Company culture can be a huge selling point for potential employees as well as potential clients. Both of these audiences want to know that the people behind the scenes not only believe in what the company offers, but also collaborate well with each other to deliver it it.
Highlighting a thriving culture is an effective marketing technique that capitalizes on the internal strength of a business and its people. That’s why we asked members of Forbes Agency Council to tell us about some of the best ways to do it. To inspire you, here are 11 of their top recommendations for showcasing your company culture in your marketing efforts.
1. Communicate Through Visuals
When it comes to marketing your company’s culture, it’s important to remember that it comes down to transparency and trust. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through incredible visuals that allow members of the public to interact with and learn more about your company on a personal level. Every member of the team creates a company, and it’s a great idea to get this message across. – James Blake, Vindicta Digital
2. Highlight The Hiring Process
With a mission of “empowering our people to be the best versions of themselves,” we highlight how our hiring practice aligns employees with the roles that they will most likely love and wildly succeed at. We also share stories of our core values in action and how our daily huddle (where everyone shares gratitude, their next 24 hours of activity and any places they’re stuck) keeps everyone connected. – Brian Handrigan, Advocado
3. Illuminate Your Humanity
We focus on highlighting our employees, first, to illuminate the humanity of our company. Organizations often focus on the company’s views and actions rather than those of their employees; we do the opposite. One of our most-used slogans is “#behuman” because, at the end of the day, we want to create a space where you can be yourself. – Melissa Chang, PureB2B
4. Let Your People Do The Talking
I’ve always been wary of firms that overtly “market” culture. It tends to come off as “clubby” or exclusive. Flip the script. Build a team of customer-service-centric people and let them do the talking. Whether interacting with current or potential clients or attracting talent, an authentic customer-service-driven team will go above and beyond to make everyone feel welcome. – Patrick Nycz, NewPoint Marketing
5. Explain How You’re Different
We market our culture based on the differences between our environment and that of most corporate jobs. We believe that finding a flow in work instead of being in endless meetings gives both our employees as well as our clients the best results. Working autonomously hasn’t ever been more important, and remote work has a culture that works wonderfully for self-starters. – Lee Salisbury, UnitOneNine
6. Show It Off In-Office
We market our culture by proclaiming it on the walls of our offices in the form of posters of our core values, DiSC scores on everyone’s office door and a “kudos” board in the kitchen for notes about team members who have done something wonderful. Our core values are dominant on our website and featured in our sales proposals, and we also blog about them, which helps with recruitment. – Jeff Bradford, the Bradford Group
7. Create A Culture Presentation Deck
I’ve often seen companies promote culture by putting their culture presentation deck on SlideShare, and then promoting it via the press, blog articles or social media. It’s a great way to help others who are searching for your company to find and understand your culture and core values. – Brian Meert, AdvertiseMint
8. Livestream Daily Operations
One of the best ways to market company culture is to look at daily operations and do livestreams. This is very valuable to your customers because it shows that you follow the talk with the walk. You are not afraid to open your doors to ensure that it is possible for everyone who is following you to see inside your operation. – Jon James, Ignited Results
9. Share Screenshots Of Teamwork
There is no “I” in “team,” and all great work is done in a collaborative way. Highlighting the team aspect of culture is important, and in these virtual times, is made more creative through screenshots of team meetups and collaboration sessions. – Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne LLC
10. Prove Your Culture Through Your Actions
Although we do promote our team (and, in turn, our culture) on platforms such as Instagram, actions speak louder than words. If we promote a culture of results and collaboration, it is our responsibility to prove these repeatedly through our actions. If these actions are good enough, and we are graced with a positive email or review, we can repurpose these in our content to further promote our culture. – Bernard May, National Positions
11. Produce Blogs And Podcasts
Podcasts are big for us. Through our podcasts and blogs, others can see the culture that we have built. To see our team and spend time with us is to see our strength as a team. Because we’re proud of the culture we’ve created, we want to make it as transparent as possible. Our podcasts are like opening a door on one of our fun but informative meetings. – Danny Star, Website Depot