Are you banging your head against a brick wall trying to get your company involved in social media? Or, as the person in charge of business development, are you tired of getting line items for digital marketing slashed from your annual budget?
You know the value of digital marketing; your problem is a lack of buy-in. But, you can change perceptions by showing real results and soon have your team singing the praises of digital marketing efforts.
Digital marketing tactics offer a wealth of avenues to showcase the gains you are making to get your company on board the digital bandwagon. Here are some helpful ways to dazzle them with data to sell your digital success and get buy-in.
Win Them Over
Share the Top 5 List
Show the Top 5 liked/commented on/shared social posts from the previous month. When your team sees how many people they’ve helped or reached by snapping a photo from a job site, they’ll remember to keep the photos coming.
Dig Into the Data
If your new business/sales team is actively targeting a specific geographic region through trade shows/industry events and setting up meetings, show them the impact. Using Google Analytics, you can show the number of users from a specific geographic region who have viewed your site in the past month versus previous months. Helping quantify new business efforts is a great way to show the value of digital.
Show Them the Leads
If you have a request-a-bid form on your website, share a snapshot of all the actionable leads that have come into the website in the past month. Your sales team may get emails to follow up on from your website but showing that multiple leads come in directly through your website each month can have a greater impact and highlight the importance of your ongoing online efforts to keep the leads coming.
Ask Google
If you’re actively working on optimizing your site, keep track of your SEO progress. If you started out ranked number 30 in the search results for a key term and you now claim one of the top three positions, tell your team where you started but show them what prospects find now when they search for that term … your company! And they are just one click away from connecting with you and your products and services.
Send, Receive, Repeat
Managing an email list of customers and prospects can be daunting as it is ever changing because of job moves, cutbacks and restructuring. Sending out a monthly or quarterly e-newsletter can help keep you informed of changes – even before a salesperson shows up at the door and finds their contact has left the company. When you get email kickbacks saying Bob Smith is no longer with Company ABC, share these with your sales team. This can be a useful heads-up that it is time for them to show up at the company with a box of doughnuts to find out who their new contact is.
Web-event Windfall
If you have a new technology or product you are trying to garner interest in, consider hosting a web event. Whether you do it in-house or via an industry publication, you can set it up to capture a list of warm leads that your sales team can follow up on. If a potential customer has viewed the online event on your new product, it may be a perfect time for a sales person to set up a lunch meeting to answer their questions on how your product could help their company.
Go for Social Gold
Share a comment or endorsement from a customer that was posted on LinkedIn noting your good work and recommending your products and services. Everyone loves to get good reviews!
Partner Up to Show Wins
Marketing departments sometimes don’t know what happens once a lead gets turned over to the sales team. Team up with sales to show the online leads that turn into sales – with a dollar amount, if possible. Showing that one web lead turned into a $10,000 sale is definitely worth noting.
Once your team sees that digital marketing is having a real impact on getting them closer to a sale and changing the way your company is viewed in the marketplace, the social content ideas will come pouring in and you’ll have a much better chance of keeping your digital marketing spend in your next budget meeting.
Foster Marketing develops digital strategies to help our clients engage with their customers, build awareness for their products and services and turn prospective customers into buyers. Contact us today to discuss your digital goals!