Crafting engaging training and comms in retail with lessons from marketing campaigns
Most retail teams are drowning in a sea of mundane emails, corporate jargon, and uninspiring content.
And unfortunately, many comms and learning professionals in the retail industry have developed a notorious reputation for being boring and overly corporate, resulting in disengaged employees who are simply going through the motions.
Somewhere along the line, internal communications and learning and development departments got stuck in a never-ending cycle of dry bullet points and long PDF lifeless updates. The result?
Employees who dread receiving yet another uninspiring email, enduring a mind-numbingly dull business update or trawling through a dry PDF.
The disconnect between the content and the audience has led to a disengagement crisis, where employees tune out or ignore updates and training altogether.
Sound familiar?
How can you go from bland to brilliant as a comms or learning manager?
If you’re scratching your head wondering how to make your content more exciting.
Then read on because we are about to shed light on this epidemic of disengagement and reveal the secrets to reviving your training and comms strategy.
Get ready to break free from the chains of boredom and ignite a fire of enthusiasm within your customer-facing workforce using proven strategies in the most effective marketing campaigns.
A marketer's secret weapon is the ability to tell stories which engage the reader and stick firmly in their mind
Move over, dry bullet points and enter the world of storytelling.
Stories allow you to breathe life into your training and communications and give your readers something to cling to because humans are hardwired to respond to stories, and employees are no exception.
Rather than bombarding them with facts and figures, paint a picture with narratives that captivate and inspire. Craft compelling stories that showcase the impact of their work, the challenges overcome, and the victories achieved. This is sure to engage their emotions and kindle their passion for your organisation's unique mission.
Other story idea examples:
🎨 Paint a vivid picture of how your employees' efforts make a real impact on customers' lives to create a united sense of pride.
📚Feature a story that showcases the power of teamwork and collaboration within the retail environment. Share how a group of employees worked together to overcome a challenge or achieve a significant milestone, emphasising the importance of synergy and collective effort.
🚗 Highlight the journey of an employee who started at an entry-level position and worked their way up to a leadership role within the company. Share their inspiring story of growth, showcasing how the organisation's support and development opportunities paved the way for their success.
💡Spotlight a retail employee or team that actively participates in community initiatives or charitable causes. Share their impactful story, highlighting how their dedication to giving back positively influences both the community and the organisation's reputation.
👀 Take readers on a behind-the-scenes tour of a typical day in the life of a retail employee. Share their experiences, challenges, and triumphs, offering a glimpse into the dynamic and fast-paced nature of the retail industry.
🙌 Feature stories that celebrate diversity and inclusion within the retail workforce. Highlight employees from various backgrounds who have made valuable contributions to the company, fostering a culture of acceptance and respect.
👏 Showcase how the organisation embraces innovation and adapts to changing retail trends. Share success stories of employees who have contributed innovative ideas or implemented new processes, emphasising the company's commitment to staying ahead of the curve.
✍️ Create a regular series that spotlights outstanding employees, showcasing their achievements and contributions. Use this platform to celebrate their hard work and dedication, inspiring others and fostering a culture of recognition.
🤩 Share stories that highlight the company's initiatives to prioritise employee well-being. Feature personal narratives from employees who have benefited from these programs, emphasising the positive impact on their work-life balance, mental health, and overall satisfaction.
📢 Interview employees who have experienced significant personal or professional growth within the company. Dive into their journey, exploring the development opportunities, mentorship, and support they received, inspiring others to pursue their own growth within the organisation.
Remember, each story should align with the organisation's values and resonate with the target audience. By sharing these impactful narratives, you create a sense of connection and pride among employees, fostering engagement and reinforcing your organisation's culture.
Every marketer knows that personalisation is the key to engagement
Personalisation is the secret ingredient that can transform your training and comms.
You can do this by celebrating individual triumphs, milestones, and contributions.
Go beyond generic emails and standardised training content and create personalised shout-outs that make your employees feel valued and seen.
Here are some more steps you can follow to ensure you personalise your comms and training to crank up the engagement levels
Tailor your messages
Customise your messages to resonate with specific employee groups or individuals. Consider their roles, interests, and preferences when crafting content. Address their unique challenges, aspirations, and achievements, making them feel seen and valued
Interactive Elements
Encourage two-way communication by incorporating interactive elements in your internal comms. Use polls, surveys, quizzes, or contests to actively involve employees.
This captures their attention and creates a sense of participation and ownership.
Visual Appeal
Enhance the visual appeal of your training and communications by including personalised graphics, images, or videos. Feature photos of employees in action, celebrating achievements or important milestones. Visual elements add a human touch and make the content more engaging and memorable.
Recognise and Celebrate
Personalise your training and comms by regularly recognising and celebrating employee achievements. Highlight outstanding performance, milestone anniversaries, or personal milestones like birthdays or work anniversaries.
Publicly acknowledge their contributions, reinforcing a culture of appreciation and motivation.
Feedback and Listening
Actively seek employee feedback and listen to their suggestions and concerns. This shows that their opinions matter and that you value their input. Incorporate their feedback into future communications, demonstrating that you are responsive and committed to meeting their needs.
Leadership Engagement
Involve leaders and executives in comms and training by sharing personalised messages from them. This could include video messages, personal letters, or town hall-style meetings where they directly address employees. Seeing leadership's personal involvement enhances trust, transparency, and engagement.
Just like in marketing, your training and comms have got to be consistent and clear
There’s an old saying in marketing which explains that ‘confused customers do not buy’, and whilst your employees aren’t buying anything, they do need to be invested in what you have to say to engage with your comms and training in the future.
Then when your messaging is clear, it’s crucial that you’re consistent with your content.
Marketers must be consistent with their communications because consistency breeds familiarity, trust, and brand recognition. In a noisy and crowded marketplace, consistency is the secret sauce that helps marketers stand out and establish a strong brand identity. And that’s exactly the same with internal comms.
Don’t just post when you feel like it; establish a routine so your employees know when to check in for their updates. This allows you to fuel anticipation and build loyalty with consistent schedules and updates.
How can you stick to your posting schedule?
Speed up internal comms efforts by using content pillars. Content pillars serve as a roadmap for planning internal communications. Internal comms teams can focus their efforts on developing content around those pillars by defining key themes or topics that align with your business’s goals, values, and priorities.
This eliminates the need to start from scratch for every communication piece and ensures that the content stays relevant and aligned with the overall messaging strategy.
Use your audience’s language
Marketers use the language of their target audience to create resonating content by understanding their audience's preferences, needs, and communication styles. Here's how you can do it too
Always be researching your audience, i.e your employees
Here's the deal, savvy marketers dive deep into research and analysis to get inside the heads of their target audience. They want to know it all - who they are, what they love, and how they talk! We're talking demographics, psychographic traits, preferred communication channels, and yes, even the lingo they use. It's like being a detective but with a marketing twist!
Marketers can create content that speaks their language by cracking the code of their audience's language patterns, slang, and special lingo. They can connect on a whole new level, using words and phrases that make their audience go, "Hey, this brand totally gets me!"
Use this approach by making notes of words and phrases your employees use along with their main pains and frustrations then use this to create your comms.
Refine your messaging with A/B testing and analytics
Marketers use A/B testing and analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of their content and language choices. By experimenting with different language variations and analysing the response from their target audience, they can refine their content strategy further and optimise it for maximum resonance.
Use the analytics on your comms platform to see what’s resonating with your audience and what’s not.
To wrap up the key points
In conclusion, crafting engaging training and comms content in the retail industry requires a strategic approach that draws inspiration from successful marketing campaigns.
By applying key lessons from the world of marketing, training and comms professionals can create compelling content that resonates with employees, fosters engagement and drives organisational success.
By thinking like marketers, training and comms teams can leverage attention-grabbing headlines, captivating visuals, and dynamic formats to capture employees' attention and make the content more enticing. They can also embrace storytelling techniques to create narratives that connect with employees emotionally, making the messages more memorable and relatable.
Are you sick and tired of low engagement?
Try Ocasta Engage, used by Virgin Media, Next and Tesco Mobile.
They use the app to keep their employees updated with business-critical information easily, and their engagement rates are unlike any they’ve seen before.
Virgin Media O2 have a 98% engagement rate, with employees actively using the Engage daily, and their comms team are no longer struggling to cut through workplace noise to get their information noticed.
If this sounds like something your business needs, get your free demo below, and one of our friendly experts will walk through how it can work effectively alongside your workplace collaboration tool.
