By Richard Harris, Channel Blade/ARI

It is a given that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) drive more visitors to dealer websites, which, in turn, drives sales — which means that it’s also a given that SEO and SEM should be a vital part of every marine dealer’s marketing strategy. Whether you’re exploring how to better use these tools or you’ve never even heard of them, you’ll want to make plans to attend the educational session “Immediate Results Using Search Engine Marketing,” one of the highlights of the Sales & Marketing track of the 2010 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, to be held Nov. 14-17 in Orlando, Fla.

Search engine expert Richard Harris of ARI/Channel Blade will show dealers how best to use those tools to drive more exposure, leads and profits to their business through effective SEO and SEM. During the presentation, hands-on tips and tricks will be provided so dealers can immediately implement improvements within their businesses.

Harris will show video footage of consumers sharing what they want and need when searching online for boats. He will discuss the latest trends in online marketing to increase visibility, educate dealers on the difference between SEO and SEM and show how they can work together to increase traffic to dealer websites.

“A lot of dealers have heard the terms SEO and SEM, but they have no idea how they can help their businesses,” Harris explains. “There are some very simple steps that these dealers can learn quickly and they can have a major impact on their business metrics.”

As part of the presentation, Harris will show how show attendees are ranking on the search engines today and how the industry can improve. Dealers will see him demonstrate how they can reach 98 percent of search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Ask, Bing and AOL, share best practices designed to generate more high quality leads, and show report options that track and analyze campaign performance to further improve the ROI of SEM.

As an added value to dealers, ARI/Channel Blade will create and distribute a customized Search Engine Analysis for every MDCE dealer attendee. The report will show each dealer the search opportunity (# of consumers searching online for their products) and where they are ranking for those products and their geo-location. See additional document for example of report.

To learn more about how to get results with SEO and SEM, make plans to attend the 2010 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, to be held in Orlando, Fla., Nov. 14-17. With three concurrent educational tracks and more than 20 individual educational sessions, this event has been designed to help dealers return to the growth phase they knew prior to the economic downturn.

Harris’s “Immediate Results Using Search Engine Marketing” panel is preceded by presentations on how to make more money by simply discounting less and charging more, a session on high-impact, low-cost marketing tactics, a panel discussion on the keys to succeeding as a 24/7 marine dealer and a session on converting online efforts to sales profits as part of the MDCE’s Sales & Marketing track. It will be followed by a presentation on closing sales in a difficult economy. The Service Department track will be held concurrently, with a focus on how to be a successful service advisor, solving your most troubling service problems, Web strategies for service profits, operational excellence and financial management for service managers and more.

While the Sales & Marketing track is perfect for sales managers and marketing managers and the service track will help strengthen any service manager or advisor, the newest, most exciting news for the 2010 MDCE is the addition of a third track, geared specifically toward dealer principals, titled Powering Profits. In this track, the educational topics will cover such pressing issues as pay plans, (re)building your culture, how to adopt best practices in your dealership, fact-driven dealer management and of course, myriad best practices to go with them. The event will also feature a general session and two keynote sessions, as well.

“We’ve covered all the bases with the education this year, making quality content, specific to service managers, sales managers, marketing managers and dealership principals alike, available in an unprecedented format,” explains Matt Gruhn, publisher of Boating Industry magazine, which partners with the Marine Retailers Association of America to produce the MDCE. “This will, without question, be the best line-up of education this event has ever produced.”