learning for marketers

Learning for Marketers: 4 Micro-Moments That Every Good Marketer Should Know

Remember what life was like before the internet? Before Google? Before cell phones? Read this Learning for Digital Marketing Experts little guide! 

Thanks to smartphones, search engines, and the worldwide web we, as consumers, are becoming more and more impatient. 

We expect answers to questions, advice for concerns, inspiration for ideas, and solutions to problems instantly. 

If a brand can’t give us what we need, the moment we need it, you can be sure that we’ll find another brand that can. 

In fact, 1 in 3 consumers will purchase from a company because they provided the right information, the moment they needed it.To provide the right information at exactly the right time, and make sure that you are their first point of call, and your competitors aren’t, we need to work out what your consumers want and when they want it. 

Which is why I’m going to tell you all about micro-moments. 

What your customers really want  

As consumers, we’ve become a bunch of demanding, impatient, fickle, and expectant people.

But we’re also somewhat predictable.

At various points throughout our conscious or subconscious buyer’s journey, we’ll experience several different moments. 

We’ll have moments where we’ll:

  1. Want to know something, 
  2. Want to go somewhere, 
  3. Want to do something, or
  4. Want to buy something.

These four moments are what we call ‘micro-moments’. 

What are micro-moments & how do they work? 

Micro-moments are small, intent-rich, moments where decisions are made and preferences are shaped by the need to know, go, do, or buy. 

When a consumer acts on one of these micro-moments, their expectations are at an all-time high, and their patience is at an all-time low. 

For example, if you type a query like “What is workflow software?” into Google, and none of the results answer your question, it’s beyond frustrating, right? 

As a marketer, you need to make sure that your brand is not only present in all of these micro-moments, but that you’re also offering high-quality content that’s relevant to your consumer’s needs, in those moments.

Each micro-moment is an opportunity for you, as a marketer, to shape your consumer’s thoughts, decisions, and actions.

How to give your customers what they really want 

The successful brands of tomorrow will be those that have a strategy for understanding and meeting consumers’ needs in these micro-moments.” – Think with Google 

As we established earlier, we know that your consumers will either want to know, want to go, want to do, or want to buy at various points during their customer journey. 

Now we know this, the next step is to formulate a strategy to make sure that we’re a) present at every one of these micro-moments and, b) providing valuable content for every one of these micro-moments.

To do this, we’ll establish the following in this section: 

  • What each micro-moment is, 
  • Why you need to be present in every moment and, 
  • How to make sure you’re useful in every micro-moment.

Micro-moment #1: “I want to know

What an “I want to know” micro-moment is

Thanks to search engines and cell phones, regardless of where we are, who we’re with, and what we’re doing, we have immediate access to a bottomless pit of information. 

 

social media marketer

Say, for example, you saw an ad on TV for property management software, and you wanted to research the product further. Or, say you were in mid-conversation with a colleague about Standard Operating Procedures and wanted to find out more. 

These are classic examples of “I want to know” micro-moments. 

They’re fleeting moments where the desire to know is so strong, you just have to find out more, right now!

Why you need to be there for the “I want to know” micro-moments

Consumers experience “I want to know” moments when they’re in the research/investigation stage of their buyer’s journey. 

They know what the problem they’re trying to solve is, but they don’t know how to solve it. 

This is where you come in. 

If you can give them enough information and answer all their questions in a way that’s easy to understand, easy to find, and even easier to digest, they’ll feel able to make an informed decision about how to solve their problem (and choose you!).

How to be there for the “I want to know” micro-moments

As 81% of the population search for a product or service online, to make sure you’re always there for your consumers’ “I want to know” moments, you need to convince Google that you’re the best answer to your consumers’ questions. 

How do you do that? 

By creating optimized content. 

I won’t go into detail about how to create optimized content in this post. There are tonnes of insightful articles about creating optimized content on the Internet.

But, the basics are: 

  • Look at how people are searching and what they’re searching for  
  • Establish the questions they’re asking and the search terms they’re using
  • Create content that provides answers to these questions, using the terms they use

Micro-moment #2: “I want to go

What an “I want to go” micro-moment is

This is the moment when you want to go somewhere that you haven’t necessarily been to before. 

When you take your car to a local mechanic for the first time, or you fancy trying a new takeout place for dinner, you might experience an “I want to go” moment. You’ll feel an urge to find somewhere, close by, that fulfills your needs, stat!

Why you need to be there for the “I want to go” micro-moments

If a consumer can’t find you, they won’t visit you. It’s as simple as that. 

Research shows that 50% of consumers who search for a local business will visit that business within 24 hours and that 18% of those searches will lead to a purchase within 24 hours.

How to be there for the “I want to go” micro-moments

This is easy. 

As 69% of people use search engines to fulfill their “I want to go” moments and there’s been a 2x increase in ‘’near me’’ searches in the past year, all you need to do is: 

Show up in the search results, when customers enter specific keyword searches for local businesses (e.g. terms like “near me” or “closest”). 

 

micromoment 1

How do you do that? 

For a start, make sure your Google listing is complete and up-to-date. 

But, there’s a little more to it than that…

Have you ever searched for something like “local cafe near me” for example?

Out of the cafes that appear, how do you decide which one will satisfy your “I want to go” moment? 

You’ll probably choose one that has clear directions, loads of insightful information, some good photos, and a ton of glowing reviews? Right?

Like the below example from Costa Coffee, a popular coffee chain.


costa coffee example

 

They include clear information about where they’re located and what products and services they offer. They have a link to their website, their opening hours, lots of photos, good customer reviews, and some other specific information that they think their customers might be looking for, like ‘the busiest time’ for instance. 

The level of detail they’ve added to their listing puts them streets ahead of the other local cafes in that area. 

Micro-moment #3: “I want to do

What an “I want to do” micro-moment is

You’ll experience an “I want to do” moment when you want to do something, but you need help. 

You know what you want to do, but you’re not sure how to achieve it. You don’t know where to start, what you need, or what the next steps are.  

Maybe you want to write a project management plan, but have no idea how to do it. Or maybe, like me, you’re doing some (minor) renovations on your house. If (also like me), you’re not a builder, decorator, or plasterer, you’re going to need help. And lots of it! 

Why you need to be there for the “I want to do” micro-moments

Capitalizing on consumer’s “I want to do” moments is the perfect way to increase brand awareness. 

If you can consistently deliver what your customers need in their “I want to do” moments, you’ll be seen as the expert. 

More and more people will become aware of you as a brand, and as a result, will turn to you in their own “I want to do” moments of need. 

How to be there for the “I want to do” micro-moments

If you know how-to-do something and your customer doesn’t, this is your chance to step forward and preemptively offer them content that will answer their “how-to” questions. 

But not just any old ‘how-to’ content!

As 91% of people turn to their smartphones for ‘how-to’ information in the middle of a task, it’s key that your how-to content is mobile-friendly (none of this scrolling from left to right business) and quick to digest.

And, because people watched over 100 million hours of ‘’how-to’’ content on YouTube this year, providing entertaining videos is also key. 

But, cheat sheets, snappy instructions, and top tips, tricks, and hacks are also perfect ways to fulfill “I want to do” moments.

Aside from instructional content, anticipate what else they might need too. 

For instance, if I’m plastering a wall and you give me a list of tools with links to where I can buy them from, it would not only make my day, it would cement you into place, as a trusted expert.

Take Ronseal, a popular home renovations store in the UK, for example. They have loads of useful content on their site, designed to help people in their “I want to do” DIY moments.

 

micromoment 3

 

As you can see, they offer short snappy instructions, how-to videos, and they also recommend which products to use (which happen to be their own).

Micro-moment #4: “I want to buy

What an “I want to buy” micro-moment is
Most organizations gear all their marketing efforts towards the “I want to buy” moment.

It’s the crucial point when a customer goes from being slightly interested to being properly invested. They know what they want and they’re ready to buy. 

Consumers are ready to put their dollars behind their decision” – Think with Google 

But, it’s not a done deal. 

In these moments, they’re still looking at options. They’re not sure which product, brand, or price meets their objectives and budget yet.

Why you need to be there for the “I want to buy” micro-moments

It sounds obvious but if you’re not around in these “I want to buy” moments, you may as well shut up shop. All the work you’ve done to get your customers to this point will be for nothing. 

You need to be there, with a big flashing neon sign and a giant megaphone, telling them that you’re the best option. 

How to be there for the “I want to buy” micro-moments
A whopping 71% of consumers will visit a retailer’s website or app in their “I want to buy” moments. 

So, spend time on your website. 

Find ways to show your consumers that you’re the fastest, most hassle-free solution out there. 

Include product demo videos, customer testimonials, list the product benefits, and, most importantly, make it as easy as possible for them to buy

The basket to checkout journey needs to be seamless. 

Think Amazon. 

It’s almost too easy to buy from Amazon. You can find a product, add it to your basket, and checkout, in anywhere from 5 to 10 clicks.

Check it out: 

 

i want to buy process

 

As a result, they’re the largest online retailer in the world, and in one quarter made over $75 billion in sales revenue!

Conclusion

As consumers, we’re drawn to the brands that can give us what we want, the moment we want it.  

Whether it’s answers to questions, advice for problems, places to go, or we simply want to buy something, we’ll most likely choose the brand that’s there, right in front of us, giving us what we need.

We want things right, and we want things right away” – Think with Google

What does that mean for you, as a marketer? 

You need to provide your customers with the right content, the micro-moment they need it, better than anyone else.  

By being there and being useful exactly when it’s needed, you can use micro-moments as a vehicle to increase engagement and ROI” – Wordtracker 

Now you’re up to speed on the 4 key micro-moments, all that’s left for you to do is start creating a marketing strategy that satisfies your customers in their micro-moments of need and knocks the socks off your competition.

author pic Amanda GreenwoodAmanda is a content writer for Process Street. Her main mission in life is to write content that makes business processes fun, interesting, and easy to understand. Her background is in marketing and project management, so she has a wealth of experience to draw from, which adds a touch of reality and a whole heap of depth to the content she writes.

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