Sales Driven Marketing Hub

Inbound marketing can increase brand awareness and boost conversions.

But getting your boss on board can be a challenge.

That’s because in order to transition from a more traditional marketing strategy to an inbound one, there needs to be a shift in mentality.

Download our free inbound marketing checklist to help you execute all the pieces required to make inbound work.

Why? Because a transition to inbound marketing isn’t just a marketing decision, it’s a cultural one.

Explaining Inbound Marketing

There are two important parts when it comes time to explain inbound. The first is the why; the second is the how. 

Let’s dive into both. 

The Why 

When commencing your spiel, first focus on why inbound—and the discussion in general—is worthy of your boss’s consideration. 

First, posit how traditional marketing tactics tend to function, and how that can be a turn off to potential customers. Then follow up with how inbound takes a different approach to reaching and connecting with an audience. 

Whereas traditional marketing tactics are more interruptive, inbound tactics are more value-added. Instead of interrupting your prospects and putting your marketing message in their faces, give them something of value so that they want to come to you.

Inbound builds on informing a target audience and always providing value so that prospects come to think of your business as an industry leader and a helpful partner. This not only helps build a foundation of trust, it also makes it more likely that prospects will become customers and brand advocates.

The How

For the next part of your pitch, you will need to outline how you plan to roll out your inbound marketing approach. 

Employee-Level Personal Branding

In order to get the most out of your inbound efforts, you’ll want to get everyone in your company on board. Start by explaining the importance of personal branding:

Most everyone uses social media right? It’s incredibly helpful to leverage social media sites LinkedIn and Twitter to create professional profiles. If you already have a personal Twitter account, create another handle that will be used for professional purposes. 

Use these accounts to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry by interacting with your peers, participating in Twitter chats, and posting useful information from your own business’s site as well as from resources around the web. 

Once employees get excited about this, they’ll be more likely to share their industry knowledge, further solidifying your organization’s position as a great source of valuable information. What’s more, you’ll be able to increase the reach of your company’s network by the amount of all your coworkers’ followers. 

The Content Plan 

Strategy 

When it comes to your content marketing strategy, you’ll want to start with a content map and editorial calendar. These tools will help you lay out your campaigns, including what types of gated assets you want to create (eBooks, tip sheets, webinars, etc.) and what blog posts you’ll need to support them. 

Starting a Blog

Producing content takes a lot of time and money. If your boss’s hesitation is budget, then advocate that there are ways to get the inbound ball rolling without spending any extra money on freelancers or hiring a bunch of new people. Pitch a blog off to get your coworkers’ competitive juices flowing and help get your inbound plan off the ground.

Conclusion

Pitching inbound can be a challenging task. However, once you start to get people excited about the prospect of being able to make a difference on the company’s bottom line, you’ll soon start to see a cultural shift and—hopefully—executive buy-in. 

Stay positive and keep believing in inbound marketing. As soon as your boss sees how much your prospects and customers appreciate the extra value you’re providing, you’re organization will officially be a part of the inbound family!