the future of online...
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THE FUTURE OF ONLINE SEARCHNo matter where consumers search for information they expect the brand to provide clear and accurate answers, right away
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
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Introduction
As artificial intelligence powers today’s search and discovery experiences and answers to consumers’ questions grow increasingly sophisticated and specific, brands are working to keep up with users’ expectations for a seamless experience. No longer limited to finding answers on a brand’s website,
consumers are now likely to search non-brand—or third-
party—touchpoints like maps, apps, search engines, review
sites, voice assistants and more. In turn, brands are evolving
to ensure they provide answers wherever customers search—
but are they evolving fast enough?
To learn how consumers view brand interactions throughout
their journey—from when they first discover a brand to the
moment they become loyal customers—Forbes Insights and
Yext surveyed more than 500 consumers in the United States.
This report highlights key research findings and suggests a
path forward for companies aiming to improve.
No matter where consumers search for information they expect the brand to provide clear and accurate answers, right away.
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Key Findings
Consumers trust search engines and third-party sources for information on brands that are new to them:Non-customers trust search engines. Almost half of current customers say the brand’s
site is one of their most trusted sources, while 42% of those new to a brand most
trust search engine results (more than the 39% who trust that brand’s website).
Third-party sites play a key role in a customer’s journey for information about brands: Consumers are often looking for information about a variety of brands and tend to find
these sites more convenient, more objective and faster.
In the next five years:It will be increasingly important for brands to control the entire online experience
across platforms and channels.
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The Landscape Of Brand Information
Both existing and new customers look to two main sources for clear and accurate information about a brand: the brand’s website and search engine results.In the digital era, consumers are no longer limited to traditional
ways of gathering information about companies and products.
And that’s true whether they are longtime customers of a brand
or learning about a product for the first time. Information about
a brand’s products, hours and contact information, services,
menus, events and more is available to consumers from a wide
array of ever-increasing sources.
Current customers are slightly more likely to trust the brand’s
own site. Customers new to the brand are more likely to trust
search engine results, with the popularity of both of these
buoyed by older customers’ preferences (Table 1).
Table 1.
Most-Trusted Sites
Existing Customers
Brand website
Search engine results
48%
45%
New Customers
Brand website
Search engine results
42%
39%
As a wholesaler serving over 4,600 independently owned
and operated hardware stores, the Chicago-based True
Value Company aims to meet customers where they are.
“Over the last couple of years, we’ve shifted our advertising
and communications focus to be hyperlocal and digital,
including search,” says David Elliot, SVP of marketing.
�“We’ve�made�significant�technology investments—including re-platforming our website—to back that up and support our brick and mortar stores for the online/offline world in which consumers live.”
Search engines are popular with consumers, who ask a wide
range of questions. According to real-time figures from
Internet Live Stats, Google alone handles about 75,000
searches every second. When it comes to brand information,
like phone number, address, menu or product listings, half
of a brand’s current customers almost always use a search
engine to find what they’re looking for, while two-thirds of
new customers almost always use search engines.
Despite the high use of social media sites by both old and
young consumers—and the fact that so many people access
these sites daily—social media doesn’t break into the top half
of the list of most-trusted sites for brand information. This is
an area to watch going forward, as younger consumers look
for brand information on these sites twice as often compared
with older consumers. Both current and potential customers
are slowly adopting voice assistants like Alexa or Siri,
mobile apps and local business directories—so brands
can take the lead in this growing space with forward-
thinking, scalable strategies.
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“Search engines are becoming more like portals. In many
cases, customers don’t leave the search engine because it contains the information they need, from maps to
opening hours to feedback and comments. This provides a
lot of what they need without going further.”
DAVID ELLIOT
SVP of Marketing
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The Search For Information
In addition to keeping their own online properties and accounts current, brands can better reach consumers by incorporating third-party resources into their strategies.
Non-Brand SitesThird-party sites (like social media, Yelp or Google) provide a
valuable service—they can educate consumers about a product
category, allow users to compare products and brands and
more. Almost half of surveyed consumers use third-party sites
and apps to find information about multiple brands at once.
Precisely because these sites are not owned by the brand,
consumers use them as validation: A third of consumers use
third-party sites and apps because they trust them to provide
objective information.
While consumers look to third-party sites for impartiality and
autonomy from the brand, they still expect the information to
be accessible, accurate and aligned with the brand’s message.
Sixty percent of the consumers surveyed say they’re looking
to be able to move across the brand site, third-party sites
and apps, reviews, social media and even in-person to find
consistent, accurate information. That makes it critical for
brands to deliver a seamless, omnichannel experience that
extends beyond brand boundaries.
True Value gives its independent retailers the ability to
manage their own ratings and reviews on sites like Google
My Business. The data is more relevant to consumers
by reflecting what’s happening in that specific business
location—from opening hours to store events—and
enables retailers to create that omnichannel experience
for customers.
Once someone becomes a customer, he or she tends to
have confidence in the brand: Most current customers
trust the brand’s site over third-party sites. Before
customers purchase a product, however, they’re more
guarded and sometimes slow to build trust. When
discovering a brand for the first time, almost half (47%)
say they’re more likely to trust third-party sites like
search directories and social media. And that experience
ultimately affects consumers’ decisions to do business
with a brand. This suggests that when brands aim to
reach new customers, the responsibility for accurate
information and engagement is at least partially outside
the brand.
say they are usually looking for customer reviews of brands of products when they visit a third-party site.
45percent of consumers
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Retailing is a response to culture,” says Elliot. “The degree to which the community is responding to [and using] something like Google or Amazon, it becomes part of our culture. As a retailer we need to be mindful and respond in a way that’s helpful.”
Reputation And ReviewsConsumers do read reviews and consider them relevant
to purchasing decisions. Both positive and negative
experiences make an impression on consumers and
thus influence the likelihood of a purchase or further
engagement. Respondents are about equally as willing
to focus on positive experiences—good reviews,
interactions with posts or enticing information, for
example—as they are to shy away from a brand based
on negative experiences.
These consumers are also receptive to sharing their
experiences with a brand and its products—just 11%
say they are frustrated when brands request a product
review and 41% say they pay more attention to positive
experiences where a brand interacts with their posts,
for example. People also trust and desire input from
their peers: Reading customer reviews is the top priority
for visiting third-party sites to research a brand and/or
products (more so than finding discounts or coupons).
Brands should focus on this consumer preference for the
input of others and solicit reviews on their own sites as well
as monitor and respond to feedback on third-party sites.
“What other people have said about products is very
important,” says Elliot. “Retailing has always been a
matter of putting things right in the customer’s eyes. So,
we work with a partner that helps us manage ratings and
reviews and those get lifted up to us so we can deal with
them quickly and we don’t repeat a problem.”
Brands’ ResponsibilitiesFor a variety of reasons, a brand’s own website is the
more preferred destination for consumers hoping to
interact with a brand (Table 2). Important for brands
to note, however, is that the margin isn’t huge and
consumers are looking to both the brand and third
parties to deliver an accessible, user-friendly and
informative experience. Third-party sites serve a
specific need, too: Consumers look to them most often
for consumer reviews (45%), but also for discounts and
details such as location and hours.
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Brand Site
Third-party Site
Table 2.
Top Reasons To Visit A Brand’s Website Vs. Third-Party Site
“
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Improving The Brand Experience
Since customers hold the brand itself responsible for their experiences–whatever the information source–it’s essential for brands to develop strategies and tools to control and improve those experiences that happen outside their boundaries. Overall, consumers want brands to be more trustworthy and
engaging, particularly older consumers (Table 3).
In exploring this data to anticipate future trends, we see that
younger consumers are looking to brands differently than
older shoppers. They’re much more likely to want brands to
make it easier to buy products via a third-party site, and
to consider personalized offers for products they were
interested in but didn’t buy. Brands with primarily younger
customers may see benefits from focusing on expanding
their social media presence and offerings.
Consumers depend on brands for clear answers and a
navigable customer journey. Whether they’re searching for
brand information via social media, mobile apps, review sites
or search engines, consumers still hold the brand responsible
for their search experience and what they ultimately find.
We look at the customer funnel in terms of inspire, inform, equip and celebrate,” says Elliot.
“For some third-party sites, it’s clear where people are in
their journey—the user-generated content on our Facebook
site, for example, is all about celebrating a job well done.
From our point of view, it’s a matter of understanding where
customers are in the journey and fulfilling their needs with
different content in different spaces.”
Table 3.
Consumers’ Wishes To Improve Online Search Experience
Overall
18-3455+
Improved search on brand’s website
40%33%
49%
“
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What do you wish brands would do in the next few years to improve your experience
searching for information online?
Improve the search
functionality of the website
Be more accessible when I search for a
product or service that the brand provides
Q
A
40% 30%
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Today, consumers are increasingly sophisticated in how they search for information about brands. They’re looking for a seamless experience across the
online landscape and beyond the brand’s website to
include third-party sites like search engines, apps and
review sites. As technologies and expectations evolve,
how can brands meet customers at every stage of their
journey and answer their questions?
Research indicates that brands must focus on both
their own website and search engine results — which
include brand information sourced from across the web.
The survey results also emphasize that as generations
of potential customers move through the market, it’s
crucial for brands to reach outside their own boundaries,
incorporate the increasing importance of social media
sites into their strategies and identify smart ways to
effectively manage the entire online brand experience
across a range of platforms and channels.
Wherever they’re looking, consumers hold brands
accountable for the details. To keep up with those
expectations, brands should take the reins and provide
clear, consistent and accurate information on their own
sites and beyond.
BEST PRACTICES:
Maintainan accurate and up-to-date brand website, complete
with a search function that works as well as the third-
party search engines familiar to consumers.
Guaranteesearches return high quality results by ensuring that
tools like Google My Business and other directories
have updated and correct information.
Monitorand respond to customer questions, posts and
comments in a timely way across third-party sites,
including social media and review sites, voice assistants
and apps.
Conclusion
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This report is based on a survey of 507 consumers in the United States.
Methodology
The survey was conducted in April 2019 by Forbes Insights. All
consumers are over the age of 18—48% male and 52% female. One third
of respondents are between the ages of 18 and 34, while 30% are 55
or older. All respondents have searched for information about brands
online in the past three months.
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Forbes Insights and Yext would like to thank the following individual for their time and expertise:
DAVID ELLIOT
SVP of Marketing, True Value Company
Acknowledgments
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MANYA CHYLINSKI
Report Author
is the strategic research and thought leadership practice of Forbes Media, a global media, branding and technology company.
By leveraging proprietary databases of senior-level executives
in the Forbes community, Forbes Insights conducts research on
a wide range of topics to position brands as thought leaders
and drive stakeholder engagement. Research findings are
delivered through a variety of digital, print and live executions,
and amplified across Forbes’ social and media platforms.
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