Ben Garton was the leading voice during a roundtable on key performance indicators in marketing at the 2018 Dealership Minds Summit in Iowa City, Iowa. He contributed to what evolved into a fascinating conversation about his leads and what he does with them to ensure they are attended to. Garton is the chief marketing officer for Garton Tractors, a 10-store New Holland and Kubota dealership in California.

As the world around us has become more digital, the way your farm customers seek out information and even interact with each other has changed. They too have become more digital. Farmers aren’t necessarily making their daily trip to the coffee shop to visit with each other anymore.

Proving your marketing ROI, why is it important? For me, I think we’re still fighting for relevance in the industry. Budgets are smaller than we’re used to in other industries. The ability to prove your return on investment on what your ownership is giving you to grow the business is key to growing your marketing department, growing relevance in the industry and growing your budget over time.

Eric Shanfelt, founder of the Local Marketing Institute, breaks down the basics of digital marketing and how — and why — farm equipment dealers should implement a digital marketing strategy.

In the instantaneous industry of equipment sales, the mindset of “I’ll just respond to that tractor inquiry after lunch” lies in the same outdated realm as phonebooks and Blockbuster video stores. Yet with so many online inventories, websites and campaigns to keep track of, dealers are often left chasing their tails on how to reel in — and retain — online leads.