1) It Fosters Consistency Every marketer seeks consistency with her company’s story. If customers do not hear the same narrative every time they learn about your business, it can lead to confusion and doubt. Doubt leads customers to your competitors. Southwest Airlines, for example, doesn’t have a brand story; it has a brand attitude. The airline’s team members—from flight attendants to ticket agents—are pleasant and genuine in trying to help customers, and they generally make it easy to do business with Southwest. 2) It Creates Conversions Consistency is a building block to conversions, which should be the most important metric for every marketing department. Impressions and likes are great, but customers cast their most important votes with their wallets. Unfortunately, marketing departments don’t spend accordingly: Econsultancy reports that companies spend about $92 on customer acquisition for every $1 they spend on conversions. Front-line teams will win more customers if their brand story is sound and their message is consistent. I once worked with a client that worked in-home services and repairs business. 3) It Encourages Cross-team Cooperation My team conducted a study of marketing executives, and the respondents rated marketing alignment with front-line teams as the premier opportunity for improving marketing ROI. Better internal alignment leads to superior execution and efficiency, which benefits every department. The more marketers invest in helping these partners tell the same brand story, the more these groups will be willing to collaborate. This collaboration can lead to tangible results, with a study by MarketingProfs indicating that sales and marketing teams can generate 208% more revenue by working together. A focus on internal brand awareness helps marketing teams concentrate on what is happening in the trenches. How are customers responding to your message? What ideas do front-line employees have for improving customer conversations? Feedback fuels successful companies, and this is particularly true in marketing. In one instance, we saw a call center representative share an idea about a valuable use case for a product. Not only did the company’s marketing department approve of its use in the brand story, but the company also incorporated the example into external marketing campaigns. No one knows your customers better than the people who are talking to them on a daily basis. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alexa-koch/support