Business Directories

What are they good for

Huh

Absolutely something

Say it again, y’all

Part 2: 50 reasons to research company info

Let’s start with some context setting and framework and simply talk about the reasons and motivations of people who eventually may use a business directory. We’ll discuss, in detail, the merits of business directories in parts 3-7 …but for today, let’s just list the WHY’s:

50 reasons why people research a business on the web:

1. To find a specific company
2. Company’s address
3. Local phone number
4. Toll free number
5. Website
6. Get a map to their location
7. Get a contact name and title
8. See how many offices/locations they have
9. See how long they’ve been in business
10. Looking for job opportunities
11. See how many employees they have
12. Gauge employee moral
13. Employee turnover
14. Their size in revenues
15. Their credit worthiness
16. Their DUNS number
17. Testimonials from customers
18. Comments and ratings
19. Sense of community involvement and charitable causes
20. Their company mission and background (think: About Us)
21. To find a company’s blog, Facebook or Twitter page.
22. View a company’s press releases
23. See a company’s product announcements
24. Source white papers
25. Identify their leadership team and management
26. See who owns a company
27. Public or private status
28. Stock ticker symbol
29. Former employees
30. Their specific products and services
31. Their prices
32. Serviceable territory – where they do business
33. Brand names
34. Compare competitive products, services
35. Identify a company’s industry(ies) such as NAICS or SIC
36. How many total companies are in that same industry: locally, by state, nationally, internationally
37. Who are the other companies are in that industry, specifically
38. Market research
39. Market sizing
40. Market share analysis
41. Sales prospecting
42. Lead generation
43. Sales Force management such as territory alignment
44. Direct marketing strategy development and tactical preparation
45. Looking for a company as a new supplier
46. Industry research such as trends
47. Industry statistics
48. Research on a competitor
49. Research on a potential partner
50. Research on a potential merger or acquisition candidate

I’m sure that there are many more reasons. Feel free to leave a comment with your ideas and thoughts.

The point: This long list simply illustrates that there are dozens of reasons to research companies. So it makes sense that there should be many options for people to explore to get their answers. In my view, business directories can play a very valuable role supplying these answers.

See part 3 for the next  topic about Business Directories-What are they good for-Huh-Absolutely something-Say it again, y’all: Some companies have no web site! So where else are you going to look?

Thank you for reading this blog and please visit again.

Vincent out.

Related posts: Business Directories: Are they worthwhile? Part 1 of 7

Tags: Company Info

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 8:52 am and is filed under Business Directory. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.