By Michael Schultz

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It is no secret that for a lot of small businesses, Inbound Marketing, as popularized by Google and SEMrush is actually the face of all their Inbound efforts.

However, even if you are not completely familiar with the term, it should be a well known name within the web marketing industry. But what does it really mean and how can you profit from it?

As we noted in our 2014 article on Using Google Inbound to Market Your Business, Inbound is a process of digging into your own business online and connecting with prospects in the most efficient and compelling ways you can. You might not have noticed many businesses out there already leveraging Inbound Marketing for Business. Many companies today are just beginning to realize the power of Inbound Marketing as a marketing tool, but if you want to profit from it now, you should have already been utilizing the powerful methods.

Is Inbound Marketing Right for You?

While Inbound is supposed to be for the general public, businesses (whether small or large) should know there are various usage areas for Inbound Marketing. What is really important to understand is that having SEO experts, social media strategists, and service providers all ask about the same variables is not a bad idea. Not when you are trying to get everyone in your business to focus on the same best practices.

Inbound: Guidelines for Success

Inbound Marketing Marketing is best done when you can have more than one person doing it all. The ideal situation is to have an expert in CRM, an expert in the mobile technology areas, an expert in search engine optimization, and also an expert in buying tickets to concerts. This diverse list of people is meant to provide businesses with a group of people who can help move their business forward without keeping a heavy load on their shoulders.

The end results are amazing. The best part is that when your Inbound Marketing team is clearly focused on one customer at a time, it is easier to coordinate results with all efforts, no matter how many other folks are working on it.

The Importance of Inbound Marketing

Where most small businesses really struggle with Google Inbound Marketing is in the navigation area. Understanding how to type your web address correctly is the top reason many businesses won’t connect with prospects in the first place. There’s the guessing game of what Google has copied, how far your content has been cut, and then once you’ve made that cut, what might they think of your site? It is this poor user experience that actually works against Google Inbound Marketing.

Also, be aware that search engines don’t look for your website as a first point of connection, rather, they try to direct you there if they find there is any natural opportunity for your business to get some exposure. By not solving this problem, small businesses often lose out on possible leads that fall to the bottom of the call-to-action list.

With that said, Inbound Marketing has the ability to work well with everyone. Don’t think of Google Inbound Marketing as a main focus of your web marketing efforts. Rather, see it as the first step in a much larger marketing efforts that is geared towards your consumer, such as Facebook, Twitter, and SEO.