INTERNET: Letting Our Fingers Do the Shopping.

Those of you old enough will remember an almost iconic ad campaign for Yellow Pages advertising that summarized the telephone directory's advantages with the promise: "Let your fingers do the walking."

Fast forward to today, and that same slogan is ringing loud and true for online shopping.

Both retail and ISP marketers should take note of these important internet-usage trends, per a recent study by Media-Screen in San Francisco:

• If consumers have a high degree of interest in your industry — and information as well as product are available online — they'll spend literally hours in front of their computers. Marketers who really push the hot buttons of online shoppers include:
• Home and Garden (2.3 hours per average)
• Travel (2.1 hours)
• Beauty (1.3)
• Clothing (1.2)
• Today, a whopping 50% of all purchases are influenced by some online marketing — 76% of all purchases made online, and 35% of those made offline.
• Almost one out of 10 purchasers is now seeking user-generated content — consumer review or ratings sites, blogs, discussion boards, IM, chat rooms, social networking sites — and this sort of word-of-digital-mouth is strongly influencing their decisions.

Bottom line lessons, as we at NOISE see them and would counsel them?

1. If you're in a business that sells online (or can), you better have your website in top order.
2. A website in top order still won't perform without strong Search Engine Optimization (on the front and back ends), and a savvy web- and e-marketing program.
3. Get on the bus and get your marketing involved in the digital buzz world of user-generated content.

SOURCE: NOISE, Marketing Management
BY: John Sprecher