It’s not always easy to get sign-off on your marketing campaigns from senior management is it? Think about it. How many times have you said “I’m still waiting to hear back on that” or something similar? When it comes to your marketing strategy and campaigns, you need buy-in from senior members of staff almost immediately, so that you can crack on and start generating revenue for the business. So how do you get the nod from those who so often hold the purse-strings?
What’s important?
Firstly, consider what is really important to them. Do they really care about how many followers on social media you’ve got? In reality, probably not. What they both want and need to know is what the return on investment us from their marketing spend. C-Suite and senior management often aren’t bothered about how you get the results, just that you get them.
Who are you marketing to?
Secondly, ensure that you know your audience. When planning any sort of campaign, knowing your audience is absolutely key, and this comes from doing the suitable research and creating accurate personas. From these personas, you will be able to use different channels to target the intended audience with content and on platforms which are relevant to them. Creating personas shows senior management that you have done the necessary research into the target audience, which demonstrates your ability to provide accurate insight, and provides hard evidence as to why you should be using a certain channel.
Everyone’s human…
Thirdly, if you’re pitching a new strategy, then consider the human element. Aside from profit margins and return on investment, how does it affect people? Whether that’s employees, customers, the wider public, or even the senior management team themselves, you can explain the long-term effect and opportunities that it has to each person or group.
Also, it’s important to know when to stop using a certain channel. If it isn’t delivering the required results, why keep doing it? This is where the agile methodology comes into play. Some agencies or marketing departments will create a strategy that they have to stick to for three, six or even twelve months. This can be highly restrictive, as it doesn’t allow you to recognise how well or otherwise a channel is performing, and therefore doesn’t allow you to switch to another channel if needs be.
Feedback
Finally, make sure you get feedback from whoever you’re presenting your strategy or campaign plan to. While it is often true that too many cooks spoil the broth, it is always worth getting second and third opinions from those who you have presented to, who even if they do not have experience or specialist knowledge in marketing, may well have considerable experience in the business and be able to provide a lot of insight into historical campaigns and strategies.
When putting together a strategy or planning a campaign, it’s important to know that you have the backing of those senior members of staff, and that they trust you and the direction you are going. By taking on board the tips provided here, we’re sure that you’ll get buy in from those senior figures.
