Micro-Moments: How Tiny Marketing Touchpoints Can Outperform Big Campaigns

Now you can outsmart the big guys with their big budgets

by Alyssa Rice

Introduction

For decades, traditional marketing has relied on flashy, glossy campaigns at scale. Most marketers at high-revenue agencies believe that they need to spend more money and get in front of more people in order to have lifelong brand success and customer loyalty. But what if I were to tell you this isn’t necessarily true?

What if I were to tell you that you can achieve the same success as those big brands with a smaller budget? You can try something faster, easier, and simpler: micro-moment marketing.

Introduced by Google, micro-moments are short and brief situations in which a consumer uses their technological devices to find out an answer or make a decision. They are critical because a consumer likes to find information and make a decision fast, so urgency is important.

Micro-moments can matter even more than large campaigns. You could spend tens of thousands of dollars on advertising revenue and still lose out on a customer. All it takes is one search engine inquiry.

Google laid out four kinds of micro-moments:

1. I-want-to-know moments: This is when someone is seeking an answer to an inquiry, such as what is the weather tomorrow.
2. I-want-to-go moments: This is when someone wants to go somewhere, see how long it takes to get there, or just simply look up where the location of something is.
3. I-want-to-do moments: This is when a consumer is trying to find out how to do something, like cook miso-glazed salmon or how to fix up a vintage dirt bike.
4. I-want-to-buy moments: This is when a consumer intends to make a purchase, and often does.

There are numerous benefits to micro-moment marketing, including high conversion rates, increased customer engagement, improved customer experience, increased ROI on mobile optimization, competitive advantage, and real-time insights into customer intent.

In this article, we will walk you through what to consider when planning your micro-moments and industry examples of when it has worked.

Micro-Moment Marketing: What to Consider

Customer Journey Mapping

Before you can plan your micro-moments, you need to map out your customer journey first.

A customer journey map outlines how your ideal customer gets from learning about your brand to converting. Once you have outlined this, then you can specify where those micro-moment touchpoints will be and where they will be in the customer journey.

This customer journey map example for a gym shows how an individual wanted to make a change in their health, and ended up signing up for the gym, staying as a member, and eventually referring other people.

Mobile Optimized Content

According to Statista, 61.85% of website traffic comes from mobile devices.

Since mobile is a large aspect of micro-moments, you need to ensure your web and email content are optimized for mobile.

Responsive design, fast load times, touch-friendly navigation, and readable content are all crucial aspects of mobile optimization that you must look into.

Search Engine Optimization

You need to make sure your content actually appears in relevant searches on the various search engines.

Tools like Semrush and Yoast can help you with your SEO.

Keyword research, backlinking, competitor analysis, and website audits of your meta descriptions, headers, and title tags are crucial aspects to examine and refine.

Understand Google’s suite of tools in this article to strengthen your SEO.

Geo-Targeting

In terms of geo-targeting on mobile phones, businesses can leverage location data to personalize ads, offers, and content, driving traffic.

For example, if you run a restaurant in the Boston area, you can set up geo-targeted ads to those who recently were in Boston.

Real Life Examples

1. L’Oreal

This beauty brand realized that they needed to step up their mobile content. In June 2014, they created a mobile and web app that allows you to virtually try make-up on.

The app  transforms your smartphone into a virtual mirror, enabling users to experiment with various makeup products in real-time.

Now, consumers don’t necessarily need to go to the store to try on makeup and make an in-store purchase. Now, they can do it from the comfort of their own home, from the seat of an airplane, or anywhere else you can think of.

2. Red Roof Inn

In 2014, Red Roof Inn’s marketing team honed in on one specific target market: travelers who need hotel rooms after cancelled or delayed flights.

Those stranded used their mobile phones to look for local hotels to stay the night, and Red Roof Inn appeared at the top of search results.

After deploying these ads, they saw an increase of 60% in bookings.

3. Starbucks

Have you ever been to a Starbucks that didn’t have 15-20 drinks sitting on their mobile pickup counter?

In 2009, Starbucks realized they needed a faster way to take drink orders and reduce the long lines in their cafes. They created the MyStarbucks app so customers could order their “Venti Iced Caramel Macchiato with almond milk and an extra shot of espresso” without having to speak all of that to a cashier. It improved the customer and barista experience.

4. Clorox

Known best for their cleaning and disinfecting products, Clorox also provides how-to clean tips that incorporate all of their products on their Learn webpage. This encapsulates the “I want-to-know” type of micro-moment.

5. Amazon

Amazon has refined the “I-want-to buy” micro-moment. If you search anything on Amazon to purchase, you’re met with hundreds of different purchase options. But, with their filtering options, you can filter by if it is Prime eligible, price range, weight, special features, color, scents, what people have rated the item, and which ones are top sellers. All of these filters ensure that they buyer can get exactly what they’re looking for, fast.

Conclusion

As you can see, the power of small, well-thought out touchpoints can outperform a big budget and reach. All it takes is one small moment to stay in a customer’s head forever.

Make sure to continuously re-evaluate your customer journey and identify where marketing micro-moments can be established to ensure continued engagement and success.

Resources

Get Domain Authority to Come Up Better on Google Search Engine https://www.netatlantic.com/resources/articles/get-domain-authority-to-come-up-better-on-google-search-engine

How to Make a Customer Journey Map https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-101/