The Importance of Branding your Intranet

 Branding is a part of almost everything a company does. Even when the efforts are only seen by internal  employees, brand is a must. Intranets are certainly no exception. 

What Is Internal Branding?

In its most general terms, a "brand" is an easily-perceived company identity. This identity consists of the company's name, logo, and the meaning behind both. Your brand differentiates you from competitors. It's a brief summary of what your company is in its entirety

While the external uses may be obvious, internal branding can be just as valuable. These benefits are more nuanced, but internal branding is a way to help employees connect with that external brand that has been cultivated. By reminding people of the company's brand, or personality, you encourage them to align and associate themselves with it.

What Does Internal Branding Do?

Internal branding leads to increased brand commitment and loyalty. Employees feel like they are part of the team when their organization puts in the effort to market to them every day. And, they are reminded of the image and values they should uphold.

It also reminds them of the image and values they should uphold

This doesn't only apply to huge brands like Nike, but to any type of organization from multinational companies to a government agencies.  All organizations need to help foster that internal buy-in on their goals and values. 

For example, picture any well-respected college. If you look around their campuses, you'll see countless banners, plaques, and signs celebrating the institution. You can't even walk a couple steps without seeing the school name or logo somewhere. Why? Sure it helps sell to prospective students on tours but that's hardly the primary purpose of all that. The primary purpose is promoting school spirit and building a sense of group pride. By seeing the school name throughout the building or campus, students are reminded that they are a part of a community. By identifying with the organization holistically, they are more inclined to uphold the school's standards of excellence and help to contribute to its success

 Your Intranet and Internal Branding

Including company imagery on your site helps to reinforce the organizational culture in the average user. Include your organizational logo, motto, colors, and even font. Make the site representative of your organization.

Branding alone will not re-motivate a disengaged employee, but it does help by giving a subconscious reminder to the user about the organization. It shows the employee isn't simply working on an island but is a part of a community and fosters engagement. Check out our engagement blog posts for information on what engagement does for a company.

Branding as a Process

Branding  can be one of the easiest or hardest parts of an intranet. From just a name and logo in the top corner to custom site colors, font, and more. These changes remind users of their organization and give life to otherwise mundane, ordinary pages. Continually make sure the branding your organization pushes to the intranet aligns with branding being pushed externally. Always avoid pushing outdated branding.

This is a simple, yet important way to boost employee engagement and improve your intranet's value proposition. However, this is just one small point to focus on in the much larger scheme of intranet design and experience. From UX design to functionality customizations, there is a huge array of options open to organizations to allow them to improve their intranet.