The initial findings reveal that searchers for financial products and services merit serious attention from retail financial services marketers and that a consumers' sophistication increases when searching for financial products and services online. They tend to be well educated, report having above-average credit and are interested in applying for financial products and services online. Moreover, the vast majority (70%) of these online adults live in homes with high-speed internet access, widening the messaging opportunities available to marketers trying to reach them. Additional highlights from "How America Searches: Financial Products and Services" include: Among online financial searchers, 46% have a college education or better, 64% have annual household incomes of $50,000 or more, nearly half (48%) follow through on their searches by applying either on- or offline for a financial product or service and 74% report having excellent or good credit; Substantial cross-selling opportunities exist among the very population of financial searchers itself. Overall, 72% of online adults said they are interested in learning more about financial products; General category-related terms are by far the most important factor in searches for mortgages and home equity loans; Online adults who searched for brokerage accounts also expressed interest in online trading accounts (60%), retirement accounts (39%), and insurance (39%); Time and convenience were the primary reasons financial searchers cited for choosing to convert their interest to action online as opposed to in person or on the phone. (www.icrossing.com) |
