January 18 2007

Ninety-Four Percent of Business Buyers Go Online
Copyright © By Michael Fleischner Marketing Expert, Internet Marketing Secrets*


http://www.payitforward4profits.com/truth2befree

Have you been Googled lately? You'd better hope so.

Here's powerful news for busy marketers wanting to get more bang for the buck and simplify their busy lives. New research finds that 94% of business buyers go online at some stage of the buying cycle to do research.

And the amazing thing is that most are going to the same place to get what they need to make a decision. Of the 64% who start their research by using a search engine, 83% go to Google.

That's the latest from a just released survey of 1,500 business buyers by Enquiro. To make sure they were right, researchers also tracked eyeflow— asking prospects what they looked at first — and interviewed buyers about how they'd searched for products in the past. These results may change your marketing forever:


1. Optimize with Google in mind
If you're pushed for time and money, why waste them on anything other than optimizing your site so it gets a top ranking on Google? You don't even need to spend money on AdWords.

Not only did 82.9% of buyers turn to Google first to research a purchase, most preferred to click on the regular (organic) search listings.

Nearly 63% said they looked at the main regular listings first (i.e., the free results on the left) compared with only 14.2% who looked at the top paid listings (the pay-per-click listings on the right of the page).

Quick tip: To get a better ranking, include a dictionary of industry terms on your site.

These results also raise questions for consumer marketers: Are consumers using a variety of search engines to find you? A survey or a question on your site asking how prospects found you could help target resources more effectively.


2. Put URL in lights, big lights
You'll also want to continue doing anything you can to make your URL as intuitive, memorable and ubiquitous as possible. That's because the first place nearly 19% of buyers go to research products — before they even go to a search engine — is the Web site of known vendors of the product or service.

So make your URL big, bold and beautiful, instead of the last thing you add in small type to an offline print ad or direct mail piece. And survey prospects to find out whether your site provides enough info to stop them from clicking to a competitor's site.

Another interesting finding: 23.5% of buyers researching expensive purchases, i.e., those over $10,000 start their search at an industry portal. So check how your listing compares with rivals'.


3. Buyers search earlier in cycle
You may also want to check when in the buying cycle prospects are starting research because they may be looking earlier than you expected. Nearly 47% of prospects agreed with the statement that when they used a search engine they were "very early in the research," with "little knowledge of product or service."

Uh oh! That means you can't presume any prior knowledge. And 30% said they were searching a bit later, but "wanted comparisons." The rest wanted reviews and articles.

Many searchers were researching for internal committees. Some companies cater to this by creating content to address the concerns of everyone involved in the purchase.

Conclusion: With so many business buyers going online, be sure to optimize your site with Google and other search engines in mind. Also, be sure to make your URL known among prospects and customers. Finally, remember that buyers search early in the cycle and you may need to provide a greater level of specific information in order to get them acquainted with your product, service, and/or brand.



About the Author:

*Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert and the president of MarketingScoop.com. He has more than 12 years of marketing experience and had appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Visit MarketingScoop.com for further details and be sure to subscribe to his RSS feed at http://www.marketingscoop.com/rss-feed.xml.

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