Episode #15 - How Internal Comms & Marketing Can Partner to Win (with Arlene Amitirigala)

The Internal Marketing Podcast

There can no longer be any separation between your company's internal messaging to employees, and its external messaging to your customers. Platforms, like social media, make it easy for employees to share information with their networks...which likely includes current and prospective customers. This means that your employees are key stakeholders who can help or hurt your goals to build the brand and drive growth.

Your internal and external messaging, therefore, have to be aligned; and that alignment best happens when the marketing and internal communications functions have a solid strategic partnership.

In this episode, we'll be 'flipping the marketing conversation from external to internal' with Arlene Amitirigala, and share how internal comms. and marketing can partner to win at engaging employees and empowering them to become advocates of the company brand.

We'll be discussing:

1. The roles of internal comms. and marketing;
2. Why these two functions need to work more closely together;
3. Practical examples of what a successful partnership between them can look like, and what it can achieve; and
4. Pitfalls to avoid when these functions work together.

Thanks for listening!

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ABOUT ARLENE

Arlene Amitirigala is a global Communications Specialist with expertise in internal communications, behaviour change, employee engagement and building a culture of inclusive leadership. She has worked for over two decades in marketing and communications. Her career journey spans several senior roles in the private and public sector in her native Jamaica where she worked across various sectors including tourism, export promotion, and information, communication & technology. She later led corporate communications for Diageo’s Latin America and Caribbean regional business before moving to London to lead engagement and employee communications across Europe and Great Britain.

Born in St. Andrew, Jamaica, Arlene studied journalism at the undergraduate level. Her academic qualifications include a Master’s in Communication for Social and Behaviour Change from the University of The West Indies, a postgraduate certificate in Global Marketing Communication and Advertising from Emerson College, and an MBA with distinction from the Solvay Management School in Belgium.

Arlene has lived and worked in several different countries; she now resides in Toronto, Canada, from where she provides communication consulting services to a range of clients and hosts The Change Diaries Podcast on Apple podcasts and Spotify.

Connect with Arlene here:

www.linkedin.com/in/arleneamitirigala/

www.trulyarlene.com

ABOUT WORKSHOP (Season 2 Sponsor)

Workshop is an internal marketing platform for creating beautifully branded, employee-specific campaigns. It replaces any internal email tool you have and integrates with the other communication channels your team uses the most (including Slack, Sharepoint, and Microsoft Teams).

Head on over to useworkshop.com/marketing to learn more and to download their complete 7-step guide to running an impressive internal communications audit.

An audit is the very first step of any great internal communications strategy. Even if your team hasn’t formally put together a plan in the past, your organization has developed channels, patterns, and processes organically, and it’s crucial to understand how information is flowing. Starting with an audit can tell you where you might be missing the mark with current communications, including gaps in information, misunderstandings, overlooked teams, and ignored channels.