E-mailing Microsoft Word Files Can’t Support Your Employee Advocacy Program
Props to marketers. You’re some of the most resourceful people in the business world. Whenever a problem arises, you find a solution that would make MacGyver envious.
Unfortunately, many of these solutions are temporary fixes – rather than long-term solutions. And no where is this more evident than with employee advocacy and social selling programs.
Many enterprise companies understand that they need content for their advocacy and social selling efforts. So, what do they do? Their marketing teams spend hours compiling a Word document, which they circulate among their employees via e-mail.
If you’re a forward-thinking marketer, chances are good that you graduated from this strategy a long time ago. But if you haven’t, here are three reasons why you should ditch your Word documents.
1. Your Current Process Is Extremely Inefficient
When our customers come to us, many find themselves spending between two and three hours, daily, doing the following:
- Finding content on the internet that will be of interest to their sales teams, marketers, etc.
- Copying URLs and creating shortened links
- Copying the shortened links and pasting them into a Word document
- Copying the article’s headline into a Word document
- Writing sample messages to accompany those URLs in the Word document
- Sending e-mails to their employees with the Word document
That’s a lot of masochistic work. Wouldn’t it be nice to make the process more efficient? Using a platform built for content discovery and content storage eliminates those inefficiencies. (Imagine what you could do with an extra hour or two every day!)
With the right technology, you can swiftly find content that will interest your audience. Then, once you have found the article, you can write a sample message that your employees can you use on social media – without copying and pasting the link or manually shortening the URL. And you don’t have to compose an e-mail to your employees, letting them know that there’s more content available. The platform will do all that for you.
2. You’re Hindering Your Program’s Success
For your social selling or employee advocacy program to work, you need people to participate. Without adoption, no one will amplify your reach or build trust with buyers.
By e-mailing Microsoft Word files to your employee advocates, you’re making life difficult for them. Once your employees receive the Word document, they have to read the article. Then, they have to copy and paste the URL and sample message into Twitter or LinkedIn. Then, they have to share the article.
By forcing your employees to copy and paste the article to their preferred social networks. you’re creating more work for them. Where there’s more work, there are lower adoption rates, and where there are lower adoption rates, there are lower results.
By investing in an advocacy platform, you can make your employees’ lives easier. With a click of the button, they can share the latest content. No copying and pasting. No needless friction.
3. Content Disorganization Is Annoying
Okay, let’s say that you’re an advocate, and let’s say that you regularly read all the articles sent to you. But you don’t share everything that the marketing team sends to you.
Then, one day, you’re speaking with a prospect, and you realize, “Hey! I read an article related to this prospect’s pain point! I should send it to her!” But wait! How do you find the article in the giant black hole that is your e-mail inbox?
Good luck.
By using an employee advocacy platform that incorporates a content library, your employees can easily find the content that they’re looking for.
The Bottom Line
Microsoft Word is great. E-mail is great. But combining Microsoft Word and e-mail will not be enough for your employee advocacy or social selling strategy. As your program matures, you’ll want to look past Microsoft Office and find a product designed for managing your employee advocacy program.
Your organization will appreciate it greatly.
-Mark
Microsoft Office and E-mail Can’t Do It All…
Find out how Trapit can help your marketing team build a more efficient employee advocacy program.