As it turns out, jumping up and down while excitedly blubbering about the possibilities of inbound marketing is not the most effective way to convince your boss to invest in inbound! Most bosses out there (would love to hear from you if this does not apply), take some convincing to unlatch the vault and invest in a new initiative.
They want to hear the nitty-gritty of exactly how this investment could help the team accomplish their business and marketing goals. Try incorporating these six tips into your pitch and you may find your boss ready and willing to buckle down and invest in inbound marketing!
1. Hit Them With Stats
There is a ton of hard data out there to support the big impact inbound marketing can have on the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. Did you know that inbound marketing campaigns get a higher return on investment than traditional marketing campaigns? What’s more, marketers that can prove a positive ROI are two times more likely to recognize higher marketing budgets the following year.
This, and more information, can be found in Hubspot’s State of Inbound 2015 Report. As a treasure trove of inbound related information, there is plenty in here that you can draw from while fine tuning your pitch for inbound.
2. Assess Internal Capacity
Implementing an inbound marketing strategy is a lot of work. Maintaining, and hopefully growing, an inbound marketing strategy, requires a considerable commitment of both resources and time.
Be honest with yourself, can your existing marketing team balance the demands of a transition to inbound? Is your intention to transition entirely or incorporate inbound with your traditional marketing efforts? You may need to consider your capacity to grow your staff to meet increasing scopes of work. Another great alternative is to bring in an expert agency to support you, at least in the very beginning.
3. Spell Out The Plan
Be careful not to put the cart before the horse. Don’t spend too much time on the details of your plan before getting the inbound investment approved. I would suggest at least having a rough outline of how exactly the roll out of your inbound marketing would be executed.
When would you purchase the marketing software and tools? How would you glean through existing data and contacts to ensure data integrity? Who will be leading the charge? Would you prefer to stagger the stages of implementation and delegate? You get the gist. Larry Levenson, Chief Inbound Officer here at SensibleMarketing wrote up a valuable blog post that can point you in the right direction.
4. Break Down The Cost
I can’t delay this point much further, naturally this will be a big consideration to your pitch. In addition to considering the marketing tools and processes, you will want to include additional salaries or consultation fees, time invested in the training phases, and continuing education to name a few. Depending on how far along in the process you are, you may want to present research on your marketing software options and the associated cost of each.
5. Rally An Expert
Sometimes, the head honchos need to hear exactly what you’re saying being said by someone else. It’s not that they don’t trust you. Validation from an expert in the industry may be exactly what they need to take the plunge.
Besides, an expert may be able to answer some of the questions you have and can become a valuable ally in your pitch. Should you decide to go the consultant route, this individual may already be associated with an agency or could at least point you in the direction of agencies they have vetted.
6. Define Concrete Goals
This can’t be stressed enough, what marketing goals would you like to accomplish and why is inbound marketing the most effective avenue to reaching those goals? Are you trying to drive more traffic to your website? If so, exactly how much traffic on a monthly basis? What percentage of those visits would you like to convert into leads? Really nail down these goals.
Get To Work!
Wipe the sweat off your brow, now it’s really time to get cranking! With the 6 tips covered in this blog post, you’re well equipped to putting together the perfect pitch.
