internal comms can borrow from marketing to better connect and engage employees:

1. Build Employee Loyalty Through Trust

Building loyalty starts with trust — and trust starts with consistency, reliability and partnership. Internal communications teams should position themselves as strategic partners to their internal stakeholders, not just messengers or “order takers.” That means collaborating early on messaging strategies, aligning on goals and helping leaders think through how and when to communicate for maximum impact. This can build trust and align with key stakeholders.

To build loyalty with employees, reliability and consistency are essential. Employees develop trust when they know they can count on communications to be clear, timely and accurate. Establish a steady cadence, maintain a consistent tone and always follow through. Respond thoughtfully to employee questions, close the loop on FAQs, and provide a central hub where people can easily find information and interact with your team. When internal communications becomes a dependable, responsive and accessible source of truth — one that listens as much as it informs — employees feel more connected to the message and, ultimately, to the organization itself.

2. Think Bite-Size

Marketing thrives on snackable content because attention spans and time available to consume information are short (and growing shorter by the day). Internal communications should do the same. We’ve moved beyond “I sent an email with all the information” — today it’s about delivering small, meaningful messages across multiple touchpoints. Use short videos, quick polls and micro-updates to keep people engaged without overwhelming them.

3. Change Up Your Content

Ask yourself what captures your attention outside of work. Probably not a long memo. Experiment with video, podcasts, infographics and interactive posts. Mixing formats keeps things fresh and helps reach employees with different preferences and learning styles.

4. Go Multi-Channel

The modern workforce is hybrid, distributed and constantly inundated with information. Relying on a single channel simply isn’t enough. Combine intranet stories, mobile apps, email, digital signage and leadership updates to meet employees where they are. A thoughtful multi-channel approach helps messages break through the noise and reach people in the way that works best for them.

And don’t overlook your frontline and deskless workers — they make up nearly 80% of the global workforce, and their communication needs often look very different. Think creatively about how to reach them. That could mean connecting your communications platform to point-of-sale systems for store associates, or providing weekly “huddle points” to nurse or team leaders to cascade in staff meetings.

Multi-channel means more than variety — it means inclusion. When every employee, no matter where or how they work, can access and engage with communications, connection and culture grow stronger across the organization.

5. Create Two-Way Communication

True engagement doesn’t come from broadcasting — it comes from conversation. Build opportunities for employees to respond, ask questions and share ideas. Use feedback tools, employee surveys, Q&As and social-style comment threads to turn communication into a dialogue. When people feel heard, they feel connected.

Internal communications has an opportunity to evolve beyond information sharing to become the heartbeat of connection inside an organization. By thinking like marketers, we can create experiences that build trust, strengthen culture and inspire action. When employees feel informed, heard and valued, engagement naturally follows — and that’s when communication stops being a task and starts becoming a competitive advantage.

Editor's Note: Catch up on other ways the internal communications function is evolving:

• Engagement vs. Overload: Lessons From the Viva Engage Benchmarking Report — Viva Engage's increased role as an information channel coincides with an uptick in information overload. Here's where internal communications comes in.
• AI Intranets Just Made Your Internal Comms Job Way More Interesting — The rise of AI-assisted intranets doesn't spell the end of internal comms. It just means the job is changing. Here's how.
• The Neuroscience of High-Impact, Lower Noise Internal Communications — How brain-based communication strategies drive business results in an era of information overload.

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