Why Getting Internal Buy-in for Content Feels So Damn Hard (And How to Do It Anyway)

Let’s talk about feelings for a minute, shall we?

Specifically, why content marketers often don’t sell their work internally — even when we know exactly how to do it and why we should.

Because yes, getting internal buy-in is about thinking strategically and speaking leadership’s language.

But let’s be honest — it can also feel infuriating.

Why should we have to go, cap in hand, to prove ourselves?

Why waste precious time selling internally when we barely have time to do our actual jobs?

And yet, as growth consultant Ryan Baum puts it, “It’s absolutely bullshit that we have to justify our reason for being there… and yet we have to. Because it’s the only thing we can control.”

So if we have to do it, let’s do it right.

This guide will show you how to secure internal buy-in the smart way — and just as importantly, how to shift your mindset so you don’t burn out before the real results start to show.

Why internal buy-in matters more than ever for content marketers

To address the stampeding elephant not just in the room, but tearing down the walls around us...content marketers need buy-in more than ever before because, thanks to AI, content is at risk of becoming a commodity.

And being seen as a glorified AI editor doesn’t just mean budget cuts and job losses — it also keeps content teams from building the kinds of programs that actually drive results.

Lauren Lang, Director of Marketing at Uplevel (and creator of a whole course on getting in-house buy-in), points out that buy-in means more than approval.

It’s permission and space to do content right.

Without buy-in, content teams end up acting as order takers. Long-term, strategic thinking gets shelved in favor of short-term, band-aid tactics. Over time, the lack of buy-in becomes a self-fulfilling, vicious cycle, says Lauren:

“Every time we quietly fulfill a random content request without asking about business context, we reinforce the idea that we're just monkeys on typewriters.”

Why content marketers struggle to get internal buy-in

No content marketer would argue that leadership buy-in doesn’t matter. And yet, every expert I interviewed agreed: content teams often struggle to make their case to the C-suite.

So, what’s getting in the way?

Buy-in is tricky for all marketers, but more so for content marketers.

This is by no means just a content problem. “Marketers think the real challenge is external,” wrote fractional CMO Devin Bramhall in a LinkedIn post. “Wrong. Your toughest battle is internal.”

Ryan agrees: “Marketers in general are bad at internal marketing. We don't use the copywriting, marketing, framing and positioning skills that we have to convince our coworkers.”

While all marketers have to fight the good fight to defend their work internally, content marketers have a particularly tough battle in front of them, says Lauren:

“Content marketers face even steeper challenges in this internal selling process because content is so frequently misunderstood.

Business executives traditionally favor easily measurable, short-term tactics. But so much of content plays the long game, building brand awareness and trust over time — things that are notoriously difficult to quantify in a quarterly report.”

And it’s not just that content tends to be a long-term play — it’s also so omnipresent that content marketers may be stretched particularly thin, says Ryan.

“Content leaders are just so all over the place. They have to do all the different things. They have to be experts in so many different areas. You have to be on top of social, SEO, narrative, and storytelling. You have to be a good writer and editor. You have to understand marketing strategy.”

And, given that Tommy Walker’s State of (Dis)content report found that most content teams have fewer than 5 people, regardless of org size, that doesn’t leave a lot of mental bandwidth to market our work internally.

Going cap-in-hand to leadership rankles.

Let’s talk about the part no one wants to talk about.

Selling your work internally is emotional labor. And it’s not evenly distributed. Content marketers often have to justify their existence before they can justify a strategy. You’re not just pitching ideas — you’re defending your right to have ideas at all.

It’s exhausting. And the natural response from smart, results-driven people is often: Why should I have to explain this? The numbers should speak for themselves.

Ryan remembers feeling that way earlier in his career:

“I probably could have gotten 5x the results if I could have sold more of my work in, but I didn't think I should have to. Like, I'm smart, I'm giving you results, I'm doing the right things.”

The problem, of course, is that internal politics is part of any job. Ryan learned the hard way what many content marketers have yet to realize:

“When you're in an org, and you say, ‘I'm not going to play,’ what you're actually doing is abdicating the game to other people. You're actually saying, ‘I don't get to have a role in how this game affects me because I'm refusing to be a part of it.’”

Silos can be a comfortable place to be.

Lauren observes that many content marketers remain isolated from the rest of the GTM org by choice, “working in isolation and perpetuating our own silos.” But, as she observes:

“No one else is going to break us out of these silos — we have to do that ourselves by partnering across the org to create great content.”

How to fight for content buy-in — without burning out

Internal buy-in isn’t just about getting louder. It’s about getting clearer.

Here’s how our experts suggest you get the job done:

Position your content strategy like a product

Too many content marketers seek leadership buy-in with data, which is smart. But they then fall into the “detail trap: overwhelming executives with granular metrics and spreadsheets rather than telling a clear, strategic story about content's business impact,” says Lauren.

Instead, think like a product marketer — position your content strategy like a solution to a business problem. Lead with the value prop, not the tactics.

One simple but effective trick? Give your content strategy a name.

For example, Ty Magnin, CEO at Animalz, told me his team branded a client’s SEO play as the "Restore and Overtake" strategy — which helped leadership immediately get the point (and the motion) behind the plan.

Your goal here isn’t to educate stakeholders on every nuance of your craft. It’s to make the value of content unmissable.

That starts by speaking their language, and showing them how content moves the needle on the metrics they care about most.

Talk ROI the right way

ROI is the brick wall many content marketers crash into.

Not because the results aren’t there. But because the math doesn’t fit nicely into a last-click attribution model.

Lauren explains the issue:

“Content is not a channel, and so it doesn’t make sense to treat it like one: giving social, email, event, paid teams attribution for their leads or whatever, and then giving content the two conversions that came in via "organic" or "the blog”. All of those other channels rely on content, too. What we need is measurement that transcends channels and departments to focus on content's holistic impact in dollars.”

She suggests a better approach: build a "content pipeline dashboard" that shows how content influences deals before and after they enter the pipeline. It’s not about proving causation — it’s about demonstrating impact.

Also, you don’t have to go it alone. Ty points out that proving ROI isn’t just on content. Rev ops, finance, and leadership should be your partners here.

It’s okay to use back-of-the-envelope math. What matters is that you’re “having these thoughtful conversations about the role of content in your organization and how it ought to be contributing to pipeline”, says Ty.

(By the way, if you want more guidance on measuring content ROI, you might want to take a look at our deep-dive guide. TL;DR? Content ROI is messy — pick a few metrics that match your goals, track them consistently, and stop chasing perfection.)

Stay visible

Lauren believes that content marketers need to “create a culture of content” in their organizations — and that means staying visible. You can’t just create good content and hope the rest of the company will notice. “Distribution matters to external audiences, but it matters internally too.”

Lauren’s tips here include:

• Collaborating with sales and CS to find out which content is resonating
• Joining product team meetings and making sure the customer value is clear and well communicated
• Making content super easy to find and share
• Pushing back when you’re treated like an order taker

Be realistic

Ty sees too many content marketers thinking about internal buy-in in “us versus them” terms.

Of course, it can be tough to work as a content marketer in a company that doesn’t get content. But, on the other hand, we content marketers can be a jot biased about how important content is to a given organization.

Ty believes it’s more effective to acknowledge that content is “just a piece of the pie”. Instead of getting into power games, “the best content marketers will right-size their program for what the organization needs, and build a compelling argument for what they need in order to play their part.”

In other words, “Try and take your own ego out of it. It’s not about you.”

Not every org is set up to treat content as a strategic function. And not every exec is going to get it right away.

That’s okay. Your job is to read the room and take action based on where you are now.

Ryan, as usual, doesn’t mince words: “You can eat shit now or keep eating shit later.” Either way, internal politics are unavoidable — so play to win.

And, if you need a helping hand, you might want to check out Relato. We provide actionable insights and strategies that can help you communicate clearly, align stakeholders effectively, and consistently demonstrate the tangible business value of your work, ultimately securing lasting buy-in and stronger internal alignment.