If you’ve recently discovered the amazing and relatively new concept of inbound marketing, then you’re undoubtedly excited.
Goodness – we’re excited for you! The myriad benefits of inbound marketing combine to form new and powerful ways to pull new customers and new followers towards your business, all whilst solving some of the most pressing problems for marketers today (budgets, ROI, traffic, messaging, etc.)
Some of the inbound marketing benefits your organisation will profit from will be undeniable if you manage to create a successful inbound marketing strategy.
However, as rightfully keen as you are to start reaping all the rewards that inbound marketing strategies bring, you’ve got one hurdle to overcome before you can start – convincing your boss to invest.
Getting the buy-in from senior leadership is the only way that your organisation is going to stand a chance at maximising on all the advantages to be had from inbound marketing.
But, implementing change is no mean feat – not least because fear of change is one of the biggest obstacles to the progress of any kind. The right Inbound marketing campaign makes reaching potential customers easier than any other form of marketing. However, the result, in such circumstances, is that often a company will choose the easy option of “sticking with the devil (i.e. outbound marketing) they know”, rather than taking the action of making a radical change.
So, the challenge that you’re faced with is how to convince your boss that there is nothing to be afraid of, and that indeed the benefits of inbound marketing by far outweigh the prospect of being stuck in the Dark Ages whilst your competitors progress towards the light.
How do you go about this?
Well, just as education forms one of the most important cornerstones of inbound marketing practices, you will here be tasked with taking up the tools of education to craft your argument for inbound marketing investment from the bosses. By the end of it, your bosses must understand the value that well-thought-out inbound marketing campaigns will bring to the organisation and have both marketing and sales teams cooperating together to make the most out of them.
Below, we’ve opened up an inbound marketing educational tool chest that you are most welcome to have a rummage through and take what you need to convince.
How to Educate Your Boss on the Benefits of Inbound Marketing
Prove ROI
Today, when our customers want information about a new product or service, they consult Google or their favourite social network to get the answers they need. You no longer need to have a sales team that is constantly outreaching to customers and potential customers.
As such, if your boss is still convinced that sales come solely from sales teams, consider this – less than one in five (19%) buyers still rely on salespeople to make purchase decisions.
To be honest, this is just one small stat that proves the ROI of inbound marketing. There are many more. And so, since it's your job to convince your boss of the benefits of implementing inbound strategies, we'll take it as our job to here deliver the stats you need to fight your case.
To be honest, this is just one small stat that proves ROI of inbound marketing. There are many more. And so, since it’s your job to convince your boss of the benefits of inbound marketing, we’ll take it as our job to here deliver the stats you need to fight your case.
Take a look at some of these:
- Inbound marketing costs 62% less than traditional outbound marketing, and generates three times as many leads
- Leads that are nurtured (lead nurturing is high on the list of inbound marketing tactics) make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads
- 47% of marketers planned to increase their inbound marketing budget in 2016 compared to 2015. This is a strong market indicator – your competitors are recognising the benefits of inbound marketing, and so must you (and your boss!)
- Marketers that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don’t
- Companies that blog generate 97% more links (premium SEO fodder) to their website than those that don’t
For more revealing stats that demonstrate positive ROI for inbound marketing, check out HubSpot’s The State of Inbound 2016 report – a top tool for all educational insights into inbound marketing usage.
Identify Resources You’ll Need
Ok, you’re armed with some very convincing data that will form the basis of your argument.
However, facts and figures aren’t going to cut the mustard alone. Moving into inbound marketing means new tactics must be formed, and therefore the new resources that your company will need must be identified in order to execute those tactics.
So, what will you need?
A Writer: Blogs, unfortunately, don’t fall out of the sky. Someone needs to write them. Now, a writer may be found within your existing marketing team – perhaps there’s an English graduate amongst you who has found their way into a marketing role.
But, if not, content marketing is big business these days, and, as such, there are many avenues that you can go down to outsource writing work at competitive rates. Indeed, even if you can find someone in-house to pen a few well-researched and well-written weekly blogs that capture both the essence and value proposition of your business, there will be occasions when you will benefit from long-form content, such as white papers and eBooks.
These are best outsourced to professional content creators – so, do your homework, locate these people, get price comparisons and examples of their work, all ready to present to your boss when the time comes.
A Graphic Designer: Not all content is written – in fact, visual marketing is one of the most important inbound marketing tactics to utilise in 2016. Infographics, original images for blogs, eBook designs, white paper layouts, tweets and other social media posts, even videos – all need a keen eye for design.
(Image source: quicksprout.com)
However, there are some wonderful free and subscription-based tools out there such as Canva and Piktochart (for image design), and Moovly and Shakr (for video editing and creation), that should be considered. These platforms can turn someone with even the most basic of visual design skills into a whizz-kid overnight.
Social Media Manager: Social networks, of course, form some of the most important avenues for inbound marketing success. Content creation is the first step, but promoting that content across social is just as important.
You will need to identify someone, therefore, with skills in using social channels for business purposes. There is, however, a wealth of information out there on the web through which it is very possible to educate yourself on social media best practices.
The person will need to identify which networks will be most valuable for the company, and which tactics will work best on those networks. For instance, B2B companies are very likely to find a foothold on the likes of LinkedIn and Twitter, and a strong blogging strategy will pay off on these networks. For B2C companies, Pinterest and Facebook may well prove to be more valuable, with an emphasis on visual content to maximise results.
Furthermore, the social media manager will need to get to grips with marketing automation software, such as HubSpot. SaaS companies in particular can reap great inbound marketing benefits from this platform, though its strengths as a marketing tool can be exploited by all.
Create Your Plan
You’ve got the data, and you’ve identified what you will need – now you need an inbound marketing business plan.
If you’re going to convince your boss that inbound marketing is the future of your organisation, then you need to be clear as to how you intend to execute such an initiative.
A well-documented plan is vital to inbound marketing success at any level.
The Content Marketing Institute’s most recent report reveals why:
- 53% of the most effective marketers have a documented content marketing strategy
- 40% of the least effective marketers have no strategy at all
- 55% of companies that are clear on what success or effectiveness looks like show a higher effectiveness rate
So, you need to document a plan that does the following:
- Identifies your goals
- Identifies your target audience (see ‘How to Develop Inbound Marketing Personas’)
- Identifies the most appealing topics your content will cover to attract the target audience
- A plan for the creation of that content
- A plan for the promotion of that content
- An ongoing plan to analyse results and optimise tactics
This plan will be your roadmap to inbound marketing success. You need to be thorough in your approach, as only by convincing yourself in no uncertain terms that there are benefits to be had with inbound marketing will you be prepared to convince your boss of the same.
Over to You
Only you know how hard you can push your bosses – but, as an inbound marketing agency, we make no bones about saying this: you owe it to your business to do everything you can to see that inbound marketing tactics are adopted.
Inbound marketing leads to unimaginable outcomes when done by the right agency.
The businesses we’ve worked with have enjoyed tremendous success with inbound marketing. And please, don’t just take our word for it – take a look at our Inbound Marketing Results page. We’ve got case studies, testimonials, and whole swathes of social proof – all of which you are also perfectly welcome to use when forming your plan to convince your boss on the benefits of inbound marketing.
Good luck!
