Were you recently fraught with Google mobile anxiety? The anticipation of Google’s mobile-friendly ranking algorithm sent many businesses owners into a panic about how their pages would rank in mobile search results. Now that things have settled, and it looks like there hasn’t been much of an effect on most businesses, there is a new mobile topic that could change the way you think about digital marketing: the micro-moment.
We used to think about a linear path to making a purchase, but Google has released a study that indicates our consumer behavior does not involve a few periods of time dedicated to researching a product or service leading up to a purchase. Instead, we are researching all of the time – waiting in line at the grocery store, stopped in traffic in our car, and just about anytime we have our smartphones in hand. Often we pull them out while we are at a particular store to justify a purchase, check product reviews, and compare prices. Mobile devices have made it possible for us to make decisions incrementally over a series of micro-moments.
In many ways this behavior is similar to the way many of us make decisions about major life goals. Sometimes it is easier to take a small step toward your ultimate goal in the moment than to dedicate large blocks of time to research and planning. Consider buying a home or finding a new job. You may have a moment right now to research a particular town and then later in the day to use an online mortgage calculator. Maybe you are reading about a company in one moment and reading its job listings an hour later.
“Not all who wander are lost,” as Tolkien wrote. Our micro-moments may seem to form a circuitous journey at times, but they are highly focused bursts of search activity. Think about the number of times throughout the day that you turn to your smartphone. There are things we want to do right in the moment – learn something, make a purchase, discover something new – and if we don’t find what we need, we often don’t have the time or patience to weed through content.
If you keep in mind that potential customers are likely to be looking for specific information in short bursts of time, you can see how many more micro-moments you need to target with your web marketing and how important it is to provide exactly what a user is seeking. Use your social media to start conversations and share videos. Focus on engaging customers rather than waiting for your long-term marketing campaigns to take effect.
Beyond using mobile devices to search for information, we are more likely to make an actual decision when using them, according to Google research. If you can provide a mobile user with what they are looking for, you have a much greater chance of conversion than someone searching with a desktop. When considering your website design and marketing strategy, plan for all of the micro-moments that are likely to occur whether it is a fast purchase based on an immediate need or a longer journey with stops along the way for inspiration and learning about your products and services. Your recent focus on mobile activity may have been sparked by the new Google algorithm, but attention to micro-moments likely will yield even more benefits for your web marketing. If you would like to know more about micro moments, talk to one of our experts at Premiere Creative or call us at (973) 346-8100.