Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: you’re speaking to the owner of your business, extolling the virtues of digital marketing, such as blogging or social media. But instead of listening intently, their eyes seem to glaze over. And at the end of the conversation, instead of agreeing to give it a shot, they decide to pass.
Does this scenario sound familiar to you? If it does, rest assured, you are not alone. Just like your grandpa probably doesn’t see the need for a Facebook account, your owner doesn’t see the need to convert to inbound marketing. If you want to change that, you need to understand why your owner is so averse to inbound marketing.
Bottom line: they probably just don’t get it
Before digital marketing, there were very few ways to market your business. You could advertise in the yellow pages, pay for radio or TV commercials, or pay for billboards or other print ads. That was it.
Now, in the digital age, there are dozens of ways you can market your business online, many of which are cost effective. The problem is, your owner probably doesn’t understand how those online methods are effective. One of the key tenets of inbound marketing is the use of blogs. But your owner might ask, how does writing blogs help our business?
You need to relate to your owner by using traditional marketing terms. If you start spouting off about SEO, Google search results rankings and keywords, you’re likely to see the eyes glaze over again. Instead, talk about how blogs make it easier for people to find your business, how they are basically free advertising. Because what’s one of the best things about blogs? They don’t take money out of the marketing budget!
Emphasize the cost savings
Aside from the time it takes for an employee to write/research, there is no additional cost for putting a blog on your website. And if there is one thing a good owner definitely understands, it’s how to take advantage of things that don’t cost them anything.
The difference in cost is a major bonus of inbound marketing over traditional marketing. Traditional marketing methods are very expensive. If your business is still investing in yellow pages advertising, it’s likely paying a very high cost for it. But with inbound marketing, you can slash those costs dramatically.
Explain to your owner that inbound marketing, after initial infrastructure-type costs (such as a website update), is very cheap to execute. As we discussed, blogs are very cost-effective. But emails, content offers and social media accounts are also very affordable (if not free). And if you can get similar results with inbound marketing instead of traditional marketing, why spend the extra money?
Caution: It probably won’t be easy
Convincing owners that they should switch marketing methods is not an easy battle. Traditional marketing methods have been in use for decades, and people naturally resist change. But if you can focus on the cost savings, and resist the urge to start using tech-speak, you can get your owner to give inbound marketing a shot.
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