Get More from Search - Trends in Search & Social Media

We know that search is the #1 tool that consumers use when researching products and services but it’s interesting to see that other media continues to facilitate the motivation to search.  

In a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, it was found that consumers are often motivated to search after interacting with other media outlets including magazines (47.2%), reading an article (43.7%), watching television (42.8%) and reading a newspaper (42.3%). Men are more likely than women to start a search after listening to the radio (34.4% vs. 24.9%) while women are more likely to respond to receiving coupons than men (41.8% vs. 29.0%).

Which outlet deserves more attention from your budget? It depends on your audience’s media patterns. Market research and studies will help you drill down the particular areas you need to focus on, but the new purchase pattern of consumers and businesses involves a multiple media approach – and that means that your business must adopt the same pattern for your marketing campaigns.

While many forms of advertising are beneficial, such as product reviews in magazines, radio ads, and relevant TV commercials, it is unlikely that the prospect will act on that information immediately. Over time, repeated exposure or a genuine need will drive your customers to a search engine where they’ll begin their decision-making process in earnest.

While we’ve been reading about this paradigm shift for a few years now, the connection is still far from seamless in the minds of so many marketers. Yet, the new reality is that advertising is a means to drive traffic to your website or to vertical sites that foster the research/purchase cycle - and that actuality can take some getting used to.

Crossing the chasm to capture the purchase cycle interest requires that you always feature online activities (search, website, communities) in the call to action in all ad campaigns. Based on the knowledge that the majority of your customers are going to look in search engines for you or visit your site directly when you’ve caught their attention, then you must gear everything you do toward that behavior.

If you’re running a magazine ad for a new high-tech add-on to an existing product, prominently feature a micro-site for that product. That micro-site can do more for conversions than 1000 full-page ads ever could. It’s about delivering the complete decision-making package to the prospect instantly: text, video demonstrations, customer testimonials, and if applicable, outgoing links to retailers/reviews/social networks that support your product. And don’t stop with creating micro-sites, practice best SEO techniques to get the most relevant content into the search engines ASAP.

Additionally, you should customize the online destination for each campaign for the audience and the product. Sometimes, a favorable product review might be the best landing page for a campaign. Or, if you have an active blog community that engages a loyal readership and creates a transparency with your brand, that might be the best scenario for a buyer demographic that thrives on casual but intelligent repartee. 

Another important realization is that your consumers will communicate with each other after they have purchased your product.

Joe Pilotta, Vice President of BIGresearch says, “Retailers must realize that online communities are now producers and through their stories are able to extend the distribution of traditional media with a trust and truth not even approximated by mass media.”

Word of mouth is a powerful tool and even online consumers are most likely to communicate about a product or service face-to-face (68.9%), but bear in mind that consumers do utilize other methods for communicating their experiences: email (53.1%), telephone (50.9%), and cell phones (30.0%). Young adults are more apt to use new media sources to communicate about products and services they have purchased, including instant messaging (37.5%), text messaging (23.7%), and online communities (20.6%).

In summary, a diverse advertising strategy is important, but it has to: 1) communicate to your audience within the media that they’re most likely to interact with; 2) drive potential customers to the Web where they will search for your brand, make their decisions and communicate with other consumers post-purchase.

Is the touch and feel element of shopping in person really worth the hassle? More consumers responded with their wallets and an implied “not always” by pouring 24% more dollars into online shopping in 2006 compared to the previous year. Interestingly, it would appear that consumers are not only increasingly satisifed with the online shopping experience, they also trust the shipping giants to deliver orders on time, despite tight deadlines, according to a new report by comScore. 

Online advertising is no longer the experimental outlet it once was: in fact, 80% of businessesmarket online. Although, it’s not as if traditional advertising mediums will vanish, but the tide has shifted: the Internet is where consumers research, hang out, and receive influential information.

Enough with the bubble talk already. Online advertising is far beyond those postulations. We’re increasingly living more digital, connected lives and we actually don’t mind relevant ads when we’re online. Besides, the latest benchmark data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed that total online advertising revenues in the U.S. hit $12.5 billion during 2005, exceeding 2004 numbers by 30% and making 2005 a record year. Search continues to lead with a 41% share of online ad revenues.

iProspect and Jupiter Research just launched a report about user reactions to search results. Increasingly, users click on a link on the first page of results – 62% – up from 48 percent four years ago. A full 90% of searchers click on a link in the first three pages of results. While it has been surmised that the Internet community is becoming more impatient, we would postulate that adeptness at deciphering relevant results is more likely. It’s not that we’re less patient for the right answer, it’s that we’re better able pinpoint relevant results, or, refine our queries and/or change search engines when met with irrelevant results. We’re a community after fast answers and connections, and the more we engage with search, the better we become at procuring those answers, right here and now.

Take away: Continue to improve your organic SEO so that you’re in the first three pages for your top keywords.