A recent poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation confirms what I have been saying all along – consumers are more likely to act based upon brand mentions in an article than they are from sponsored search engine links. In fact, 51% of internet users surveyed indicated that they are very likely or somewhat likely to take action after reading an online article with a brand mention, compared to 47% for email offers and only 39% for sponsored search engine links. This confirms what I was discussing in my last post – people don’t find out about your products through search engines – they find out about products through word of mouth. Search engines help people locate a product after they already know about it. Concentrate your marketing on getting work of mouth rather than SEO and you’ll see greater results.

Greg Jameson