Aug. 22, 2007

According to a new report from iProspect and JupiterResearch, online searchers are still very much influenced by offline channels. However, about 80 percent still make a purchase, many times online, and often times in a direct relationship with the actual keywords entered in the search engine.

iProspect president Robert Murray said "on average, we thought we would detect an even split between those influenced to search by offline channels, and those not influenced by offline. We were surprised to learn that about 68 percent of online search users are driven to search by some offline channel of some sort or another."

Additionally, in the end, approximately 39.2 percent of online searchers influenced by offline channels ultimately made an online purchase.

Overall, the study was completed by over 2,300 randomly-selected individuals from the iPsos Insight U.S. online consumer panel.

Users were asked twenty-five questions about their behaviors, attitudes, and preferences as they relate to digital imaging, portable devices and service bundles.

The survey showed that among its findings, offline channels clearly influence a significant percentage of online search users to subsequently perform queries on search engines, based on the company name, product/service name or slogan that appears in the offline channel's messaging.

Murray said that it's intuitive. It makes sense that offline channel messaging could somewhat trigger a user's curiosity just enough to motivate them to search for additional information.

However, most offline advertising doesn't exactly make it easy for customers to find a company's Web site either.

Besides examining the power of offline channels to drive online search, the report also examined specific purchase behavior.

Categorically, offline-influenced online searchers were asked whether they ultimately had made a purchase from the company whose Web site had been the object of their search. The results revealed that about 32.3 percent of the users did so.

This equally translates into almost a 40 percent conversion rate, suggesting a synergistic relationship exists between search and offline channels.

Murray added that "search is no longer an add-on consideration for marketers. Rather, it's front and center."

Source: MediaPost