You have certainly had to convince your boss about the importance of investing in something. If you are a freelancer, you have probably come across clients who don’t want to invest money in a new project. We all had to face this problem; we spend weeks working on a new idea, but in the end, we aren’t sure that our proposal will be accepted. That happens very often in digital marketing and the online business world.
Although managers are increasingly aware of the importance of investing in certain areas, such as SEO, social media, or content marketing, many don’t know much about email marketing.
The fact that many brands send spam, purchase databases or share private information with other companies and many other intrusive practices have made it very difficult for consultants and marketing managers to request a quote to perform actions by email.
Despite the importance of communicating with customers and prospects by email (in a legal and consensual way), you may have to “convince” managers or bosses who may be afraid to invest in this type of strategy. Don’t worry; today we will help you.
· How to reduce the “fear” of investing in email marketing
Before submitting a proposal to the person in charge of making the final decision, you will have to estimate the results of your actions in the long run.
With a plan in mind, you will not only reduce the aversion that a manager may feel when investing in email marketing or any new project, but you will also feel more confident when explaining your reasons.
► Estimate the results in terms of objectives
To convince an investor to make the right decisions that will lead him on the right path, you will have to show him what the advantages of your proposal will be. Not only that, but you should also dig deeper into the subject to answer all questions and defend your project with arguments.
Of course, with any marketing activities, we seek to achieve an increase in income, but many other aspects are also relevant in a short-term strategy.
For example, I recommend that you make a preliminary proposal with the main advantages, including information such as:
- Strengthen brand image to attract new customers.
- Increase the flow of traffic to other pages and online channels.
- Optimize conversion rates through segmentation
- Promote interaction and feedback
- Build loyalty through campaigns sent to users who have already been customers with personalized offers.
- Recover users who abandoned a process through a remarketing strategy.
I recommend that, along with this list, you present real examples of direct competitor email marketing campaigns and real success stories of companies from other sectors.
With references, it is always easier to convey credibility.
► Predefine a realistic action plan
Perhaps you are thinking that creating a complete strategy without receiving confirmation from your client or boss is a waste of time.
And I agree that you can not waste time, so try to simplify as much as possible in this part.
What can make a difference when it comes to convincing your boss to try working with email marketing?
Well, you will need to address different aspects, including information on ROI, external resources and technical knowledge.
To demonstrate that your project was created based on a plan with realistic objectives, you will have to define aspects such as:
- How you would act when creating email marketing campaigns
- Who will be responsible for executing the plan (considering availability and resources )?
- Email marketing tools and other necessary resources.
- Sequencing over time of each of the actions to be performed.
As I said, it is about preparing a draft or pilot project that, if accepted, can be updated.
► Set measurement parameters
Establishing a priori how the evolution of a strategy that can be questioned by third parties will be measured is very practical when the person who makes the decision is also knowledgeable or directly responsible for the financial aspects.
Think that managers are used to working with numbers and measuring each of the company’s financial transactions; therefore, they will consider your proposal if you include KPIs so that they can better assess the return on the investment.
This aspect can be resolved quickly, because email marketing tools, such as Mailrelay, show in the statistics of each newsletter the most basic indicators, such as:
- Subscribers in the database.
- Open rates
- Click-through rate,
- Opt-out rate
- Emails flagged as spam
- Demographic data of the subscribers who opened the emails.
- devices used to open the message.
In addition to that, an email marketing strategy can be evaluated according to the number of leads captured in a given campaign.
In other words, the extent to which actions were taken, such as clicks on a sales page, downloads, webinar subscriptions, access to a purchase process, etc.
· How to prepare an email marketing proposal
Once you have a general idea of the benefits that your email marketing strategy will bring, as well as the work plan to be followed and how progress can be tracked, you are all set to prepare a proposal that is persuasive enough to convince your boss or client.
First of all, remember that you will have to explain clearly what you intend to do, as not everyone is familiar with the concepts of marketing; therefore, if necessary, clearly define (in your own words) what email marketing is.
As if you were trying to sell a product or service (after all, this is more or less what you are going to do) present your idea following these steps, which we will detail below:
- Talk about the problem or concern of the manager, boss, customer, or investor.
- Show the solution with your proposal.
- Go ahead to answer possible objections with realistic scenarios.
► Problem Exposition
If you are aware of persuasive techniques or frequently read recommendations from sales content writers, you have undoubtedly heard of the PAS method (Problem, Agitate, Solution).
Based on these pillars, you will have to put yourself in the boss’s shoes to detect what your company’s real problem is and literally “shake it up” so that it is he who reconsiders the need to seek a solution.
Perhaps in your company, there is an imminent need to provide a support service to customers who have already purchased from you and will probably never come back if nothing is done.
How much does it cost to capture a new customer?
How much is the company losing by not keeping old customers with proper care?
If you can convince him that he should be concerned, you can demonstrate that you have the right solution.
Demonstrate that your solution really solves the problem
► Now it’s time to present your project.
The important thing at this stage of the proposal is that you don’t lose confidence in your words because it is time to defend your email marketing proposal based on the benefits you have defined in your planning.
In the case of the previous example, how about offering a system for launching an automated email loyalty campaign? Don’t worry about the details now; focus on exposing the benefits in terms of achievements.
► Minimize risks
At best, your boss will want to know more about your proposal and will likely raise some objections, as approving a budget for new actions involves not only money but also internal changes in procedures.
If you’ve done all the previous work well and defined practical solutions to counter your manager’s objections, it’s time to move on and cast the dices.
One of the main obstacles to this type of strategy is the cost of the project, as many managers don’t like to invest a lot of money in something they don’t know. Fortunately, if you want to start working with email marketing, you can opt for a free ESP (like Mailrelay).
Leaving aside the financial aspect, you should also approach the situation from other perspectives, such as:
The distribution of tasks among team members
And how the process can be simplified as much as possible to avoid future problems (a risk that, with planning, automation tools, and campaign scheduling, is substantially minimized).
Include the option to outsource part of the work
You can include information about companies that provide additional services relevant to your project. This will be vital to include different alternatives.
Content recycling
You can resend information that has already been well received on other channels, such as social media, to send a newsletter without having to create everything from scratch.
Reuse of old customer databases targeted by specific interests
If you have a database of customers who have already purchased, you can create targeted remarketing campaigns.
In short, it is about anticipating any possible opposition from managers, making them see that not only do you have the solution to a particular problem in your company or business, but also that your project was created under a zero risk philosophy.
· Conclusions
As with any other negotiation process, those working in marketing must continuously reinforce the need to invest in new projects for clients, bosses, investors, and directors.
In this article, my goal was to provide you with a step-by-step guide to getting an affirmative answer when you need to request authorization to send a newsletter and start working with email marketing.
As you can see, the techniques used in neuromarketing or sales strategies are applicable in creating a convincing proposal to guarantee “yes, I do” when it comes to fighting resistance from your bosses.
In summary, remember that, before submitting your proposal, you must create a preliminary project that will be presented to the people who will make the final decision.
It is clear that there is a lot of psychology in all of this because you need to put yourself in the shoes of a third person and know how to identify which problems are of most concern to them in order to offer your plan.
And now, I’d like to ask: What aspects would you include in your email marketing proposal?