NATDA Magazine Sept/Oct 2019 NM_Sept2019_Final091619 | Page 22

Good website design. Your website is your online real estate! Are you making the most of it? Your website should not only be aesthetically pleasing, but it should also be easy to navigate with key images of your inventory. Make sure your visitors can find what they’re looking for in as few as two clicks! Fast load time. Good website functionality goes deeper than design alone. In order to perform well, a website needs to load fast and respond quickly. Otherwise, you risk losing a customer due to frustration. A website’s development and core infrastructure will impact its performance, so make sure yours is up-to-date. Keep inventory updated. Make sure your website is inventory driven. Today’s shopper is looking for inventory that is immediately available and you have just seconds to capture their attention and lead them down the funnel to a conversion. Fresh inventory with good photographs is crucial to making this happen. Make conversions easy. Place call-to-actions like “click to email” prominently throughout your website, often at the top and bottom of a page. On your inventory pages make sure a “contact form” is readily visible. Engage, engage, engage. Chat is a great way to engage customers on your website. With free chat services like tawk.to or more robust subscription-based platforms that provide 24/7 live monitoring, you can connect with your customers in real-time. Chat helps shorten the response time and helps you close more deals. Word of caution: be diligent with chat since an unanswered chat is a dead-end lead. Integrate with social media. Facebook Marketplace has become a valid place for consumers to shop for everything, including trailers! Marketplace now supports automated uploads through approved partners, so make sure your inventory is automatically being fed to Marketplace and other relevant shopping platforms. Consider cost per click. Cost-per-click advertising through engines like Google AdWords and Facebook Ads is a cost-effective way to target new customers over a geographic area with key terms and affinity interests. Connecting the dots between marketing and sales can seem overwhelming, but there are fewer things more critical to an organization’s success today than digital marketing. What is digital marketing? Digital marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. Successful companies leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email and their website to connect with current and prospective customers. Here are a few tips to help you capture more leads and close more sales through digital marketing: 22 Price to move product. Finally, make sure pricing is competitive. A product is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. While you can protect against selling on price alone by featuring high quality, high-resolution images, good descriptions and superior service, price will be one of the key factors customers consider while making a purchase. Written by: Josh Slabaugh (CEO), TrailerCentral www.trailercentral.com l 800-875-7216 Please visit us at Booth #329 NATDA Magazine www.natda.org