Imagine, you’re sitting at home on a regular Friday night, and suddenly, you feel like Thai food. You grab your phone and type in “Thai food near me” or “Thai food delivery.” As you’re on there, you think, “oh yeah, I also need to grab that thing from Amazon.” Again, you head to the site, purchase the item instantly, then tuck into your Thai food and Netflix.
What you just experienced were two micro-moments. In 10 minutes!
What is a micro-moment?
Micro-moment, a term coined by Google around 2016, signifies all the small thoughts and moments you have in a day that encourage you to instantly search for a product or service, or to make a purchase right in the moment. And it’s those moments that brands can capitalize on to catch and keep consumer attention.
In terms of marketing, micro-moments are key points along the customer journey that have been chopped into finer pieces. Take these examples for instance:
- 66% of smartphone users have said they head to a site or app after hearing of a product or service that they wish to learn more about.
- A mobile device user accesses a “how to” video to learn how to do something or how something works.
- A consumer searches last minute trips to the Caribbean, signaling their intentions to “go” somewhere in the near future.
Micro-moments are a competitive advantage
In the US, 1 out of 5 people rely on their cellphone for just about everything. Worldwide, 52.2% of web traffic can be attributed to cellphones or mobile devices. That means that maximizing these windows of opportunity can increasingly lead to higher conversions, sales, and revenue.
Check out the jump in performance of these big-name brands who successfully implemented a micro-moment strategy.
Although it started as B2B company, Nestlé waded into the waters of consumer markets by discovering and reacting to a gap they discovered. They saw that people often searched for water, something they sold all the time but that was more challenging to market than its flavoured counterparts. To capitalize on these findings, they personalized search by treating it as a “store shelf”, adapted the brand message to change as the consumer moved along the customer journey, and used data to target people who would likely be more interested in the product. The result? A 30% drop in customer acquisition costs.
As online orders began to rise, Domino's realized that their competitors were losing sales to high-friction ordering processes. They then revamped their own website, simplified the ordering process, and were therefore able to raise their conversion rates, with online orders now making up 60% of their sales.
With our own client, Tourism Barrie, we wrapped micro-moments into the very structure of their new website “with an upgraded platform supporting enhanced search optimization capabilities and persona scoring and tracking.” This allowed for business partners to be showcased clearly, and for heightened excitement over the experiences and events being offered in the community. As an increasing number of visitors frequented the site providing detailed persons, we were also able to personalize content and further enhance the UX, capturing micro-moments for new audiences and leading to consistent growth.
Micro-moments require context and understanding your audience’s “action” points
“Micro-moments focus on intention, not demographics,” because, as Brian Solis, VP, Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce points out, “demographics can be deceptive. And not always predictive. That's why micro-moments matter more: because they point to future intent, not past history, inside the context that matters most—the customer journey.”
Four points where you need to think “future intent”
- Determine when your customer is researching a product/service.
- Be ready to act as the customer looks for a local business.
- Know how to provide the right information if a customer needs help with a task or a new product/service/feature.
- Be ready to help when a customer is ready to make a purchase but needs help with the "where" and "how"
According to Amit Tiwari, Global Head of Marketing Demand Centre at Tata Consulting Services, the trick is to always be prepared by also knowing when, where and how buyers are researching your competitors, saying “you must understand when they are at the "want to buy" stage.”