--- title: How Do You Get a Bigger Internal Communications Budget in 2026? date: 2026-07-13T23:03:31Z modified: 2026-07-14T20:46:06Z permalink: "https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/internal-communications-budget" type: post status: publish excerpt: "" wpid: 76222 categories: - Internal Communications - How-To Tutorials featured_image: "https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-to-Get-a-Bigger-Internal-Communications-Budget-scaled.png" featured_image_alt: ContactMonkey shares how to get a a bigger internal communications budget author: Hetvi Mahida --- [Internal communications](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/internal-communication) touches nearly every part of the business, from engagement and retention to how well change actually lands. Turning that impact into budget means putting it in terms finance and leadership will act on, not just terms that feel true to your team. The value is real. What’s hard is quantifying it, competing against departments with cleaner ROI stories, and getting leadership to see the line from communications to revenue. Closing that gap takes a few numbers you can defend and a plan for the conversation itself, which is what this guide covers. Securing an internal communications budget is one of the biggest levers for [employee engagement](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/employee-engagement-best-practices), and it’s still one of the hardest asks to get approved. Here’s how to build a stronger case, back it with real data, and get a decision by next quarter instead of next year. ## **What Is the Value of Internal Communications?** The value of internal communications comes from helping employees understand what’s happening, why it matters, and what it means for them. That clarity builds trust, keeps people aligned with company priorities, and helps employees navigate periods of change. It also does the quieter work that’s easy to overlook, reducing the back-and-forth caused by unclear instructions, cutting down on duplicated effort, and giving teams a reliable way to communicate during a crisis. [ContactMonkey’s Global State of Internal Communications 2026 Report](https://www.contactmonkey.com/ebook/global-state-of-internal-communications-report-2026) data backs this up directly. 50% of communicators estimate employees lose 1-3 hours a week to unclear communication, and another 29% put that number at 4-6 hours. For a mid-sized company, that’s thousands of hours a year spent untangling messages that should have been clear the first time. ## **What Are the Roles of Internal Communications Pros and Departments?** Internal communications professionals make a difference across the business, but leadership won’t necessarily see that unless you show them. That’s why you’ll need to demonstrate this to individuals who might not know the ins and outs of the internal communications function. Before you draft a budget proposal, list what your team actually does and group it in a way that reads as impact: - Content creation and knowledge sharing - Departmental alignment - Supporting the communications needs of teams and leaders - Protecting employee experience and retention - Coordinating across HR, IT, and people leaders on the initiatives all three groups need employees to act on, from system rollouts to policy changes That last one deserves its own line. [GSIC 2026](https://www.contactmonkey.com/ebook/global-state-of-internal-communications-report-2026) found that IC now sits at the intersection of people, culture, leadership, and brand, rarely confined to a single lane or a single job title. If your team is already doing that cross-functional work informally, call it out in your proposal. It helps leadership understand the full scope of what internal communications is responsible for and why that work deserves investment. ## **Why Do You Need a Bigger Internal Communications Budget in 2026?** The benefits of internal communications are much easier to achieve when your team has the resources to reach employees consistently and reliably. The business case for engagement isn’t new: a 10% increase in engagement investment is associated with up to $2,400 in additional profit per employee, per year, a figure that traces back to [TalentCulture’s engagement research](https://www.gohappyhub.com/resources/why-employee-engagement-is-key-to-company-success) and gets cited widely since. [Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx) separately estimates that disengagement costs US businesses roughly $350 billion annually. What’s changed is the pressure sitting underneath those numbers in 2026. We talk to internal communicators every day, whether they’re customers ot prospects at events. Here’s what we consistently hear, regardless of company size or industry: - **“We’re doing the job of a bigger team.”** GSIC 2026 backs this up directly. Almost 1 in 5 internal communications teams operate as a single person, and nearly 10% of organizations have no dedicated IC function at all. Whatever your budget is being compared against, it’s likely covering work that used to be split across more people. - **“There’s no more ‘change management,’ there’s just constant change.”** Reorgs, AI rollouts, and policy shifts don’t arrive as isolated initiatives anymore, they are always ongoing. Change management as its own category is fading into internal comms itself, and GSIC 2026 found 30% of communicators now list it among their top strategic priorities for the year. - **“Return to office is still a mess, and we’re the ones stuck selling it.”** Employees are unhappy about it, and IC is often the team asked to build enthusiasm for a decision it didn’t make. Leadership tends to acknowledge the friction without funding anything to address it. - **“There’s no budget for recognition, so it’s landing on managers.”** Without formal recognition programs, that responsibility is increasingly falling to managers, and internal communications teams are often being asked to support those efforts. ## **How Can Budget Impact Internal Communications?** The most immediate impact of a thin budget is on your own team’s time. [GSIC 2026](https://www.contactmonkey.com/ebook/global-state-of-internal-communications-report-2026) puts the average communicator at roughly 240 hours a year just creating and sending [internal emails](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/internal-email-how-to-guide), which is six full work weeks spent on production instead of strategy. Some IC pros we talk to spend as much as 8 hours a week on that alone, which isn’t sustainable for long. With a small budget, communicators start absorbing the slack personally. Hours get longer, crisis response gets slower, and output quality drops because there’s no time to do more than hit send. But a bigger budget buys back time. ContactMonkey customers save up to 4 hours a week by building and sending directly from Outlook or Gmail while the drag-and-drop builder cuts production time further by removing the need for manual HTML work. [Dynamic content](https://www.contactmonkey.com/features/dynamic-content) lets you send one email that adapts by department, location, or role so there’s no need to build five separate versions, and [CoAuthor](https://www.contactmonkey.com/features/ai-email-builder) helps draft and design emails faster without adding headcount. On the reach side, SMS integration means frontline and dispersed teams are reachable without standing up a separate system, and [HRIS sync](https://www.contactmonkey.com/integrations) keeps your distribution lists current automatically instead of someone manually updating them every time an employee joins or leaves. The point of all of it is the same. Those hours go back into internal communications strategy instead of production. ![](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Drag-Drop-Email-Builder-1024x709.png) ## **How Do You Convince Leadership to Invest in Internal Communications Tools?** If you’re here, your question is probably some version of “How do I convince leadership to invest in internal communications tools?” It’s one of the most common things IC teams ask us, so here’s the short version. Leadership is more likely to support initiatives that are tied to measurable business outcomes. When you’re making your case, connect your goals to metrics the business is already tracking, such as productivity, retention, or change adoption. Here are a few things that consistently work: **Translate your work into what leadership already measures.** Executives think in retention, productivity, and revenue. “We improved engagement” doesn’t land the way “we cut first-year attrition by X%, saving an estimated $Y in replacement costs” does. Replacing an employee typically runs 50-150% of their salary, so this translation is usually easier than it sounds. **Pick one number and build around it.** [GSIC 2026](https://www.contactmonkey.com/ebook/global-state-of-internal-communications-report-2026) found that 50% of communicators say demonstrating their function’s impact is difficult, and a dashboard full of metrics tends to make that worse, not better. Choose the single number that matters most to the person in the room, whether that’s retention, productivity, or hours saved, and let everything else support it. **Tie the request to a problem leadership already knows about.** A return-to-office rollout, a recent acquisition that hasn’t fully merged culturally, or a frontline workforce leadership admits it isn’t reaching, all of these are easier to fund than a general request for “more resources,” because the problem is already on someone’s radar. **Show what happens if nothing changes.** What does this cost the business over the next two quarters if it stays unaddressed? Turnover, disengagement, and failed rollouts all carry a dollar figure, even as an estimate. **Show up with an actual internal comms platform in mind.** A demo and a real price range are a much easier yes than an open-ended budget increase. If leadership’s hesitation is less about this quarter’s cost and more about whether a tool will keep up with your program long-term, show them where the platform is actually headed. ContactMonkey recently ran a[ webinar walking through our product roadmap](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/roadmap-webinar-june), which is worth sharing with anyone weighing whether a platform’s direction matches where your team needs to go. For the fuller version of this conversation, including how to make the case to leadership, the actual benefits worth citing, and how to think through the different types of internal comms software available, we’ve laid it all out in[ Building a Business Case for Internal Communications Software](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/business-case-internal-communications-software). [Craft a winning business case for internal comms software](https://www.contactmonkey.com/doctemplates/contactmonkey-business-case) Need leadership buy-in? Let us help you build your business case with confidence. Get a free step-by-step guide to justify the value of ContactMonkey to your execs. Use our free guide! [Get the guide](https://www.contactmonkey.com/doctemplates/contactmonkey-business-case) ![](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CTA-banner-31_desktop.png "CTA banner 31_desktop") ![](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CTA-banner-31_mobile.png "CTA banner 31_mobile") ## **What Should You Consider Before Building an Internal Communications Budget?** Start with an [effective internal communications plan](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/internal-communications-plan). It gives you a clear understanding of your goals, priorities, and the challenges you’re trying to solve, making it much easier to build a business case and justify your budget. Once you have that foundation, work through these questions: - How much does workplace turnover cost your company annually? - What is your company’s employee [net promoter score (eNPS)](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/employee-net-promoter-score-enps)? - Does customer loyalty help grow your business revenue? - How is your customer service team performing? - Were there instances of lost revenue due to a lack of information or misunderstanding among staff? - Do your internal communications directly affect the quality of your customer service or product? - Could this budget be shared across HR, IT, or People Ops, since several of these tools now serve more than one team? ## **What Should Be Included in an Internal Communications Budget?** Your budget should cover every resource you actually need to hit your goals. That usually breaks down into a few categories: - [**Internal communications tools**](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/best-internal-communication-tools)**:** [internal email platforms](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/best-internal-email-platforms), intranet software, employee communication apps. - **Content creation:** video, design, and copywriting for materials that hold attention. - **Training and development:** keeping your team current on tools and practice. - **Analytics and reporting:** the infrastructure to measure impact and make your case next time. - **Crisis communication planning:** resourcing for timely response during emergencies. - **Recognition and manager comms support:** as formal recognition budgets shrink or disappear, that responsibility is falling to managers by default. Budgeting for tools or templates that help managers recognize their teams consistently is becoming part of the IC job, whether or not it’s officially assigned to you yet. Working backwards from the outcome is the fastest way to figure out what actually belongs on this list. If your goal is increasing employee awareness, decide upfront whether you’ll measure that through open rates, clicks, or intranet engagement, since the answer points straight to what you need to budget for. ## **What Is a Typical Budget for Internal Communications?** The cost of an internal communications department can vary widely depending on company size, industry, and the scope of the communication strategy. For a mid-sized company, the typical internal communications budget might range from $50,000 to $300,000 annually**.** This covers tools, content creation, salaries, training, and reporting software. Larger companies may allocate $500,000 or more, depending on the complexity of their communications needs, including crisis communication, global messaging, and comprehensive [employee engagement strategies](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/employee-engagement-strategies). Estimating an internal communications budget requires considering tools, staff, and the overall business case. ## **How Much Does Internal Communications Software Cost?** Almost no vendor in this category publishes a flat price, ContactMonkey included, because pricing depends on team size, feature needs, and contract length. Here’s what’s actually knowable before you get on a call: ContactMonkey pricing offers three plans: Launch, built for sending on-brand emails quickly with core analytics; Grow, which adds audience segmentation, dynamic content, multi-language support, and Teams/SharePoint integration; and Enterprise, which adds the [Analytics API](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/product-updates-sept-2025) and HRIS integrations. All three are quote-based.[ Request pricing](https://www.contactmonkey.com/pricing) to get a number specific to your team. For competitors, none of them publish exact rates either, but general market positioning is worth knowing: - Poppulo pricing tends to sit at the higher end of the category, since it’s a broader enterprise suite beyond just email, with advanced analytics and AI features often billed as add-ons. - Staffbase pricing also scales toward the higher end for larger, multi-channel deployments, with cost driven mainly by employee count and the number of channels you’re activating. - PoliteMail pricing is generally positioned as more accessible for smaller teams, with cost scaling as employee count grows. - Workshop pricing is positioned similarly for smaller teams at the entry level, with custom enterprise quotes above that. Some customers have reported meaningful renewal increases after year one, worth confirming upfront. Price alone won’t tell you which platform fits your [internal communications goals](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/internal-communication-goals), though. We’ve written detailed, feature-level breakdowns if you’re actually comparing different internal communications platforms:[ Poppulo alternatives](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/poppulo-alternatives),[ Staffbase alternatives](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/staffbase-alternatives),[ PoliteMail alternatives](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/politemail-alternatives), and[ Workshop alternatives](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/workshop-alternatives). If you want to test something before it’s part of a budget conversation at all, CoAuthor, ContactMonkey’s AI design agent, is free to try for 3 emails. No approval needed for that one. ![](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/CoAuthor-Tour-Featured-1024x557.png) ## **How Should You Prioritize Your Internal Communications Budget?** When allocating and prioritizing your internal communications budget, consider how the money will be used based on the areas that yield the highest impact: **Communication tools**: Start by investing in tools that enhance communication efficiency, such as email platforms, intranet, and [employee engagement software](https://www.contactmonkey.com/solutions/employee-engagement). These tools are critical to ensuring seamless communication across departments and remote teams. **Content creation**: High-quality content like videos, [employee newsletters](https://www.contactmonkey.com/solutions/employee-newsletters), and infographics drives engagement and keeps employees informed. Prioritize professional production for clarity and impact. **Analytics and reporting**: Invest in analytics tools to [measure the effectiveness of your internal communications](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/measure-communications) program. These tools help track open rates, engagement metrics, and feedback loops, justifying future investments. ![](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Analytics-Reporting-2-1024x768.webp) **Training and development**: Prioritize staff training to ensure your team can effectively utilize communication tools and stay up-to-date on best practices. This helps improve the overall effectiveness of your internal communications strategy. **Crisis communication resources**: Set aside part of your budget for crisis communication to ensure the organization is prepared to respond effectively during emergencies. This ensures timely and clear communication during critical moments. These are the areas that make the biggest difference to your day-to-day work as an internal communicator. Investing in them helps you reach employees more effectively, measure what’s working, and show leadership the impact your communications are having. ## **How Do You Create a Business Case for Internal Communications Budget? (5 Steps)** Your team already sees the value of a bigger budget. Not everyone else does, and that’s not a knock on leadership, it’s just that they’re not in your inbox every day. A business case gives your argument structure so it doesn’t rely on them taking your word for it. It will enable you to clearly show how your proposed budget will [improve internal communications](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/improve-internal-communication) and impact business as a whole. Here are 5 components of a persuasive business case for your internal communications budget: ### **1. Align your budget with business goals** To effectively [align internal communications with business goals](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/internal-communication-goals), tie your work directly to outcomes leadership already tracks: - **Employee engagement:** clear, timely communication builds a connected workforce, which shows up in engagement and satisfaction scores. - **Employee retention:** communication that includes transparency and recognition helps retain people. Link this to the cost of turnover directly. - **Productivity:** clear, well-timed communication cuts down the back-and-forth that eats into actual work time. Setting realistic goals here works better with an actual benchmark to compare against, rather than picking a number that sounds good. ContactMonkey’s[ Internal Email Benchmark Report 2026](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/internal-email-benchmark-report-2026) analyzed over 255,000 internal email campaigns across 20+ industries, and the industry and list-size breakdowns are a useful starting point for setting the engagement goal your budget is meant to support. If your current numbers already sit close to your industry’s benchmark, that goal should be about protecting and building on strong performance. If they’re well below it, that gap is your budget justification. If you want the fuller breakdown of what these numbers mean for internal comms teams specifically, ContactMonkey put together a companion piece on[ key findings from the 2026 benchmark report](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/contactmonkeys-internal-email-benchmark-report-2026-key-findings-for-internal-communications-teams) worth reading before you finalize your goals. ### **2. Use data to make the case, without needing to be a numbers person** When we talk to internal communicators, one thing we hear all the time is, “I’m not a math person.” The good news is, you don’t need to be to build a strong business case. A strong case takes three or four numbers tied to what leadership already cares about, nothing more complicated than that. Pick one number for employee engagement, one for retention, one for productivity, and build a short narrative around those three. That reads better to leadership because it tells a story instead of dumping data. Some numbers worth having on hand, from [ContactMonkey’s GSIC 2026 report](https://www.contactmonkey.com/ebook/global-state-of-internal-communications-report-2026): - Companies with effective internal communication see up to 25% higher employee productivity - 69% of employees report feeling more aligned with company goals when communications are clear and consistent - Organizations with strong internal communication are 50% more likely to retain top talent - 72% of leaders say internal communications were pivotal in successfully managing a crisis Pair these with your own open, click, and read-time data measured against the benchmark figures from step 1, and you have a case built on your numbers alongside numbers leadership can independently verify. If none of this feels like enough to build a case from scratch, [ContactMonkey’s ROI calculator ](https://www.contactmonkey.com/roi-calculator)does the math for you. Plug in your team size and current engagement numbers, and it turns them into a time and cost estimate you can bring straight into the room. [How much is low employee engagement costing you?](/roi-calculator) Tally it up with ContactMonkey’s ROI calculator. [Calculate now](/roi-calculator) ![](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CTA-banner-2_desktop.png "CTA banner 2_desktop") ![](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CTA-banner-2_mobile.png "CTA banner 2_mobile") ### **3. Showcase real-life examples through case studies** Case studies carry weight that stats alone don’t, especially when leadership can see their own situation reflected in someone else’s problem. A few worth citing, from[ ContactMonkey’s customer stories](https://www.contactmonkey.com/customers): - **Flagger Force** was dealing with outdated email tools, weak analytics, and messages getting flagged as phishing before employees ever saw them. After moving to ContactMonkey, open rates increased by over 40%, and the communications team finally had reliable data to show which messages were actually landing. - **Freedom Mobile** inherited ContactMonkey through a previous parent company, and when the organization was acquired again, the communications lead fought to keep the platform through the transition. Real-time analytics and audience-specific performance data let the team move from reactive sending to a deliberate strategy, and the result was a 15% increase in open rates and read rates climbing from 32% to 40%. - **SEEK** used dynamic content to give people leaders role-specific updates inside a single newsletter instead of building separate versions, while keeping the internal comms brand consistent with SEEK’s external presence. Click rates now sit around 19%, well above typical benchmarks, and open rates in ANZ reach 55-60%, with plans to close the gap in Asia using ContactMonkey’s translation feature. - **First Onsite** needed a way to reach field employees during active hurricane response, when email alone wasn’t reliable enough. SMS through ContactMonkey gave them a direct channel to frontline teams in real time, which is exactly the kind of deskless-worker reach most IC teams still struggle with. If you want more to pull from, ContactMonkey put together a rundown of[ the top 5 case studies to follow in 2026](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/internal-communication-case-study). Chances are one of these organizations was dealing with a pain point close to yours, and you can use their story as a template for how to frame your own. ### **4. Describe your internal communications solution** Be specific about how the solution actually works, not just what it does in theory. Here’s a version you can adapt: _“ContactMonkey’s internal communications platform helps our team send and measure employee messaging without leaving Outlook or Gmail. Real-time analytics and audience segmentation show us what’s landing and what isn’t. CoAuthor, ContactMonkey’s built-in AI agent, helps draft and design internal emails faster without adding headcount to the team.”_ ### **5. Identify KPIs and a timeframe** Every step before this one builds the case for why you should get the budget. This step is what gets you funded again next year, so it’s worth more than a closing line. Leadership approves budgets based on outcomes, and they’ll hold you to whatever outcome you commit to. A proposal that ends on “this will improve engagement” gives them nothing to check back on, which makes it easy to deprioritize once the next budget cycle rolls around and someone else’s ask comes with a number attached. A proposal that ends on “a 10% increase in open rates by end of Q4, alongside a 5% boost in event registrations” gives leadership something concrete to hold you to, and gives you something concrete to point back to once you’ve hit it. Pick two or three [employee engagement metrics](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/employee-engagement-metrics), tie each one to a specific timeframe, and be plain about how the budget gets you there. If part of the ask is a new platform, name which feature drives which number, segmentation for open rates, SMS for frontline reach, dynamic content for time saved. A vague commitment reads as a hope. A specific one reads as a plan, and a plan is what gets approved. This step also sets up next year’s conversation. Come back in twelve months having hit what you said you would, and your next budget request starts from trust instead of from zero. [Craft a winning internal comms budget proposal](/template/internal-communications-budget-proposal) Take the guesswork out of budgeting. Use our free template! [Get the template](/template/internal-communications-budget-proposal) ![](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CTA-banner-31_desktop.png "CTA banner 31_desktop") ![](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CTA-banner-31_mobile.png "CTA banner 31_mobile") ## **How Do You Get Your Internal Communications Budget Approved?** To make a strong business case for a bigger internal communications budget and boost your chances of approval, consider these best practices: - **Lead with the business need.** Show what problem your budget solves and how you’ll measure whether it worked. If the goal is more event registrations, show how the right [internal communications software](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/internal-communications-tools) increases enagement and participation, and stop there. The software is the mechanism that gets you the outcome, so let the outcome carry the pitch. - **Bring your own data.** [ContactMonkey’s Internal Email Benchmark Report](https://www.contactmonkey.com/ebook/internal-email-benchmark-report-2026) is a useful comparison point, but your own open rates, click rates, and [pulse survey results](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/pulse-survey-examples) will always carry more weight in the room, since they’re proof of what’s happening in your organization specifically. - **Put a number on cost savings.** Replacing an employee typically costs 50-150% of their salary. If your software improves retention even modestly, that math is usually more persuasive than an engagement percentage on its own. - **Put a number on time savings.** Ask employees how much time they spend looking for internal information they should already have. Then show what your new software actually fixes. ## How Do You Draft an Email to Your VP Requesting Budget for an Internal Comms Tool? If a full slide deck feels like overkill, send this instead. It’s built to answer the three questions a VP actually has before approving spend: what problem this solves, what it costs, and what happens if it doesn’t get funded. _Subject: Budget request: internal comms tool for \[specific problem, e.g. “measuring email engagement”\]_ _Hi \[VP name\],_ _I’d like to request budget for \[tool name/category\], to solve a specific gap in how we \[communicate with employees / measure engagement / reach frontline staff\]._ _The problem: \[1-2 sentences on the current gap, e.g. “We’re sending internal updates through Outlook with no way to track opens, clicks, or engagement by department, so we can’t tell what’s landing and what isn’t.”\]_ _The cost of not fixing this: \[1-2 sentences with a number if you have one, e.g. “Our last engagement survey showed X% of employees say they miss important updates, and we have no way to identify which teams need a different approach.”\]_ _The solution: \[Tool name\] costs approximately \[$ range or “a custom quote based on our team size”\] annually and would let us \[1-2 concrete outcomes, e.g. “track engagement by department, send targeted updates instead of one-size-fits-all emails, and report on communication impact the same way we report on other business metrics”\]._ _I’ve attached \[a demo recording / pricing breakdown / ROI estimate\] for reference. Happy to walk through this whenever works for you._ _Thanks, \[Your name\]_ ## **What Should You Do if Your Budget Isn’t Fully Approved?** If your budget doesn’t get approved, don’t sweat it. Often, a budget isn’t approved when there simply isn’t enough data to make a strong business case. Your company might also be in a tight spot financially and may revisit the proposal at a later date. Keep vigilant and continue to gather more [employee engagement analytics](https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/how-to-measure-employee-engagement), including email open rates, clicks, and employee feedback. Compare quarterly performance and use the insights you gather to make an even stronger business case for increasing your internal communications budget. When it comes time to revisit the budget, you’ll have a bigger chance of success if you have more data points to drive your proposal. ## **How ContactMonkey Helps You Prove Internal Comms ROI** In a perfect world, internal communicators would have all the budget they need to reach employees with the right information at the right time. In reality, that budget has to be earned, and the teams that earn it consistently are the ones who show up with a number. Use data to show the concrete impact of the budget you’re asking for. Those numbers are what get you buy-in now, and what keep the budget in place next year. Use the [ROI calculator](https://www.contactmonkey.com/roi-calculator) to see what better internal communications could be worth to your organization, and try the [CoAuthor free trial](https://www.contactmonkey.com/co-author-trial) for 3 emails to see how AI-assisted writing fits into your workflow before it’s part of a budget ask at all. **_See how ContactMonkey can help you make the case for investing in your internal communications budget. [Book a free demo today](https://www.contactmonkey.com/internal-comms-demo)._** ### **How do I convince leadership to invest in internal communications tools?** Translate your work into the metrics leadership already tracks, usually retention, productivity, or revenue, rather than engagement scores alone. Anchor your request to a specific, current business problem, like a return-to-office rollout or a recent acquisition, and show the cost of leaving it unaddressed. Coming with a specific tool, a demo, and a price point makes the ask far easier to approve than a general request for more resources. ### **How do I get budget for internal comms tools?** Start with an internal communications plan, then build a business case that ties your team’s work to measurable business outcomes. Back it with two or three data points instead of a full dashboard, and show what the organization loses by not investing. A demo and a specific quote from a vendor is easier for leadership to approve than an open-ended budget increase. ### **How do I prove internal comms ROI?** Start with the cost of the problem you’re solving, like turnover or lost productivity, rather than leading with an engagement percentage. Connect one communications metric to one business outcome, and use a tool like ContactMonkey’s ROI calculator to turn your team size and engagement data into a dollar estimate without building the math yourself. ### **How does ContactMonkey pricing compare to Poppulo, Staffbase, and PoliteMail?** Poppulo and Staffbase are typically the most expensive options, running well into the tens or hundreds of thousands annually for enterprise deployments, since both are broader suites beyond email alone. PoliteMail and ContactMonkey are generally positioned as more focused, lower-overhead options for teams whose primary need is email-based internal communication, though final pricing for both depends on team size and features. ## Topics **Categories:** [Internal Communications](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/taxonomy/category/internal-communications.md), [How-To Tutorials](https://www.contactmonkey.com/cm_wp/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/taxonomy/category/how-to-tutorials.md)