by Rocky Fu on March 1, 2010
I read a very interesting survey paper by Newspaper Association of America last weekend, which revealed the strength of local newspaper websites.
Respondents were asked to identify sites they used most often for specific types of local content. Newspaper sites ranked first as a source ahead of both local television Web sites and online portals for:
- local information (29%)
- local sports (27%)
- local entertainment (26%)
- local classifieds (39%)
Local newspaper Web sites ranked first among all sources for trustworthiness, credibility and being the most informative place to find local content of all types – including news, information, entertainment, sports and classified advertising.
How Are Local News Sites Valuable to Marketers?
Marketers and advertisers would love to know this:
Consumers also consider local newspaper Web sites to be the most trusted source of online advertising, because the advertising on these sites is perceived to be more current, credible, and relevant to them.
It’s good to know but it may not be good enough for you to simply accept the conclusion. It’s always worthy it to test it for your own targeted market.
Whether you are running online display ads or contextual adversiting, make sure you separate the local news sites as one online source in order to track the performance and verify the above findings.
Site Matters Report [PDF]
by Rocky Fu on February 24, 2010
A survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation and sponsored by ARAnet asked consumers the relative importance of 14 information sources when deciding which goods and services to buy.
Guess what’s the most influential information source?
Personal advice from friends and family!
Here is a summary of data showing the percentage of respondents choosing a 4 or 5 out of 5 and the mean summary rating points (online sources are highlighted in bold):
- Personal advice from friends or family members: 59% or 3.6 out of 5
- TV news or other broadcasts: 40% or 3.1
- Search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, or Ask.com: 39% or 3.0
- Ads I see on TV: 36% or 3.0
- Articles I see in newspapers or magazines: 33 % or 3.0
- Ads I see in newspapers or magazines: 31% or 2.9
- Articles I see online: 28% or 2.8
- Radio news or other broadcasts: 25% or 2.7
- Direct mail: 24% or 2.7
- Ads I hear on the radio: 20% or 2.6
- Emails I receive from retailers or manufacturers: 20% or 2.5
- Ads I see online: 19% or 2.5
- Messages or posts on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or MySpace: 18% or 2.3
- Billboards: 15% or 2.3
Another interesting finding from this research is, search engines are preferred by 49% who make $75,000 or more (vs overall 39%).
Online channels help your company not only reach your customers but also influence them. Are you allocating enough budget for online channels? Are you integrating different digital channels? Are you integrating online and off-line media?
But, remember this: presence on digital channels does not mean/guarantee influence; make sure you are making good use of them.
