Overcoming Internal Resistance To Inbound Marketing

Overcoming InternalResistance toInbound Marketing

In your attempt to implement inbound marketingin your organization, you will inevitably meet resistance from the nay-sayers. For you, the courageous marketer advocating change, the firststep is the hardest. This is because inboundmarketing is not a silver bullet that immediatelysolves your marketing and business problems.It takes time to introduce inbound marketing, tobuild your inbound Conversion Machine, andto initiate inbound campaigns. Like anythingworth doing, inbound marketing requires aninvestment of resources: time, money, and hardwork. For this reason, it’s best to view Phase Iof inbound marketing as the building-the-infrastructure phase, much as a brick-and-mortarstructure is built before opening up shop forbusiness.The good news is that once you begin implementing inbound marketing and the inboundphilosophy, the results usually speak for themselves. When your marketers discover betterways to engage and track prospects whenyour salespeople begin to close more business when management begins to see realchange occurring and business goals being met that’s when business becomes fun. Whenbusiness initiatives work — and, when implemented properly, inbound marketing works —funding for new marketing initiatives will follow,at least for as long as there continues to be areturn-on-investment for the company.But, first things first. You may believe inboundmarketing is right for your marketing departmentand your company, but for inbound to maximizeits impact, you certainly must gain the trust andapproval from others inside your company.Making your case for inboundmarketingImplementing inbound marketing in your company means change, and we all know changeisn’t always embraced with open arms. If youwork at a progressive company that operateswith transparency and clearly defined accountability, you may find that inbound marketing iswarmly welcomed. Likewise, if you’re part of ancustomer-centric organization that values itspeople as much as profits, your road to introducing inbound marketing most likely will beeasier. So that you’re prepared, here are somecommon objections you may encounter whenintroducing inbound into your company: “That’s not the way we’ve always doneit.” Exactly. That’s why inbound marketingis a positive change. “Our current marketing is working justfine.” What is “just fine”? Companies areeither growing or dying. Inbound marketingcompels growth. “We don’t have the budget for a newsystem.” Can you afford not to invest in ameasurable system with proven ROI? “I don’t understand what inbound marketing is, so we’re not really interestedin pursuing it.” You may not understandinbound marketing, but don’t you want tounderstand your customers better so wecan create better marketing? “Our website’s not broken; it was justre-built by great designers.” That maybe true, but is the website built on conversion architecture? If the website is astreamlined Conversion Machine, that’sgreat — because inbound marketing isabout more than your website. It’s aboutattracting and converting prospects intocustomers. “We don’t have the personnel to createenough content for inbound marketing”Maybe we should re-think our initiatives ifwe want to have a meaningful presencewith our digital marketing. We know content is king, so perhaps we should re-allocate resources to create value for ourtarget customers.

Benefits of introducing inboundinto your organizationInbound marketing offers any organization anumber of great benefits. When transitioning toinbound marketing, it’s important to communicate these benefits to everyone affected by thischange. Even if there is company-wide acceptance that introducing inbound marketing intoyour organization is the right thing to do, clearcommunication of the benefits helps peoplecome to terms with the change. By clearly communicating inbound marketing’s benefits to yourinternal colleagues up front, you can refer backto these conversations and presentations whenit comes time for marketing to delegate ownership and accountability of the various inboundtasks within marketing and other departments.By introducing inbound marketing, your organization stands to benefit in a number of ways. Thefollowing list breaks down some of these benefitsby department: Marketing: Your marketing departmentbenefits in the following ways: As the correlation between marketingand revenue increases, so does the value for marketers and marketing. Instead of being evaluated on fuzzymetrics, marketing can now operatetransparently, sharing key marketingperformance indicators. Better connectivity and communica-tions between the marketing and salesdepartments result in higher success inachieving business goals. Marketing delivers higher quality leadsto salespeople. Sales: Your sales staff benefits in the following ways: Inbound marketing gives them theability to integrate marketing leads withsales CRM. Contact with prospects earlier in thedecision-making process helps you takethe lead position, positively influencingsales outcomes. Salespeople are granted the ability forreal-time follow-up with prospects viamarketing automation software, whichincreases close ratios dramatically. Implementing a lead scoring systemprovides higher quality leads so yoursalespeople are talking to better qualified prospects. Operations: Your business operationsstaff benefits in the following ways: Integration of marketing with customerservice results in higher customersatisfaction. Better predictive metrics for salesmeans more reliable budget planningfor your accounting department. Leadership: Upper management benefitsin the following ways: Company leadership has better market-ing and sales data to allocate resourcesmore efficiently. Management has better metrics tomeasure meaningful performance. Your company is better able to makedata-driven business decisions insteadof emotional decisions.

Gathering support for the changeDifferent people will come to support inboundmarketing for different reasons, and that’s okay.As you work to gather support for your organization’s change to inbound marketing, youshould know your audience inside your company, presenting your case for inbound marketing as you would a creative brief of a clientcampaign or an internal marketing campaign.The difference here is that your “customers” areyour associates, colleagues, managers, andfellow employees. Understand their needs andspeak to those needs when building support forinstituting inbound marketingDifferent groups within your organization will require different motivations to make the change.Depending on the group, try using these approaches: Upper management: Your company ex-ecutives will most likely offer their supportfor the change based on whether yourinbound marketing proposal provides ameaningful return-on-investment. Connectwith your “C-Suite” by showing inboundcase studies and applying likely businessresults for your company before and afterinbound implementation. Sales: The sales department will mostlikely support the change based on theanswers to two questions: Does it make the salesperson’s jobeasier? Will it increase sales, allowing salespeople to earn more money?The answer to both of these questionsis yes. It’s your job as a marketer toconnect those dots for sales personnelin a meaningful way. Finance: Since this department is usual-ly characterized by managing expensesrather than creating opportunities, focuson the efficiencies created through inbound marketing. (For example, show youraccounting team how inbound marketingallows your company to reach twice thenumber of prospects with the same staffand same investment level.) For thosefinancial types that value opportunity asmuch as expense-control, inbound is arational, planned, trackable expense thatis also scalable.Treat the introduction of inbound marketing intoyour organization in much the same way youwould treat an online stranger you wish to attractand convert into a lifelong brand advocate. Introduce inbound incrementally. Share the big picture pay-off, but get incremental support. Evena hike to the summit of Mt. Everest is made ofsmall steps.Understanding the negativeconsequences of not changingat allIt’s no accident that online marketing investment has exploded. Dollars follow customers,and customers are on the Internet. So thequestion of whether to invest in digital marketing is moot. The only questions that remain are:How much of your budget should be invested?In what manner? Getting answers to thesequestions is why you perform an assessmentbefore you make any recommendations.One thing is clear: For viable businesses, thecost of doing nothing will eventually be moredevastating than any perceived risk of investingin new digital media and inbound marketing.

Presenting your case forinbound marketingIf you’re charged with introducing inbound marketing into your company, there are plenty ofresources at your disposal. Here are a few: Education: Begin educating yourselfabout inbound marketing. Here are just afew resources: Content Marketing Spot (www.hubspot.com)Inbound.org (http://inbound.org)KISSmetrics (www.kissmetrics.com)Marketo (www.marketo.com)Moz Academy(https://moz.com/academy)Moz Community(https://moz.com/community)Pardot (www.pardot.com)Search Engine Land(http://searchengineland.com)Learn more withInbound Marketing For Dummiesby Scott Anderson MillerCover photo GettyImagesProfessor zhang bo / iStockphotoExpertise Yuri Arcurs / GettyImagesCareer kupicoo / iStockphotoWiley is a registered trademark of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Engagement: Seek out any internaladvocates who will immediately see thevalue in what you’re trying to do. Enlisttheir engagement to make your case forinbound. If it makes sense, get help froman inbound professional. Embrace: After doing your research, createa vision of what your company’s marketingwill look like after you’ve implemented inbound marketing. Don’t be overly optimistic.Paint a realistic picture, and use numbersthat connect your marketing efforts withbusiness results. Begin sharing your findingswith key management to gauge interest,seek input, and eventually gain acceptance. Encouragement: After you’ve institutedinbound marketing, make sure you touchbase with key decision-makers on a regular basis, reporting your successes andcreating continued value. When you’reperforming well and attaining goals andobjectives, the results will speak for themselves; however, it’s always a good ideato remind key internal people why you’veinstituted inbound marketing and to updatethem with the results you’re tracking.

Inbound marketing offers any organization a number of great benefits. When transitioning to inbound marketing, it’s important to communi-cate these benefits to everyone affected by this change. Even if there is company-wide accept-ance that introducing inbound marketing