Obtaining CMO buy-in for social media

Four ways to prove the value of social media to your CMO

So you have ambitious plans for a new social media program that will build brand buzz and drive business impact? There’s just one problem: you need a big budget to match your big dreams. Though social media budgets are projected to double in the next five years, many social media marketers still report feeling underfunded. How can you convince your senior marketing leadership to invest in social?

4 Steps to gaining social media buy-in

These proven tactics can help you prove the value of your social media efforts and win buy-in from your CMO.

• Step 1. Prove social media ROI through direct sales. Social media ROI: often talked about, but rarely proven. But if you want your CMO to increase your funding, you’ll need hard numbers that demonstrate your impact on the bottom line. Use your web analytics platform to track the performance of your social media efforts. Double down on your most successful efforts, and scale back tactics that don’t yield results.You’ve been warned of the dangers of being too 'salesy' on social channels. But as long as you’re sharing engaging content, there’s no harm in mixing in campaigns that are meant to drive conversions.Take a page from brands like Lilly Pulitzer. By prompting consumers to show off their favourite looks on social channels, they engage fans while driving site traffic and commerce. Tactics like this will attract attention from the C-suite, and often result in a bigger investment.

Source: Lillypulitzer

• Step 2. Stop isolating social from other channels. Remember: social media ROI isn’t just about direct response. Use social to drive results for other marketing channels. Data gathered from social, such as email addresses, physical addresses, or demographic insights, can be used to build targeted email and paid advertising campaigns. Work with your marketing team members to track the influence of social on these campaigns, and then advertise the results through frequent reports and updates.
• Step 3. Use social like a focus group. Social marketing eliminates the gap between a business and its consumer. And social data makes super-targeted marketing possible.As a social media marketer, you have valuable insights into the latest consumer trends and hot topics. Tapping into this knowledge can help your team members make informed decisions about messaging for email campaigns, e-commerce promotions, TV advertising and more. CMOs will love this, because it turns social into a low-cost, data-mining machine that boosts every area of marketing.
• Step 4. Learn the native tongue of your C-suite executives. Social is a highly visible channel, which means that even the chairperson of the board has an opinion about it. Communicate the value of your efforts in the language of executives.Your direct manager might respond to metrics like retweets, reach, and engagement, but that doesn’t resonate as well with executives outside of your department. Share how social plays a part in traditional goals like business development, sales leads, strategic partnerships, brand recognition, and corporate culture.Learn to use their terms and address their objectives, and you soon you will be launching your dream campaigns.

The key to getting executive buy-in to social media? Deliver them concrete performance reports and digestible proposals. Help your executive team see that investing in social makes an impact across the business, and watch them get excited for your plans and projects.