Anyone who’s ever had more than one job realizes that bad bosses are a part of being a working adult. I can guarantee that at least once in your life, you had a boss you really didn’t get along with. A recent Gallup report found that half of those surveyed had left a previous job to get away from a manager.
Of course, as with most things, there are degrees of bad bosses. Some are tyrants who belittle and humiliate employees; others are passive aggressive micromanagers; and some spend more time on the golf course or on vacation instead of in their office.
There are also those who don’t listen to ideas from their employees, either because they don’t care or don’t value their opinions. If you’re a proponent of inbound marketing but can’t get your manager to buy it, you may have one of these bosses. So what can you do if your head honcho won’t entertain your inbound marketing pitch? Here are some tips to help them see the light:
Let the money do the talking
Some bosses are obsessed with the numbers. They want to save money and spend the minimal amount necessary to get the job done. If that describes your manager, then you’re in luck, because inbound marketing is very cost effective.
There are some initial costs involved, such as setting up a third party vendor to handle your email needs, and a marketing automation software subscription to help run your campaigns (highly recommended), but after that, inbound marketing is very inexpensive. Sending emails and editing webpages costs little more than the labor involved to complete the work.
Discuss the ROI of your current marketing methods
Traditional marketing methods can still be moderately effective, but they’re quite expensive. When you really consider the ROI of yellow pages advertising, print ads and radio/TV commercials, the cost per lead can be very high. Present your boss with how much you’re spending on traditional marketing in comparison to your leads, so they can see for themselves how bad an investment traditional marketing can be.
Highlight inbound marketing’s adaptability
Another problem with traditional marketing methods is that they’re static and difficult to change. For example, a billboard won’t start driving results overnight; it takes time to evaluate if it’s really working. Once you have a handle on its effectiveness, if you find it hasn’t received a strong response, you now have to scrap the entire billboard and pay for a new ad with different messaging. Then, you’ll be forced to wait yet again to evaluate its effectiveness.
There’s no such waiting period with inbound marketing. Don’t like your results? You can change your messaging with a few keystrokes. In fact, you can change entire pages on your website whenever you deem appropriate. Since everything lives online, anything can be changed pretty easily, especially if your campaigns are hosted on a marketing platform like HubSpot.
Ask for some help
There are marketing agencies that specialize in inbound marketing who would be happy to discuss all of the benefits of this marketing strategy with your boss. We’ve had to do some convincing of our own with some clients, and although they started out reluctant, they are now ecstatic with the results we’ve been providing for them. Ask your boss if he’d be willing to entertain a meeting or phone call with an agency, just to get a better idea what inbound marketing is all about.
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