WebProNews

A little over a year ago, research showed that 44% of traffic to consumer packaged goods (CPG) sites came from search. These days, searchers are getting even more specific when searching for these kinds of items.

Sally Falkow looked at the phenomenon last year, referring to research from comScore, Procter & Gamble, Yahoo, and SEMPO. Highlights she pointed out about the motivation of searchers were:

- 30% were looking specifically for the company Web site

- 73% were researching products

- 64% were seeking help with an actual purchase decision

-  Almost 50% were looking for product promotions

Now, as I said, this data is a little outdated, but it's really not the percentages that we need to worry about so much, because these are all things that should be taken into account when CPG businesses plan their Internet marketing strategies.

These are the things people look for. They want to know details about products before they buy them. They want to see if they can find deals on products so they can get them for cheaper. They want reviews of products so they can determine whether or not they wish to purchase them. They will often go to the company's site to find their product.

So What Can You Do With This Information?

- You can make your site more usable.

- You can offer customer discounts

- You can provide plenty of details and testimonials on product pages and throughout your site.

- You can monitor customer reviews of your products for reputation management.

- You can listen to what these reviews say and make improvements where you feel necessary.

ComScore's Eli Goodman spoke with our reporter Abby Johnson at the Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago, where the two of them discussed some opportunites for CPG markters:

It's really all about visibility, usability, and reputation. If you can manage these things in you marketing campaigns, customers will have a better experience, and so will you. Seasoned pros know this, but  for many struggle remains.