Applying marketing insights to your L&D communications can ensure clarity, engagement and alignment for all. Hayley Maisey shares how 

Communication: the action of transferring a message from one person or thing to another, visually, audibly or in written form so the information is understood. It’s a key skill for effective collaboration and organisational success. 

Adopting some of marketing’s approaches can ensure clarity, engagement and alignment when crafting an internal campaign and rolling out the messaging

Yet, as George Bernard Shaw astutely noted, it’s often the assumption that communication has occurred that leads to challenges: “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” This illusion can be damaging, especially when clarity is key. 

The illusion that communication has taken place 

Imagine an internal comms team preparing for a company-wide initiative to support L&D in upskilling their management staff.  

The project lead builds a brief for internal communications – an outline of the programme’s objectives, expected outcomes and rollout. They share this with the team and assume everyone is on the same page. However, amid day-to-day tasks, deadlines and meetings, the brief is skimmed over by some, misunderstood by others and overlooked by a few. 

Herein lies the crux of the issue: the assumption that communication has happened and been effective; from the creation of the brief and what was included in it, to how it was distributed and understood before the comms rollout. Without an opportunity for open dialogue, clarification and feedback, team members interpret the brief in their own way.  

The lack of transparency around aims, audience, tactics and targets has a knock-on effect. The rollout plan deviates from its intended course, misses the mark on addressing managers’ needs and fails to support L&D’s objectives. 

The learner is at the brunt of all the communications that have assumingly taken place. 

So, in this scenario, how could the team have reduced the risk of miscommunication and ensured that the messaging resonated effectively with all audiences? 

Marketing can offer some insights. 

Create an effective internal communications plan 

Well-detailed plans provide the foundations for all marketing and communications campaigns, outlining the campaign’s purpose, strategic objectives and narrative, and detailing the tactics and the actions you’re taking and how you will measure your efforts.  

As well as sharing your tactics – how you’ll communicate your messaging – include a breakdown of your audience, their pain points and how your messaging hits those pain points. Every email, piece of collateral and internal update must effectively communicate how this initiative helps the learner. Without this clarity, you won’t create engagement or position the messaging for your learner.  

A kick-off meeting is key 

Similar to L&D’s internal consultant status, marketing works across an organisation – from raising awareness of the employer brand and engaging with employees on brand values to working across departments on external marketing campaigns in line with business objectives. As well as creating detailed campaign plans, kick-off meetings are a useful tactic in their playbook to generate engagement ahead of implementing a campaign.  

Circulate a structured and detailed internal communications plan and then schedule a kick-off meeting – even if time allows for 15 to 30 minutes. Offer everyone involved in the project the opportunity to attend so you can collate comments, provide clarity and ensure everybody understands all elements of the plan. 

Don’t underestimate integration 

Consider the wider stakeholders that may benefit from knowing about the initiative and attending the kick-off meeting – others in L&D, marketing, HR, senior management, IT, training etc. What other departments do you need to be clued in with the comms? What teams should you integrate with to ensure the comms rollout and initiative are successful? You may feel doing this unnecessarily overpowers everyone with information, but it’s better to combine efforts than work in isolation.  

Factor in feedback throughout 

Much like marketing campaigns rely on metrics and analytics to gauge their effectiveness, internal and L&D initiatives can also benefit from the same process – and not just the training being undertaken or the learning taking place.  

By tracking engagement levels and measuring outcomes, such as email open and click-through rates, time spent on landing pages and uptake figures, future projects and communications can be refined and improved upon by making data-driven decisions.  

Marketing continually tests and tweaks email campaigns, social postings and content creation, for example, to hone the best results and improve future activity. 

Equally, increase collaboration and interaction with internal teams and wider stakeholders by factoring in their feedback throughout the rollout. Getting them to communicate their insights can provide ideas for future efforts – much like how marketing works with sales to support business development. 

Adopting some of marketing’s approaches can ensure clarity, engagement and alignment when crafting an internal campaign and rolling out the messaging. By prioritising transparency, feedback loops and collaboration, the risk of miscommunication – internal and external – can be minimised.  

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