Jay LeonardWhat are Micro Moments?
Micro Moments are, according to Google, “intent-rich moments when a person turns to a device to act on a need – to know, go, do, or buy.”
The four types of Micro Moments you need to focus on throughout your digital marketing journey are:
- I want to know moments: When a user is exploring or researching, but isn’t necessarily ready to buy.
- I want to go moments: When a user is looking for a local business, or considering making a purchase in a nearby store.
- I want to do moments: When a user is looking for help to get something done, or wants to try something new.
- I want to buy moments: When a user wants to make a purchase and needs help deciding what to purchase or how to buy it.
According to Think with Google, consumers experience an average of these micro moments 150 times a day. Consumers are spending an average of 5 hours every day on their smartphones, and the industry has reached “content shock.” This means people simply cannot consume more content than they already are – since they are constantly barraged by ads, tweets, texts, push notifications, email, and social media updates.
Brands have had to change the way they communicate with consumers, and consider how to capture their attention when they’re bombarded with so much “noise” online. Micro moments are the basis for a new approach to marketing, and the way to make sure you’re delivering on what consumers need throughout all stages of the customer journey.
Last week on the blog, we talked about user intent and how it relates to SEO. It’s the user intent that serves as the basis for developing micro moments – and your brand’s ability to deliver what consumers are looking for that creates the full micro moment experience.
What This Means for Your Brand
To catch user attention in this climate, you only have a few seconds. Talk about an uphill battle! You’ll need to shift your marketing approach (and thus your SEO) to focus on being there for users at each of these moments. Understanding the moments and providing what users expect will not only increase your mobile conversion rate, but it will also increase brand engagement since you’re more relevant to your customer.
As we grow increasingly dependent on smartphones and other mobile devices to search, consumers are looking for more “right here, right now” experiences. We want what we want, when we want it, and we’re not inclined to want to wait – so whoever can give us what we need first is going to get our attention.
Because we have access to all this information at our fingertips, today’s consumers are better informed now than ever – we want the best of the best, products, information, or otherwise. We take the time to learn about our options, and we want to make sure we can trust the information we’re getting.
That’s where keeping your brand’s strategy so consumer and micro moment focused comes in to play to grow your business.
Making Sure People Can Find You in I Want to Know Moments
The most important thing you can do is anticipate consumer questions and make sure you have answers ready. Google says you should use your smartphone to perform some of the top searches related to your category and see if your website shows up.
Research shows 65% of smartphone users say that when they’re using search on their smartphone, they look for the most relevant information, and they don’t really care about the company that’s providing the information.
You’ll want to make it easy for consumers to find the information they’re looking for about your brand, products, or services. 69% of smartphone users are more likely to buy from a company who’s mobile site or app helps them find the answers to their questions with ease.
Have information readily available and easy to locate for consumers through each stage of the consumer journey – from brand awareness to after the sale.
Making Sure People Can Find You in I Want to Go Moments
These happen when people are looking for things local to them. It could be anything from where to go for a killer cup of coffee, to finding a gym, or even an HVAC repair service. If you want to win these moments, you’ll need to focus on using location signals to highlight relevant locations, your store inventory, and driving directions.
In these moments, people are looking for a connection to the physical world. 30% of all mobile searches are related to location – growing at a rate 50% fast than all other mobile searches. Keep your ads relevant with local messaging.
Remember, convenience matters in these moments. Convenience often overtakes brand loyalty, so it’s important to make useful information, such as your hours, pricing, and inventory, easy to find while browsing on a smartphone.
Making Sure People Can Find You in I Want to Do Moments
We already know YouTube is the second largest search engine – and because Google owns it, YouTube content can help increase your overall rank. But YouTube is the perfect way to get people in their I Want to Do Moments.
Research from Think With Google shows 91% of smartphone users are turning to YouTube for how-to videos to help them learn how to do something – whether it’s a big project or a quick fix.
You don’t have to have a massive budget for video creation to succeed with YouTube. Even demonstrating how to do something with a screen recorder and your voice can create an effective video. Brands like Home Depot and M.A.C Cosmetics are using YouTube to catch people in their I Want to Do moments. Think about how your brand can do to the same.
Making Sure People Can Find You in I Want to Buy Moments
I’m sure there are people out there who find it entertaining you can order a pizza from Domino’s by tweeting a pizza emoji, but digital marketers know it’s genius. Domino’s – a company that’s been in business for 57 years – is the perfect example of a brand that’s keeping up with changing technology and consumer demands. The company now has more than 15 ways to order pizza – from sending pizza emojis over social media, to voice ordering with Google Home. No matter what their consumers are doing, there’s a way for them to order pizza – and they can choose the method that works best for them.
Offering choice and variety puts the consumer in control. And when the consumer knows they are free to choose what works best for them, they are more likely to go to you than the competition.
Consumer expectations are higher than ever – and it’s safe bet that the bar will only continue to rise. Focus on providing your customers with the best experiences across any and all micro moments, and over time, you’ll build loyalty. Each customer journey is nothing but a series of micro moments – and when you nail them over and over, you stand out as the brand that consumers need.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
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A good insight into consumer behavior and psychology, thanks for sharing. From my experience of working in the e-commerce industry, I can say that “I want to buy” moments are crucial for the online retailers. You are right – a business owner has a second or two to grab the customer’s attention, so he needs to act fast and be creative. Thus. my tip would be: use marketing and SEO-friendly e-commerce platform and make sure to go beyond ordinary in terms of reaching your customer. For example, incorporate pop-ups, send creative emails, personalize the whole shopping experience and make the process as enjoyable as possible. You can learn more here: https://onilab.com/services/custom-magento-development