If you get out there and meet people, you could start getting referrals from contacts too.

If the only thing I did was to sit in front of the TV, and I bought everything based on TV ads, I would come to the conclusion that TV was the best marketing platform. Not because it any better, but because its where I spend the majority of my time and what I’m exposed to the most.

Is there something else you can apply in addition to your logic that would remove that bias? I’d be more inclined to increase the sample size to get a better picture. Survey 1000 people with the same question and see what their response is. I’m sure demographic and target market for each service will come into play quite heavily.

Just because you bought something that way doesn’t mean your potential clients will.

Hoever, what this technique does give you is a starting point for your testing.

-Hosting provider: Wow, I can’t remember. I think it was one of those find-your-host sites.

-ISP: The ISP is very well-known and advertised everywhere in Israel, and we just thought about changing ISPs from time to time to reduce costs.

-Cable/Sat provider: The cables were just there first, and we’re still with them.

-Restaurant: It’s just across the street and I like it.

-Hardware Supplier: A nice, little store whose owner is friends with my dad, and we use them for the last 13 years or so.

-Office Supplies: Office Depot are just everywhere and their shops are really great, with a large variety of anything. It’s just so convinient.

-Swimming Pool, Pubs, Online Shops: Referrals from friends and newspapers.

I think that after a few more people will post their own examples and conclusions we’ll be surprised at the little percent of business-choices made based only on search engine ranking. Friends and habits, with a little bit of marketing on-the-top, for me :-)