Digital White Papers

I L T A W H I T E P A P E R | I N F O R M A T I O N G O V E R N E N C E 54 U S I N G M A R K E T I N G P R I N C I P L E S T O E F F E C T I V E L Y C O M M U N I C A T E Y O U R I N F O R M A T I O N G O V E R N A N C E P R O G R A M promoting your IG initiatives. By using a mix of different formats you can create and customize touch- points with different employee groups (and even personality types). Don't be afraid to go beyond email to include printed signs and handouts, focus groups or even in-person 'roadshows'. If segments of your audience won't stop moving long enough to absorb your message, ask if you can present for the first ten minutes of a recurring meeting that's already on their schedule or sponsor an event they'll be attending. Train: Training is another effective way to get your message in front of an audience. If you're lucky enough to be able to implement a mandatory training, you stand a better chance at reaching a broader audience. Even if your training isn't mandatory, you can still trick people into getting some IG education by making it fun. Gamification using quizzes, contests, even DMS scavenger hunts, along with small incentives (you'd be surprised by what people will do for a $100 gift card), allows your audience to learn more about how to properly manage their information without it feeling like they're being 'trained'. Integrate: Other internal compliance programs within your firm, such as HR or information security, often have trainings and communications you may be able to seamlessly integrate your IG content into. They likely also have more established employee familiarity and executive support. Integration with their communication channels can help you to maximize your resources and gain traction quickly. Quantify: It's also important to continuously be on the lookout for ways to quantify the cost savings and operational efficiencies that benefit different areas of your organization. Remind people 'what's in it for them' by personalizing benefits to a particular employee group or business stakeholder. Measure: Tracking the effectiveness of your training and communications allows you to discover what's working and what could be improved. By analyzing email activity and intranet site traffic, you can find out which emails are generating more interaction and which policies and procedures are being accessed more often (ex: Attorneys may access the file transfer policy the most, but administrative staff may be more interested in data retention.) That knowledge can be used to better tailor your messaging to your audience's needs. Your firm's marketing or information security teams may already be using tools to help monitor content and analyze employee or client behavior. Find out if you can make use of those same tools to add value without adding cost. Packaging Your Product: Crafting an IG Identity If you're part of a large firm, chances are good that a number of communications are being sent to you from different sources across a variety of mediums on a daily basis. It can be challenging to make your messaging stand out above the fray. Creating an internal brand allows you to establish a distinct visual identity for your program that will help you to communicate consistently across multiple channels. The ability to visually connect the different components of your program also allows for faster recognition by employees – which can speed up your program's integration into your firm's culture. Elements of your internal brand might include a name, tagline or logo to identify your program, as well as specific projects or initiatives. This exercise can be particularly helpful for anyone struggling to transition away from the 'records' moniker towards 'information governance'. Creating a co-branded identity that's aligned with your firm's existing branding adds legitimacy to your program, and enforces the idea that this isn't being driven by just one person or department's agenda, but rather, that this is supported by the the firm as a whole. Still not sold on the effectiveness of internal branding? Consider for a moment: Who is it that at your audience is already listening and responding to? Perhaps HR or Legal? While you may not be able to mimic the sender's authority, pay attention to how they style their messages. They likely include elements of the firm's official branding and more often than not come from an 'official' email account like "HRBenefitsTeam@firmname.com" as opposed to "Susie Daniels from Payroll". An internal brand allows you to leverage those previously engrained habits for your own messaging.

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