Online Marketing Essential as 2/3rds of Consumers Research Products Online

How effective is online marketing in driving business to your company? Just how important is it to have an effective website that customers and potential customers can find and use to research the products and services you sell? Very effective – and very important – according to survey results recently released by Opinion Research Corporation.

Almost two-thirds of the respondents (61%) polled in June of 2008 reported “consulting online reviews, blogs and other sources of online customer feedback before purchasing a new product or service.” Search engines like Google or Yahoo!, quite naturally, were the preferred method for respondents conducting online searches.

These results from Opinion Research Corp. confirm recently released consumer numbers from JupiterResearch that show consumers spend $6 on offline purchases influenced by their online research for every dollar that they spend online. An effective online marketing presence in the form of a web page or website that is optimized so that search engines like Google can find and index your business site is quickly becoming a business must as more and more consumers are doing their window shopping online. Effective online marketing and Internet advertising are now business critical issues, particularly for large and small companies dealing in products and services in highly competitive marketplaces.

Opinion Research Corporation ranked the product and services categories that were researched the most online by their respondents in the following order:

Travel/Recreation/Leisure 82%
Electronic goods 80%
Household products/services 66%
Clothing 55%
Automotive 55%
Personal care 40%
Food 24%