Before you invest money buying advertising in a buyer’s guide consider that a recent research study suggests that online blogs may be replacing the buyer’s guide function for many customers.
A study from BuzzLogic and JupiterResearch that focused on the behavior of heavy blog readers found them relying on blogs for information previously thought to be in the benefit list of search and buyers guides.
Before I present findings from the study let me say that I am skeptical of studies like these. If you ask a respondent if a blog influences their buying deicsions it is easly enough to say, "yes." If the next day a survey asked the same respondnet, "Does the kind of breakfast you ate affect your buying deicsions?", many would say would also say, "yes." The bigger point is that there are many factors now inplay where buyers guides once ruled.
From the study:
"Blog readers do not appear to rely as heavily on search as a means to find new blogs as compared to consumers of traditional online media. According to the survey, one in five general blog readers (defined as consumers who have read a blog in the past 12 months) use blog links to discover new blogs. Further, the study suggests blogs are not consumed in isolation, but experienced as part of a connected conversation – nearly half (49 percent) of blog readers and 71 percent of frequent readers read more than one blog per session.
• Blogs influence purchases: One half (50 percent) of blog readers say they find blogs useful for purchase information.
• Blogs sway more purchases among readers than social networks: More frequent blog readers say they trust relevant blog content for purchase decisions than content from social networking sites.
• Niche focus ups influence factor: For those who have found blog content useful for product decisions, more than half (56 percent) said blogs with a niche focus and topical expertise were key sources.
• Blogs go beyond tech: Outside of technology-related purchases, for which 31 percent of readers say blogs are useful, other key categories include media and entertainment (15 percent); games/toys and/or sporting goods (14 percent); travel (12 percent); automotive (11 percent); and health (10 percent).
It’s Buy Time: Where Blogs Sit in the Purchase Cycle
According to the study, blogs factor in to critical stages of the purchase process, weighing most heavily at the actual moment of a purchase decision. When it comes to respondents who said they have trusted blog content for purchase decisions in the past, over half (52 percent) say blogs played a role in the critical moment they decided to move forward with a purchase.
Blog readers also replied around blogs’ influence as it relates to the following steps of the purchase process:
• Decide on a product or service: 21 percent
• Refine choices: 19 percent
• Get support and answers: 19 percent
• Discover products and services: 17 percent
• Assure: 14 percent
• Inspire a purchase: 13 percent
• Execute a purchase: 7 percent
My take is that there now is a universal buyers guide. It's called Google.
This story has some traction, here is a link to a short summary of the that study that ran in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/business/22drill.html?_r=1
Read the entire Buzz Logic press release:
http://www.buzzlogic.com/press/news.html?postdate=1225203064
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