7 Tips to Get C-Suite Buy-in for Email Validation

As an email marketer, you know maintaining a clean email list can reduce your mailing costs and increase the success of your email marketing. And lately, you’ve stumbled across several blogs touting the benefits of email validation, which scrutinizes email addresses for accuracy and authenticity and repairs them when possible.

You’re 100 percent ready to reach out to an email validation service provider to get started, but there’s just one problem: You need C-Suite buy-in first. Let’s face it – gaining C-Suite buy-in for marketing initiatives often seems downright impossible. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Follow these tips to make gaining C-Suite buy-in for your email validation proposal more attainable:

1. Know the People in the C-Suite – The best salespeople know it takes more than an expansive knowledge about a product to make a sale; you need to know your buyer, too. Before you even begin creating your proposal, research who you’ll be pitching to and what business objectives really matter to him. The goal is for your proposal to become more than just another item on his to-do list.
2. Do Your Due Diligence – You’ve seen industry thought leaders swear by email validation on Twitter, but this isn’t going to be enough to get the C-Suite on board. Conduct in-depth research proving email validation is worth exploring for your email marketing program, and see if there are any free service trials that can prove email validation’s effectiveness for your list.
3. Make the Proposal Credible – Show the C-Suite you have done your homework, and build your case for how email validation will provide tangible benefits to the organization. Be sure a proposal includes relevant metrics, which can be obtained from validation white papers as well as a financial model with a return on investment.
4. Meet With Your Critics – Is there a member of your marketing team who believes email validation isn’t all it’s chocked up to be? Sit down and meet with her to discuss her criticisms. Her contrast of opinion will provide insights you may not have thought of, effectively making your case for email validation much stronger. Plus, if you’re able to gain her support for the proposal, your CEO may be more impressed with your efforts.
5. Demonstrate Hard Benefits – Remember, C-level executives hold absolute responsibility for success. They oversee everything from leading management and employees and addressing financial pressures to analyzing the competition and reacting to regulatory changes. The bottom line is, they’re always concerned for the bottom line, so show how email validation can remove 90 percent of bad emails and reduce lost leads, thereby improving email deliverability and increasing email marketing ROI.
6. Demonstrate Soft Benefits – While the bottom line is important, there are other soft benefits that many senior managers look for, too. Link your email validation proposal to other soft benefits the business cares about, like customer retention and satisfaction.
7. Tie Your Proposal into Strategic Initiatives – Know your company’s goals, and understand if there are cost savings plans or other initiatives email validation can positively impact.

Start preparing your proposal for email validation today by signing up for TowerData’s free email validation report.

Photo Credit: chrisinplymouth