The world of marketing is changing faster than many of us can imagine. Not too long ago, the big hot thing was online advertising. Today, personalized marketing strategies that capitalize on collected information are the backbone of most company advertising. Without this, many businesses would be at a loss when trying to connect with loyal customers and reach out to new ones that might be interested in a specific product.
Personalized marketing strategies utilize demographic data from all sorts of sources including internet searches, social media profiles, and random clicks on other, similar products.
However, there are many facets of personalized marketing that are still in their infancy. Plenty of new ideas are still pushing the realm of marketing into new territory.
One of these new strategies is micro-moments. Capitalizing on micro-moments can be a means of integrating marketing into products without customers really even realizing what is happening.
It can be a way to subconsciously build greater brand loyalty — one of the most powerful marketing accomplishments out there.
What is a micro-moment?
The concept of a micro-moment in marketing is somewhat new, but the general idea has been around for a long time. A micro-moment occurs when someone pulls out a device and seeks to learn the answer to a burning question or to watch something or to make a quick purchase.
It can be just about anything — it doesn’t have to be fancy — micro-moments are built into our need to have whatever we want delivered into our hands immediately.
It may not seem like much, but these are valuable moments where customer preferences are shaped and brand loyalties are built. Being able to respond quickly, to answer that need with a useful result is critical. Any marketer that doesn’t realize the potential in that moment is missing out.
Micro-moments turn the traditional world of marketing on its head. Rather than a linear marketing funnel that builds brand awareness, consideration, and decision making in stages, micro marketing is like a blast of information at all times in all stages. The quality of the brand’s ability to answer the “need” is what matters — equal value is given to small businesses as large corporations.
Understanding the customer journey
Understanding the customer journey is a standard part of becoming an adept marketing professional. It is a critical skill to know how to build a relationship with a potential customer, get them interested in the product, and eventually make the sale.
With micro-moments, marketers need to be able to interpret the search and anticipate what people are going to want to see.
Because micro-moments have splintered the traditional linear marketing funnel, marketing professionals are still trying to pin down exactly what prompts a specific purchase at a specific time.
According to Google, more than half of smartphone users will make purchases from other brands simply because the first brand they looked at didn’t provide exactly the right information or useful content the customer was looking for.
Business analytics and data analysis can play a big role in helping decipher what customers want. Instead of relying on guesswork, companies can use analytics to interpret collected customer data and provide more accurate predictive modeling. The tech can be a huge boon to marketing firms and is quickly becoming an essential tool for some companies.
Content and ease-of-use matters
One of the things that micro-moments really bring to the forefront is the value of content in marketing. It is one thing to have a product for sale, but the content that surrounds the product on a website is highly valuable in increasing the likelihood of a sale — an over 130% increase.
Developing high-quality educational content is one of the best ways to increase sales over and over.
Likewise, optimizing the site to make it more user-friendly is profoundly important to conversions. Take Domino’s Pizza, for example. The company realized that online sales were sagging and attributed it to the difficulty and many steps required to complete an online order. They completely revamped their online ordering system to make it exceptionally painless and almost immediately saw a tremendous increase in online conversions.
Of course, it is also important to understand the rules and regulations associated with marketing and advertising. For instance, all advertising claims should have a reasonable basis and backed with facts.
Likewise, you should clearly display the fine details of specific offers such as cash-back bonuses or warranties for customers who’re actively searching for it.
Micro-moments have changed so much in marketing, it can be easy to forget some of the essentials.
Micro-moments are turning the world of marketing upside down. The tool removes the linear marketing funnel and creates more of a shotgun approach where it is highly valuable for marketing professionals to provide easy tools and educational content and answer the “needs” of customers. It is a brave new world out there, but those that are savvy will continue to lead the charge in a changing marketing environment.
Senior editor at PosterMyWall.
