Marketing today has become pretty much a roller coaster ride. Keeping up with the numerous trends and tools has become a task. Nonetheless, if you want to win the digital marketing game, you need to not only keep up and learn but also adopt & adapt.
There was a time when marketers were talking about the Zero Moment of Truth. Google introduced ZMOT back in the year 2011. It definitely helped shaped the way marketers started working towards creating and distributing content over the web to help make an impression in that ZMOT.
ZMOT were basically key moments in a consumer's digital communication with or about a brand. This would shape how they would go about the rest of their journey, which brought about the First and Second Moment of Truth, which was introduced by Google, next. These three stages summed up the Marketing Funnel in a more dynamic and proactive fashion.
Marketers and business owners tried to be there when prospective customers first picked up their phones or made a search on their computers for a certain product or service. Efforts were made to make businesses discoverable during these searches and go on to create more awareness among the target audience, both about the brand and the product/service, in general. ZMOT is still an important concept of marketing and is used as a key idea to create winning marketing strategies.
The way we google has been changing over the years. The intent with which Google has also been changing. We no longer just want to find out what options we have, when it comes to certain product or service. We want all the information we can find about it, right when we hit search.
We want information about the names, locations, reviews, and service quality, all right there. Also, the time we take to make decisions has become considerably shorter.
This brings us to Micro-Moments. These are moments, rather split moments, in which consumers act on an intent. These are not just moments that seek awareness, but ones in which the user is essentially making a decision or zeroing in on a preference.
This is how Google explains micro-moments:
“We turn to our phones with intent and expect brands to deliver immediate answers. It’s in these I-want-to-know, I-want-to-go, I-want-to-do, I-want-to-buy moments that decisions are made and preferences are shaped”.
Here are the 4 key of micro-moments Google asks Marketers to look out for and prepare for:
I-want-to-know
I-want-to-do
I-want-to-go
I-want-to-buy
Every time a user picks up their phone with the intent to fulfill any one or even more of the above-mentioned intents, you should focus on having your brand there. These 4 key micro-moments help marketers and strategists, create and place content in a manner that will help users fulfill their intent.
The arrival and use of smartphones have changed consumer behavior substantially. Consumers want relevant information and answers every time they type in a search query. This in turn has led Google to change its algorithm to ensure it fulfills its informational needs with as much quality content as possible.
With the concept of micro-moments, marketers can actually find answers to potential user queries and requests and cater to their information/content needs, likewise.
Marketers need to embrace this not-so-new, yet very much trending concept in online marketing to make the most of it.
Have you identified the consumer micro-moments that your business/marketing can help cater to, yet? If not, you can always reach out to us and we can help you determine them and use them to your brand's advantage.