Offline Drives Online Corporate Search

Get 'em Young - he'll have a laptop soon...

By Martin Kelly

NEW research claims that 67% of search users are influenced to visit corporate sites by offline channels. The survey of more than 2000 Americans by Jupiter Research for iProspect shows that TV advertising and word of mouth are the dominant drivers.

These findings echo the thoughts of many media industry leaders who say offline channels can have a major impact on online behaviour - witness the Big Brother phenomenon. In this instance, those surveyed were asked which offline channel “prompted you to look for a particular company, product, service or slogan”.

Their options were severely limited: TV ad (37%), word of mouth (36%), Print ad (30%), radio ad (17%), billboard (9%), transport advertising (19%). About one-third (33%) said none of these influenced their search patterns.

The survey further claimed that 39% of those who actually made it to a site due to the offline influences outlined above. TV had a poor conversion rates at 23%, while print ads and word of mouth performed most strongly (30% each).

Not surprisingly most of the resulting searches were based around a corporate brand name.

iProspect President Robert Murray says he was surprised by the headline results. “We figured we’d see an even split between those influenced to search by offline channels, and those not influenced by offline.

“And the data from this study suggests that search and offline produce extremely impressive results.

“Savvy marketers will capitalize on that synergy.”

http://www.iprospect.com/premiumPDFs/researchstudy_2007_offlinechannelinfluence.pdf

Search Engine Room: September 27, 2007