While waiting in the pick-up lane for your kids you grab your smartphone and search for recipes for sloppy joe’s for dinner, and look, there’s a coupon for ground beef! You’re at the electronic store looking at two different brands of surround sound systems and you stop to search the internet for reviews of each brand. One has 50 five-star reviews and the other has 100 two-star reviews. Which one would you pick? These examples are micro-moments — small increments of time in which a consumer uses a mobile device to find information fast — and it’s changing the way we live, shop and search for information. As marketers, we must take these advantage of these micro-moments and give consumers the information they want and need as quickly and efficiently as possible.
How do we do this? According to an article by Google, it’s imperative to predict what these micro-moments might be for your customer and increase your presence in search results in all those moments. Google suggests performing searches in mobile and on desktop for all the top searches relevant to your business and do the same for your competitor. Whatever gaps you find, you can start to close. How? Start by focusing on four key moments for consumers — not just the moment they are ready to purchase a product, but along the way to that moment they click “buy”.
“I-Want-to-Know Moments”
These are the moments in which a consumer is researching products. They have searched for a product type and are clicking on the pages they feel have the most relevant information. You need your product and your company to be in those search results to capture this micro-moment.
“I-Want-to-Go Moments”
In this moment, the consumer is searching for the closest physical location. Make sure your company, if applicable, has a store-locator function, allowing the potential customer options to come directly to you.
“I-Want-to-Buy Moments”
This is that moment when a consumer is standing in the store, deciding between products. They will read online reviews, consumer reports and any other relevant information. Make sure you’re on their radar.
“I-Want-to-Do Moments”
I’m not sure about you, but I’ve searched on YouTube for how to fix my dishwasher and my daughter is addicted to tutorials on hair and makeup. These moments capture the consumer by giving them the educational content, in an interesting way, that they need and want. YouTube reports that searches related to “how to” are growing 70 percent year over year.
What do all these have in common? Content and intent. Look for top searches, trending searches and question-phrased searches that apply to your business. Make sure you know where to be and create the content you need to be present in that space. It’s not just enough, however to simply be present. Your information must also be useful or users will leave, fast. In fact, Google reports only 9 percent of people will stay on a site if they can’t find the information they want or need or navigate quickly. Consumers are looking for quick, relevant content, not a “hard sell” when they are online.
Time is of the essence for most online activity, but especially in micro-moments. Your business should take steps to be as fast as possible. You can do this through several methods.
1. Eliminate Steps
How many steps does it take for the consumer to accomplish his or her goal? How can you eliminate those steps, until you have just what is needed? Google suggests one-click functionality, drop downs and other form-filling time-savers. Also, give the consumer alternative ways to finish the transaction — maybe it’s not the click to buy, but giving a customer a map to get to the store or a click to call button.
2. Anticipate your consumer needs before they want it.
Prominently display your calls to action on your website and in mobile apps. Once you have converted a sale, you know what kind of messaging they will be interested in for future sales.
3. Fast load speed is vital.
If your site takes more than three seconds to load, chances are, you’ve lost a potential customer. Most consumers will not wait for site loading. Work closely with your development team to make sure you have the optimal page loading time.
Progress can be measured by looking at the full-spectrum of where your customers find and engage with your brand and products. Mobile sales aren’t just measured by the device on which the sale is completed, but rather, what role did mobile play in getting the consumer to your product. Online reviews, videos, social media, all play a role in mobile’s path to a sale.
The times are a-changing and we, as marketers, have to change with them or risk being left behind like a shuttered Blockbuster Video store.
While waiting in the pick-up lane for your kids you grab your smartphone and search for recipes for sloppy joe’s for dinner, and look, there’s a coupon for ground beef! You’re at the electronic store looking at two different brands of surround sound systems and you stop to search the internet for reviews of each brand. One has 50 five-star reviews and the other has 100 two-star reviews. Which one would you pick? These examples are micro-moments — small increments of time in which a consumer uses a mobile device to find information fast — and it’s changing the way we live, shop and search for information. As marketers, we must take these advantage of these micro-moments and give consumers the information they want and need as quickly and efficiently as possible.
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There is always something new to learn, and new ways of thinking about core concepts. Recently we attended the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Kansas Chapter’s Professional Development Day and despite nearly twenty years of experience, we discovered new techniques and tools for helping our clients achieve their goals, and reinforced our confidence that data is essential to our work.
Back in 1980 the band The Buggles released a song called, “Video Killed the Radio Star” and for a long time that seemed like it would always be true. Generation X rocked out to MTV and video was king. And then Millennials came along. Truly these throughly modern young people would embrace video? Yes. They did. Digital videos, YouTube, Snapchat, Vine, virtual reality and Instagram have taken video and images to a whole new level. But then, these video voyeurs decided to throw us for a loop and become significant consumers of podcasts.
“analog” products such as vinyl records, flip phones and “brick and mortar” stores from online retailers such as Amazon.com. Her guests discussed the reason these kinds of “analog” products are coming back into popularity, especially with younger people. Overall the growth in these areas is attributed not to nostalgia, as one would think, but rather, because they are different than digital products, and new to this generation. New and different, even though the technology is older.
