Let’s look at some of the tools that we should have in our toolbox for a successful internet marketing campaign. First of all we need a website, there is no one solution to our website, but we need to think like a customer when we build it. Ask yourself what your customers are looking for when they come to your site? What questions do they have? Do they find the answers when they use our website? Many website are nothing more than a business card showing your business name, address and phone number but are little more use that that. Is my site easy to use? Ask someone who is not computer savvy to use your website and submit a question about one of your products. Then ask them about their experience. Many of our first time buyers have the same level of experience and our sties need to be friendly to their needs.

Once we have a good site we need to know if anyone is using the site, so we should have a good set of analytics tools installed so we can track visitors, site usage, time on site, and other important indicators of how the site is working. We can drive all the traffic we want to a poor site and it will not produce us any more sales. Now that we have customers coming to our site we need a good lead management tool to help us make the sale. Lead management software will help us stay in contact with the customers, keeping a smooth sales process going while producing accountability amongst your sales staff leading to much higher closing rates. A good lead management tool will also help us by measuring closing rates by lead source, product type and sales reps so we can quickly spot poor performance and make adjustments. With these results we can make informed decisions and target training issues, or target strong lead sources with future investment. We will also be able to use these results to determine what our Return on Investment is which is what we are all after.

To truly know how strong our internet is performing we also need to know how many of the phone calls that we receive each month are a result of our internet marketing. To do this unique 800 numbers should be put in each advertising source. Most business will be surprised at the results after the first month or two and find they need to make major changes in where they put their advertising dollars. These toll free numbers allow us to track calls by lead source and to record calls for training and customer service.

With these great tools in place we can now seek the help of SEO and SEM expert to help us build traffic to our site and purchase quality leads off from heavy hitters like Google. With the complexities of SEO and SEM few dealers will be able to succeed with out the help of a professional and the cost of leaning can be great with time better spent running your business. But the good news is you now have the tools to hold that professional accountable for the work they are doing. When working with dealers ourselves we have quarterly conference calls to review all results and give guidance on the next quarter.

To learn more about the use of any of these tools feel free to contact me at •This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it• with your questions. IMED Consulting provides complete dealer solutions and consulting so that you can stay on top of your business.

Joseph Oye IMED Consulting LLC Tea, SD 57064