May 14, 2019

It’s All About the Little Things: Making the Most of Micro-Moments to Generate Sales

Mobile search is slowly becoming the king. When Google launched micro-moments in 2015, it was already aware of mobile’s slow grip over search. Now, four years on, its micro-moments philosophy has matured to become essential to mastering content marketing and customer engagement along the mobile search journey. In simple terms, the micro-moment model was created as a catch-all term for intent-heavy search, pinpointing the crux between intent and immediacy.

In its own terms, Google describes micro-moments as “intent-rich moments when decisions are made and preferences shaped”. In essence, it’s for those moments where customers are seeking immediate answers; in these micro-moments, a user is impatient, knowledge-hungry and ready to buy.

Brands are gripping unwaveringly to the funnel set-up, with micro-moments still being untapped potential. By mastering micro-moments, then, a brand can maximise sales.

Breaking Down Micro-Moments

Micro-moments can be a little confusing to get your head around, but Google has (thankfully) concisely summed them up. Broadly-speaking, micro-moments fit into:

  • I-want-to-know moments: When someone is exploring or researching, but is not ready to buy. Top funnel stuff.
  • I-want-to-go moments: When someone is looking for a local business or store. These searches tend to have an urgency about them.
  • I-want-to-do moments: When someone wants help to finish a task or try something new. This is where guides and videos can shine.
  • I-want-to-buy moments: When someone is prepared to make a purchase, but needs to know what to buy or how to buy it.

Getting your brand to show front and centre for these “moments” is key to maximising sales. So, targeting longtail, search volume, local SEO and optimising content gets Google to put your brand front and centre when mobile searches such as these are made. How, though, do you do that?

Which Micro-Moment Are You?

The first step to making the most of micro-moments is understanding how they interact with your brand or business. Use Google Analytics and any consumer data will help you to figure out which micro-moment applies to your business the most.

For example, if you have an Italian food business in Croydon, you may see most traffic comes from “I-want-to-go moments”, meaning you must then optimise around terms such as “Italian food in Croydon”, “Italian food near me”, “Italian food open” ,“best food in Croydon” etc.

Mobile searches involving the term “best” increased 80 per cent in 2015-2017, with the figure rising ever since i.e. people want the best as fast as possible. By finding your micro-moment niche, you can change the user’s intent from “I-want-to-go” to your desired state of mind: “I-want-to-buy”.

Get Content with Content

Once you’ve pinpointed which niche you fit in, it’s time to create well-optimised content. By creating content around appropriate keyword and longtail research based on user intent, you can help your brand show up in micro-moment searches.

While this follows a similar set up to the usual content advice, setting up content around these smaller moments is a little different than the usual optimisation. Micro-moment content should be focused on the specific intent, be mobile-friendly and contain more keywords to catch the variation in search terms.

You want relevant content about the things your customers are searching for and asking about. Presentation, too, has to be different.

Pop Up Your Website’s Bonnet

When browsing on mobile, users are much less patient when it comes to page load speed. 29 per cent of smartphone users will switch to another site or app if performance is not up to par, with 70 per cent of this figure deciding to move to due to page speed. In order to catch these moments effectively, ensure your website is running as fluidly as possible on all devices.

Running alongside performance, there should be a continual awareness of the user journey. Designing your website with mobile in mind is important. To reiterate, micro-moment searchers want fast, efficient and immediate information or purchases. Putting stumbling blocks in a user’s path will likely deter them from seeing you as the go-to option.

Streamline Purchasing

If there’s one lesson that has been repeated so far, it is efficiency. Micro-moment searchers don’t only want to search quickly, they want to purchase quickly, too. For that reason alone, ensure your purchasing system is as seamless and streamlined as possible.

Sometimes, purchasing can run fine on desktop, but the majority of these types of searches come on mobile. Continually testing the capabilities and efficiency of your purchasing system will pay dividends.

With potential this obvious, it’ll be short-sighted to not maximise on micro-moments. To keep on top of all the digital marketing trends, be sure to check out Figaro Digital’s array of events.