Just two days after Yahoo released research that showed how the Internet is driving offline retail transactions in increasing numbers, ad agency TMP Directional Media conducted an online survey with comScore that showed a parallel phenomenon in the service sector. The survey, which had 3,000 respondents, sought to capture consumer attitudes and behavior toward traditional local media (print yellow pages) and local search.
The data were collected during Q1 of this year. One of the important “takeaways” is that 82 percent of online local searchers contacted a business offline and 61 percent of those people made purchases. The survey also found accelerating growth of local search usage online.
But the study also found surprising strength for print yellow pages among Internet users. I don’t have time to write more now, but will later. Here’s the release.
The rest of my post is at SEL. I have the data and will drill down on it a bit more when I get a few more minutes.
Screenwerk 
August 2, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Outstanding numbers!! 61% is a figure that was thougth to be unobtainable a few years ago….Looks like the Kung Fu ads paid off!
August 2, 2007 at 7:30 pm
That is a very interesting observation. Anecdotally, I’ve heard from folks who never use the Yellow Pages anymore. On the other hand, I and some other experienced SEO’s turn to the Yellow Pages often, in that the depth of local listings is often slim for various topics. Secondly, G Maps or versions of Y or M Local are full of antiquated and wrong data. The Local/Maps versions need lots of work and the SE’s know it. Cleaning the data will be a work in progress.
I found the categorization of searches very interesting–with some categories generating brand name searches while others generate generic searches. That is very educational.