While many self-employed content creators and entrepreneurs have full control (and responsibility) over their day-to-day operations, there are many more online brands and businesses that rely upon the input and decisions of others. Because of this, many people in charge of managing online brand reputations and content delivery aren’t in charge of the brands that represent.

For those facing the decisions of management or higher-ups, convincing them to go along with select digital marketing and media strategies can be difficult. Persuading managers and owners to allocate specific amounts of money and labor to seemingly-abstract concepts like SEO can feel like pulling teeth at times.

If you are wanting to bolster your brand’s visibility in search engines but are having difficulty convincing those in charge of the purse-strings to allocate funding, then keep reading to learn how you can effectively persuade your company to spend on search engine optimization.

Highlight the Benefits Upfront

First and foremost, a company must be persuaded by explaining what it is it stands to gain by an investment. If a particular pitch for any investment fails to explain how the company benefits and what it gains specifically, then the likelihood of approval is very low. There are multiple reasons why businesses invest in SEO, so it helps to start out by focusing on what outcomes are desired.

For instance, will a broader SEO strategy help to boost the number of first-time customers, or reduce paid marketing budgets? Without a clear and defined set of benefits highlighted from the get-go, any attempts to persuade a company to invest in SEO will be akin to pinging noise into the great blue yonder.

Show the Pathway Forward

It is relatively easy to highlight the potential benefits and goals of any potential SEO strategy, but how does a company get there? If you are preparing to pitch this idea to your boss or manager, then it is vital to have a blueprint that shows how such is possible.

Having a comprehensive and detailed strategy outlined should happen before any such meeting, but you’ll probably not want to pitch the minutiae in full detail. Your boss or manager may not understand these intricacies: the name of the game is persuasion. Show them instead a handful of key statistics that compare performance of similar businesses before and after SEO investment, as well as performance stats of your company currently versus its key competitors.

Outline the Costs Involved

One question flashing across the minds of bosses everywhere when hearing such a pitch is a simple one: “how much money will this cost?”. And it’s a fair question! After having walked them through the basics of what the goals are and how they can be achieved, the discussion should then pivot to numbers.

Adding up the costs of each element involved in pursuing better SEO results is easy enough, whether it be the creation of new content or the addition of new online SEO tools. From here, creating a long-term projection for how long it’ll take to reach profitability should be easy enough.

Most bosses know little to nothing about SEO and the wrong pitch can result in nothing more than pinging noise at them. For this reason, a strong pitch outlines benefits upfront, shows how to achieve such (while avoiding an overly-complex discussion of factors) and outlined all costs involved in the effort. With these elements in hand, your chances of making a successful pitch will increase exponentially!