7. And now some cannon fodder to start the education…
8. Search Begins Purchase Cycle “ 80% of transactions are initiated with online search” - Comscore
9. Online Mix Drives Sales Off And On-line 18 studies in the finance, travel, telecommunications, and retail sectors collectively show that online ads have a powerful effect on off-line sales
10. Purchase Decision/Trust Through Community Consumers feel the most credible source for information about a company—and by inference, products— is a “person like themselves.”
11. Participation In “Trusted” Content Growing In the US, the fastest-growing user-generated content categories since the start of 2008 were watching online video, downloading podcasts, and subscribing to an RSS feed. Forrester’s Social Technographics
12. Positive Word Of Mouth Key ROI Driver 2008 Satmetrix Study Economic Impact of Word-of-Mouth “ Promoters" would spend about $1,818 of their own money and refer an additional $816 of revenue from friends and associates. (Via Church of Customer blog - http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/)