Google has defined the micro-moments as the key moments in a customer journey. They are ones that consumers use to interact with a brand, specifically, in the form of mobile searches.

These key moments are ones where consumers make certain decisions and reach for their devices to find answers or assistance. This is why it is something all digital marketers must always keep in mind when forming marketing strategies.

The key micro-moments are

• I-want-to-know moments
• I-want-to-go moments
• I-want-to-do moments
• I-want-to-buy moments

How can they improve your customer experience?

There is always someone, somewhere searching on Google. In fact, Google gets an estimate of 3.8 million searches per MINUTE!

Therefore, learning how these micro-moments impact your customer’s journey will help with your business. Specifically, in learning how to increase your brand awareness, boost your customer experience as well as creating the right marketing strategies for your business.

According to PWC, 73% of all people agree that customer experience is a critical
factor in their purchasing decisions and 43% of all consumers are willing to spend a premium for greater convenience.

That’s why this is one of the most exciting opportunities to invest in 2020!

I-want-to-know moments

At this stage, your brand should be giving relevant informative content to your potential customers. Google has discovered that up to 69% of consumers are more likely to buy from companies that gave them the relevant answers they are searching for. Not only does it increase brand awareness, but this touchpoint can also help in growing your customer base.

The most common searches in I-want-to-know moments are for general topics (“What’s on the news today?”), food and groceries (“What are healthy dinner choices?”), and shopping-related searches (“What’s the shipping policy?”).

I-want-to-go moments

Location-based searches are critical for this micro-moment. This is where physical shops can bring in more customers. Research has found that up to 76% of consumers are likely to visit the store they have found when searching online that same day.

Therefore, any local shops looking to increase their customer reach should pay attention to this micro-moment to plan and market accordingly.

For example, local SEO can be used. Make sure your local shop has signed up on the Google My Business site to show up on Google’s search ranking page when customers searches for “near me” businesses.

I-want-to-do moments

91% of smartphone users look to their devices for ideas while completing a task. To elaborate, most consumers search for “how-to” information or examples to help them follow through with some type of activity. This is where the I-want-to-do moments comes in as a touchpoint between your brand and your customer.

Brands can leverage this micro-moment to create a lasting impression on the consumers. Keep in mind that up to 48% of smartphone users are more likely to buy from a company that provides instructional video content which is why this micro-moment is a great way to position your brand as an authority in your industry and help create trust between your customer and your company.

I-want-to-buy moments

Customers in I-want-to-buy micro-moments are ones who are ready to buy from a business. These are great for raising brand awareness and increasing conversions as Google has reported that up to 51% of consumers discover a new brand or product when conducting searches on their smartphones. This moment provides brands with great opportunities to sell their products and close their deals.

The most common types of searches in these micro-moments are usually shopping-related (“smartphone comparisons”), food and grocery-related (“best place to buy imported fruits”), and restaurants and bars (“pizza delivery near me”).

More than one type of micro-moments can be used simultaneously. For example, when a consumer searches for “coffee near me”, it is likely that the potential customers are in both I-want-to-go and I-want-to-buy stages.

How To Apply The 4 Micro-Moments?

Now that you know of the Google micro-moments. How do you apply this to your business?

The first thing you should do is to know your customer. No business can survive for long without truly understanding the everchanging needs of their customers and answering to that.

One of the most important tasks for any business to do is to develop customer personas and come up with the type of questions they will have for your brand’s products or services. With this, you will be able to imagine your customers as real people rather than just profit numbers. Always approach your business from a value-first approach. The easiest way to do this is to put your customers first and strive to deliver the best for them.

After developing customer personas, map out your customer journey, or even better yet, go through that customer journey yourself. By experiencing it yourself, you will be able to empathize with your customer and search for the best ways to deliver even more value for them.

From here, observe the potential touchpoints customers may have with your brand and think of the types of information your customers will likely search for. Each business is unique and what works for other businesses may not work for you. Therefore, it is extremely important to base your business decisions on real data.

There are plenty of tools you can use for market research and to explore certain topics and trends. Google Trends, for example, helps in learning more about the popularity of certain topics and industries which is useful in predicting the market direction.

Maximize the touchpoint opportunities and create relevant content according to those moments that will help in increasing your opportunity to grow closer with your customers.