Successful marketing doesn’t start with a catchy tagline or a viral campaign — it begins with clear, consistent messaging that resonates with every audience, both inside and out. Employees who not only know but also believe in your company’s mission, values and messaging can become your most loyal brand advocates. But it doesn’t happen by accident.

Companies must make an effort to align internal and external messages, all while recognizing employees' unique needs. It’s vital to foster open communication, empower employees, value their feedback, cultivate a positive company culture and more.

Follow these five do’s and avoid these don’ts when building a strong, consistent internal communications strategy — and help turn your employees into your top brand ambassadors.

1. Present a Unified Voice

By aligning your internal and external messaging, product information and marketing campaigns, you present a coherent and unified external image.

Do: Recognize that although the internal message may be similar to the external communications, it should not be the same. Your internal audience has different needs than your customers. Relevance still matters, even when presenting a unified voice.

Don’t: Your internal communications shouldn’t be an afterthought. Instead, loop the team in early enough in the process so they can craft a message tailored to the internal audience. (Spoiler alert: This comes into play with tip three below.)

2. Provide Guidance and Support

Employees are more likely to trust open, honest and transparent communications. However, you must balance that openness with the real concern that anything shared internally may also be shared externally, even content that’s supposed to remain in-house! Be consistent in what you share and how you share it — and offer training and clear guidelines for participation to ensure that what you want gets out there, not anything else.

Do: Appropriately label your content so teams know what’s safe to share and what’s not.

Don’t: You must not operate in fear. When you offer open and honest company news, you build trust with your employees. When they trust you, they’re more likely to refrain from sharing anything clearly labeled as “internal use only.”

3. Empower Your Employees

Although it can be daunting to allow employees to share their voices and experiences, it can create a level of authenticity that can't be matched. It’s the ultimate word-of-mouth marketing and is highly trusted by consumers. Craft the messaging by sharing campaigns internally first, creating internal talking points and encouraging voluntary social sharing by providing links and suggested copy.

Do: Give your teams the tools, information and encouragement to share.

Don’t: Avoid creating a culture where participation is mandatory. Nobody likes being told what to do.