So you want to convince your boss to invest in a digital marketing program? You’re in the right place! In this blog, we’re going to help you do just that.
Whether you’re an inbound marketing whiz, or you’re new to the whole thing, you’re savvy enough to know that your business needs to go digital if you want to:
- stay relevant
- get more leads, and
- grow your revenue.
Now, all we have to do is get your boss on the same page. So after you read through this blog, you’ll be ready to share the information with them.
Let’s get started!
B2B Buyer Behaviour Has Changed: Is Your Business Keeping Up?
It’s official. Buyer behaviour has changed. The world has gone digital, and people are spending more and more time online.
Just check out these eye-opening stats:
- Google gets over 3.5 billion searches a day. (Smart Insights)
- 71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search—not a branded one. (Google)
- 74% of people say they use Facebook for professional purposes. (HubSpot)
- 70% of people would rather learn about a company through content than through an advertisement (Demand Metric)
- 55% of buyers connect with vendors due to the vendor having posted valuable content online (Marketing Charts)
Your buyers are online. Your competitors are online. What about your company? Can your potential buyers find you there? And once they find you, do they connect with you?
To help you find out for sure, we put together a few quick experiments for you do to. Completing them will give you the data you need to help convince your boss to do inbound.
Let’s dive into them now:
1. Try to find your company on Google
Come up with a term associated with your business offering. For example, ‘hydrogen fuel cell’.
Then, plug that keyword into a keyword research tool like Ubersuggest, and record the monthly search volume.
Finally, search for that term in Google. Does your company show up in the list of results? Is your website on the first page? If not, you have a problem.
There’s a popular saying the digital marketing world:
“The best place to hide a dead body is page two of Google.”
This is because very few people ever click through to the second page, let alone the third or fourth. So how much potential website traffic are you missing out on?
2. See how much social media action your industry gets
Come up with a term that’s associated with what your company offers. Go ahead and plug it into Buzzsumo.
For example, “hydrogen fuel”.
Even the free version of Buzzsumo will give you a good idea of:
- how many social media posts are out there for your topic
- how much engagement the top posts are getting
Look at all those people sharing content from your industry. They’re there, waiting to engage with your business. Are you meeting them where they are? If you’re not, you’re missing out big time.
3. Compare your website to your competitors’
Here’s the deal:
If you competitors have a stronger web presence than you, they’re probably getting more business than you, too.
So here’s how to compare your web presence with your competitors’:
Go to Moz’s Link Explorer tool. Enter in your website domain URL. You’ll see a result that looks like this:
(Obviously, this result is for Shell, a huge global company. So if your numbers are lower than these, don’t feel bad.)
Record the numbers for your:
- Domain authority (a measure of your site domain’s power. The higher the number, the better)
- Linking domains (the number of other websites linking back to yours)
- Inbound links (the exact number of links from other websites)
- Ranking keywords (the number of keywords your web pages are ranking for on search engines)
Or simply take a screenshot, as I’ve done above.
Then, repeat the process for your top two-to-three competitors. This will give you an excellent idea of the strength of your online presence, relative to them.
Why You Need Inbound Marketing:
So, how do you stack up? Can people find your business online? How well are you doing compared to your competitors?
Consider this:
- 90% of marketers say their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses. (Social Media Examiner)
- Companies who blog generate 67% more leads than those who don’t (HubSpot)
- Nearly 80% of companies who don’t meet their revenue goals attract less than 10,000 monthly website visitors.
- Of companies exceeding their revenue goals, 70% report attracting more than 10,000 visitors per month. (HubSpot)
- Inbound generates 3x as many leads as outbound marketing
- Inbound-generated leads cost 61% less than outbound-generated leads (HubSpot)
(Check out this case study to learn how we grew Ballard Power Systems’ opt-in email list by 3006%)
So How Does Inbound Work?
Create content to meet potential buyers where they are.
Here’s the truth about today’s buyers:
They’re skeptical of companies. They demand that your business prove its value before they even bother engaging with you. And how can you provide value and build trust?
Through content, for example:
- Long-form and short-form blogs
- Videos
- Downloadable guides, industry reports, and white papers
- Webinars
- And more
The more content you create and distribute, and the higher quality that content is, the more trust you’ll build. And the more likely people will find you on page one of search results.
Generate quality leads to keep your pipeline full
So how does great content translate to more leads?
Once you’ve proven your value through content, you can create compelling calls-to-action that prompt visitors to download PDFs, or sign up to your email list or webinar.
People are more willing to exchange their email address for content they perceive to be valuable and worthwhile. We call this premium content.
Convert those leads into customers to grow your revenue
Thanks to email automation, you can set up email sequences that target specific lead groups. Sending leads content that prompts them to take certain actions will help you qualify them.
Once a lead takes a “bottom of the funnel” action, they’re passed to the sales team for further qualification and follow-up.
The result?
Sales teams spend less time prospecting, and more time closing deals.
What About Budget for Inbound Marketing?
Did you know that 60% of a purchase decision is made before a potential customer even talks to one of your sales reps?
And how is that decision made? Largely through online research.
As a result, you’ll need to increase your digital marketing budget to keep pace with this change in consumer behaviour. We recommend a budget ratio that looks like this:
Identify your goals based on the following model:
Revenue Growth Goal / (Average Size of Deal - Average Cost of Sale) = Number of Deals to Close
Then determine how many leads you need to meet your goals. The budget you need will be a direct reflection of these numbers.
Once you’ve done that, make sure to consider:
- if your in-house marketing team can take on a digital marketing program, or
- if you need to shortlist some inbound marketing agencies, and then present them as options to your boss.
Final Thoughts
So do you feel ready to walk into that meeting with your boss and present your case? Make sure to download the playbook below, which will help consolidate your points so you can focus on achieving your outcome.
I believe in you! Get out there and convince your boss to adopt digital marketing. He or she will thank you when the leads start coming in, the sales team is closing more, and overall revenue grows.
How to Sell Digital Marketing to Your Boss (Powerpoint Template)
Download this powerpoint template to help convince your stakeholders to leverage digital marketing solution as part of your lead generation program.
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