Allow me to introduce myself I’ve been around the online marketing block a few times. And, I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned over the years to help you, our broker partners make the most of their online marketing investments.

Let’s create some dialogue through this forum over the coming months. I’ll throw out random thoughts that I have and please, ask me questions. I’ll do my best to answer them.

Tracking beyond the click.

All clicks are not created equal. If you’re one of the few I’ve spoken with who are tracking traffic to your site past a cost per click congrats. You’re in the minority. If you’re tracking clicks only read on.

Let’s assume you can afford (this month) to spend $1,000 on marketing – and for simplicities sake, you’re going to spend all of that money online. OK so define success? Many I’ve spoken with would say XXX clicks would be great.

What’s important to you? Traffic to your site or a dialogue between a prospect and one of your agents? I’d argue the latter. So track how much of your traffic by source completes a lead form or clicks on the contact us link on your site.

It’s that simple. If you start to measure the efficacy of your online marketing programs by that success metric you’ll start to spend your money more effectively. Then, next month, move some of your spend from an area that drives fewer leads per dollar spent to one that drives more. Simple, free tools like Google Analytics can help.

Is this helpful? What questions do you have? Please kick off a topic and I’ll tell you what I know.

Drew