Convincing a Skeptic to Embrace Inbound Marketing

You know that feeling when you really love something and you think it’s the most amazing thing in the world, but people just don’t see it?

That’s how we feel about Inbound Marketing. As a HubSpot Agency Partner, we have seen first-hand the effects of using Inbound Marketing for our business. Our website is hosted on HubSpot and we regularly use content offers to bring in leads and generate awareness for our services.

With this in mind, here’s our 4 tips on selling Inbound Marketing to a skeptic, whether it be your boss or a potential client:

1) Appeal To Their Common Sense

This might seem like an obvious point; start by explaining how Inbound Marketing works, and address any misconceptions or questions. Compare it to Outbound Marketing, as this is a marketing method understood among all marketers.

Content Marketing itself has become increasingly common, and the chances that they themselves might have been the target of a successful Inbound Marketing campaign is high. Ask them what their thought process is when they’re looking for a product, and steer the conversation from there.

2) Explain What They’ll Get

Inbound Marketing is a long-term investment. This can be frustrating for marketers who are looking for short-term results, and who aren’t satisfied with promises of long-term results. When this happens, bring out the deliverables.

After finding out their SMART goals and the proposed campaign structure, come up with specific short-term and long-term deliverables for the campaign. Include that in your proposal or quote so that they can see the exact items they will be getting for their investment.

3) Use Customer Testimonials

Nothing works like social proof. The easiest way to convince someone to take a risk to invest time and money with you is to show them testimonials from your current or past successful clients.  

Don’t be afraid to namedrop your clients (unless you have an active NDA, of course); just ensure that it’s relevant. These clients should have also done a similar campaign so the client feels more reassured by going with you. It’s also a bonus if you have previous clients in a similar industry so you know the specific challenges and nuances of the industry.

HubSpot itself has a whole library of case studies that span a range of industries. Use these case studies for specific numbers if necessary. Your own customer data might be confidential.

4) Show A Demo

In the end, it might all boil down to a HubSpot platform demo.

In a demo, you can show them the different components of your Inbound Marketing campaign; campaign structure, content offers, content calendar, your lead nurturing workflows…everything you can reasonably use as an example. People believe in something once they can see themselves doing it, and doing a live demonstration in front of them is the swiftest way to get there.

After all, the great part about our own website being hosted on HubSpot is that we can show a demo using the results of our own campaigns!