Does Your MarComm Strategy Address ALL Relevant Stakeholders?

By: Stephanie Ambrose

As marketers, we tend to address six major groups of stakeholders through our brand and marketing efforts. Customers, employees, investors/shareholders, industry analysts, vendors/partners and often our communities have an interest in the success of our company. There are clear reasons for addressing these stakeholder groups. We want our customers to be educated and excited about our offerings. We also want them to feel good about buying our products or services. We want our employees to feel a strong affinity to our brand through our culture and values. We also want them to understand our offerings and to serve as brand ambassadors in the community. It is important for our shareholder/investors, vendors/partners and industry analysts to stay up to date on our company in terms of new offerings, investments, contract wins, financial results and leadership. Good business practices include supporting the communities where we work and live through charitable giving, volunteering and/or sponsoring youth sports.

This is all great, but are we neglecting an important stakeholder group? Prospective employees are a stakeholder group that should not be overlooked, especially in today’s market where companies are fighting for top talent. The future success of our organizations depends on our ability to attract and retain top talent. Salary, benefits and perks are no longer enough. Job seekers are looking closely at your company's culture and values to see if they can envision themselves working for it. They are diving deep into your website and exploring well beyond your job openings and careers page. They are looking at the imagery used to represent the company. Are you featuring real employees, or using only stock photos? Job seekers want to see how you support diversity and how the organization supports the community. As the concept of Work/Life balance shifts away from separating work and personal toward a more integrated model, in large part due to the pandemic, people want to see themselves and their values reflected in their workplace. They are looking across your social channels to see if you are posting beyond contract wins and promotions. Are you sharing employee achievements and profiles? Is your company a thought leader? Do you have a diverse group of subject matter experts featured online and in industry publications and events? Just as we create a buyer journey, we need to consider future hiring needs and work closely with our HR partners to create the job seeker journey. The talent pipeline is just as important as the sales pipeline.