Successful Intralinks client – via the Intralinks recruiting portal

When you think about Inbound Marketing – including customer acquisition and engagement, website navigation, email marketing, content marketing, SEO, collateral marketing, etc. – you immediately might think about SEO and the importance of online visibility.

But with a mere 35% of small businesses actually being accountable for SEO efforts, and only 50% being thought of as “marketing oriented”, it’s hard to see how the market can be really managed.

But if we’re talking about making the right decisions about customer acquisition and engagement, why isn’t SEO and what it needs to do to be successful, front and center?

In fact, Inbound Marketing doesn’t do SEO…it starts with engaged customers. As a marketer or business leader, you’re far more likely to hire someone to lead the way in B2B marketing and customer acquisition when you know they’re highly engaged with your brand. That’s why Britehouse’s research found that customer engagement is more valuable than Google indexing in B2B marketing – in fact, 71% of Inbound Marketing Leaders ranked customer engagement as more valuable than Google indexing.

When it comes to customer acquisition – and for small businesses that are hard to reach – an engaged customer is the most critical part of getting a customer to be part of your B2B program.

In addition to customer acquisition, small businesses know that the customer’s journey to your website is critical to being successful in marketing. As Marketing Today put it, “customers won’t just stop at your website. You’ll need to engage them with email, print ads, testimonials, stories, downloads, video, surveys, local promotions, and content.” And as you already know – and regardless of how great your site is – engaging someone on your website is challenging.

Here are some of the top challenges small businesses face and how you can overcome them, not only to lead the B2B market, but the small business market as well:

Surveys and reports are 2 separate parts of your B2B marketing program. Do they connect or don’t they? Find out which are the most important for your target customers and serve them well and whether they can be delivered effectively.

But people don’t remember web addresses…or do they? Get their attention and drive them back to your website by driving relevant content to that address for that moment. I always encourage marketers to put the Web address high up on the landing page, not the navigation menu. The message here: your landing page message and the URL (read Google) together drive your customer to your website so serve those URLs to them, and don’t forget to make them very memorable so they’ll stick with your brand and never go anywhere else.

I always encourage marketers to put the Web address high up on the landing page, not the navigation menu. The message here: your landing page message and the URL (read Google) together drive your customer to your website so serve those URLs to them, and don’t forget to make them very memorable so they’ll stick with your brand and never go anywhere else. Mobile doesn’t impact our CX. While it might seem that mobile would be an opportunity, the truth is it’s simply not. Mobile messaging is not an opportunity to drive to your website and both B2B and B2C marketers (my focus right now) don’t have to worry about mobile. Content marketing needs to be an integral part of your B2B program, and ensure your mission (and offer) are relevant for the target audience.

While it might seem that mobile would be an opportunity, the truth is it’s simply not. Mobile messaging is not an opportunity to drive to your website and both B2B and B2C marketers (my focus right now) don’t have to worry about mobile. Content marketing needs to be an integral part of your B2B program, and ensure your mission (and offer) are relevant for the target audience. Mobile starts to impact us because of technology. But don’t fear the new mobile phone models. Mobile marketing is really about engaging customers and prospects in person and it involves conversations, not static content on mobile devices.

But don’t fear the new mobile phone models. Mobile marketing is really about engaging customers and prospects in person and it involves conversations, not static content on mobile devices. Trust can be hard to buy and service. Service can be hard to deliver. But you can’t sell a customer without first selling them.

So that’s it, part one of how Intralinks