Once Is Never Enough

03/01/2007 - It is no secret that consumers are increasingly relying on Internet based search to find local products and service businesses, moving mind-share away from traditional print yellow pages and other classified advertising. But I’m not convinced it’s the ultimate experience it could be.

Just think of your own experiences as a consumer – maybe you’ve searched the web for that product or service, and you are now ready to make your buying decision. But what method do most of us prefer to use to make that purchase? And do most consumers take that buying action immediately? You might be surprised to find that the preferred method for contacting local advertiser is still…The telephone.

That old thing? It also might surprise you to know that when searching for a local service online, recent research indicated that typical buyers required up to three searches to find the information that they need.

Nielsen//NetRatings and local search engine marketing firm WebVisible conducted a survey in August of 2006 to determine how U.S. consumers were using the Internet to find local service businesses. Among the various ways of contacting local businesses, the telephone emerged as the dominant way users contacted, with 68% respondents saying they would most likely use the phone number on the website to contact a vendor.

For those looking to prove the value of online local search advertising, these results strongly suggest that phone tracking should be included in any ad program as it captures the dominant user method of making contact, an action which might otherwise be invisible to that local business. It also suggests that pay per phone call type programs will work well.

The second key finding in this research is the latency that consumers have demonstrated before they do pick up that phone to make that purchase. According to ......