Micro-Moments
Mobile platforms have become so integrated in our daily lives that we use them in almost every phase of problem solving. We also use them for almost every social aspect. Mobile devices drive the way we go about our daily lives and makes it almost impossible to live without. It ultimately changes the way we as consumers absorb and utilise media.
Consumer behaviour changes constantly. Winning or losing their hearts and minds happens in micro-moments. Micro moments are intent-driven moments where decision making takes place, as well as the shaping of preferences that happen throughout the whole buying or consuming process.
Immediate Action
Smartphones provide us with the ability to act on any impulse at any time. We take immediate action whenever we want to find, learn, do or buy something.
Previously user experience and interaction online has been mundane and very predictable with limited options of what to click and where to go. This mundane interactivity has now been replaced with more integrated interactions that are much more attractive and inviting and they appear on your screen straight away. Examples of these interactions that occur mostly every day, is checking the time, using social media sites, or using real-time instant chat software.
Demand for Relevance
When we are looking for something in-the-moment, our anticipation is high and our tolerance is low. This makes the quality, relevance, and usefulness of marketing more important than ever.
There are times on mobile platforms when a user’s mind will change just by their own thoughts, or elements on that platform that drives these thoughts. These elements include making the user want to know more, leave, take action, or make a purchase ie their “micro-moments”. Micro-moments change the way users consume brands.
Loyal to Needs
Our inclinations and shopping are shaped in these micro-moments. In the end, the websites that do the best job of addressing our needs in each moment will win.
User reactions on thought are mainly reflexive and intent-rich when decisions are made on what to do and where to go first on the mobile platform. During these micro-moments, the users have really high expectations. Users are bombarded with brands and media every day. It makes users expect a brand to deliver immediately on what they are looking for, or what they are expecting. Users want things straight away, and its your job to meet those expectations.
Consider the following findings from research:
- 69% of leisure travellers use smartphones to search for travel ideas in their spare moments – whether they’re waiting in a line, or taking a break. Almost half of these travellers book their choices through another site or channel straight away1
- 91% of smartphone users search for information while in the middle of a task2.
- 82% of smartphone users research a product when standing in a store and deciding which product to buy. A tenth of those users buy a different product to what they originally researched.
- 69% of online consumers are influenced by the quality, timing, message and relevance of a company’s brand2.
What can you do to meet your customers’ needs?
1. Make a “Moments Chart”
Write down all those moments your brand or business can capture a potential consumer
2. Meet those “in the moment” needs
Ask yourself “If I needed xyz, what would make my life easier right now?”
3. Deliver the right experience with context
Guide relevant needs by accounting for requirements based on location or time of day. These can be examples for catering to users searching for nearby stores for specific products. Even better would be to show them that those items are in stock right now.
4. Provide a seamless journey across platforms
Optimise the delivery of your message across all available platforms for your consumer. After all, consumers move freely between screens and channels, you need to make sure you stay with them on the journey.
5. Measure, analyse and improve
In today’s fast pasted lifestyle loyalty is fickle and attention is fleeting. You have to ensure you are capturing your customers where-ever they are. Data is your best friend in this regard.
Mobile has changed the way we live forever, and it’s altered what we expect of brands. We have to account for as many of the real-time, intent-driven micro-moments or be left in the dust. Brands that will be successful are those that understand and meet consumers’ needs and expectations through the micro-moments that they experience on all devices.
1 Google/Ipsos, "The 2014 Traveler's Road to Decision," June 2014.
2 Google/Ipsos, “Consumers in the Micro-Moment,” March 2015.
Leave a Comment