You may feel like your customers are not using search engines to find your products or services. I would challenge that assumption in a variety of ways, but the following statistics may be the best way to prove that all types of customers are using the internet in the early phases of online and offline transactions. As reported by Search Engine Watch, a survey recently published by Accenture found the following:

I’m usually not one to use scare tactics to convince people they have program marketing, but when 87% of consumers say the web plays a neighborhood in their offline shopping habits, retailers better listen.

What about B2B purchasers? An Enquiro report published in May found that 65% of B2B buyers begin their research by employing a program. Search engines still dominate other information sources throughout the whole purchase cycle.