How Offline Messages Influence Online Behavior - Implications of the Survey
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When you combine the fact that users are saying that search is growing more important in their Internet activity, and that so many of them use branded keywords to search, it becomes obvious that “businesses need to assign growing importance to ensuring that their website is found by searchers,” according to iProspect (emphasis in original). “Failing to do so would equate to denial, and foolish disregard for the online population’s perspective on, and use of search.”
iProspect noted that many advertisers could do more to take advantage of the fact that 67 percent of searchers perform searches in response to offline advertising messages. More companies should prominently display or announce (or both) their web site’s URL in their advertising. After all, many already include the toll-free number; including the URL could reach a group that wants to collect more information before buying but doesn’t want to interact with an individual (read: salesman on a phone line) to gather it.
iProspect also noted that the two channels that are most effective at driving online search are a study in contrasts. Television is a mass market medium, and its advertising messages are invariably interruptions. iProspect speculates that TV commercials have a “curiosity-generating effect” that drives viewers to search for more information. Word of mouth, on the other hand, is “made up of many one-on-one conversations” in which someone more experienced with a company shares information with someone less experienced with the brand. The trust level is inherently higher for word-of-mouth advertising than it is for TV advertising.
Additionally, word-of-mouth advertising is not limited by time – an attribute it shares with the other medium that is most effective in driving searchers to make a purchase, namely magazine/newspaper ads. As iProspect observed, “Unlike a television or radio ad that is viewed or heard over a 30-60 second period and then is irretrievable by the viewer/listener, and unlike the billboard or outdoor or transportation channels that pass by as quickly as the vehicle is moving, messaging from print ads and word of mouth can be extended in time.” iProspect advocates utilizing the print channel and word of mouth “in a coordinated and consistent fashion with both organic and paid search campaigns” to increase conversions.
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