Over the last couple of years, the intranet gained quite a lot of traction in selected business circles. And, if you wait a moment to think about it, having the benefit of a customized private network where all employees can access vital information and engage in internal communication without relying on third-party solutions is pretty novel.
Quick Links
However, as time went on, people start realizing that this asset is incredibly versatile and powerful, and using it for such a narrow list of tasks presents a waste of perfectly good resources.
One of the greatest questions that arose was, can intranet be used to improve the marketing of one brand and help it generate stronger sales? The answer is yes, and here we are going to take a look at a couple of ways this challenge can be successfully tackled.
Encourage effective communication
The present-day digital marketing sector consists of dozens of different procedures often used by dozens of different marketing teams. Getting all these employees on board while using different communication channels can prove to be an incredibly taxing duty capable of bringing the entire marketing campaign to a grinding halt. One of the greatest benefits of intranet communication, on the other hand, comes in the form of integrated and customizable where your inboxes, dashboards, and marketing assets are tied in one package making communication simpler and more effective.
Creating sharable photo-albums
Efficient file sharing is yet another critical requirement of digital media marketing. Keeping that in mind, the latest-gen cloud storage apps and resources can go a long way in making this problem simpler. An area where intranet platforms have a great advantage is a rich visual and web-based environment that presents these resources in a more transparent manner and gives users a simple way to interact with these files and share them without any delays. So, for instance, one team can easily make dedicated photo albums, submit them for review in one department, and then share them with a completely different team.
Using built-in CMS features
The previous two areas we have covered in themselves present very strong benefits speaking in favor of intranet solutions. But, tackling these critical areas separately creates a sharp disconnect with the potential of completely disrupting your efforts. Since the intranet keeps both these areas tied up in the same infrastructure the opportunities for collaboration are even greater. But, the true power of intranet platforms is that they usually come with the built-in intranet CMS software that gives these efforts a sense of purpose and allows team leaders to stop acting as content managers to deliver more valuable work.
Simpler leadership involvement
The intranet platforms are inherently transparent. Sure, people with different roles in different teams will have access to different channels and resources. But the team leaders usually have access to all relevant channels and resources which makes their job incredibly easier. Since they are able to see everyone’s effort and current progress, team leaders can easily hop in, provide immediate feedback, lend a hand and identify ongoing problems. Since these issues can be sorted out on-site without any delays, team leaders are capable of achieving unprecedented levels of control over their colleagues.
Ensuring brand consistency
Strong brands are consistent brands. Consumers are very capable of noticing even the smallest branding discrepancies. The companies that don’t demonstrate the same performance on all channels are as a result seen as unreliable and hectic. How then, intranet, which is strictly an internal company resource make this problem simpler? Well, all bits of content and all marketing initiatives envelop on one and the same centralized platform. This doesn’t only lay down the foundation for producing consistent marketing resources but gives everyone involved a uniform corporate pattern to serve as a guideline.
Intranet marketing application
Since intranet solutions are built around the needs of one company, the developers and businesses in question are capable of introducing various marketing apps that make the job of management and content production far easier. These streamlined resources help brands to produce simple fliers, surveys, presentations, publications, and analyses that are all absolutely necessary for the marketing process. Using third-party resources for such mundane tasks once spread resources too thin. So, the ability to keep all relevant resources on the same page once again makes the intranet an excellent pick.
Integration with social media
Last but not least, we would like to point out that although unauthorized access to intranet resources is strictly forbidden, the intranet platforms themselves are not completely sandboxed. On the contrary, various plug-ins and add-ons give these tools access to a variety of online third-party resources which makes them even leaner and more versatile. One of the best examples of this practice comes in the form of social media add-ons that make a great job of expanding the intranet’s capabilities and giving the marketing teams access to some of the most valuable assets they use during the projects.
We hope these couple of examples gave you a general idea about the benefits your marketing teams can get if you move your internal resources to an intranet platform. At the first glance, these two worlds may look very remote since intranet usually deals with internal company resources while, on the other hand, marketing is all about outreach. But, all of your marketing efforts can be made much more effective if your marketing teams are able to work with optimal efficiency. And this is the area where the intranet presents one of the best solutions you can get.